Wine tasting in Nevada City/Grass Valley

I asked for suggestions for wineries in Nevada City and got none. So after spending Friday tasting wines at six places, I have some tips to pass along. I drove to Nevada City but missed the turn off for the wine tasting rooms from California Highway 20, so I decided to keep driving into Grass Valley about 3 miles down the road and try the wineries there first. I had pretty low expectations, since except for Renaissance wines, few wines from Nevada County had gotten much national attention. The first place I tried was the tasting room for Burch Hall Winery and Coyoteville Winery, owned by the same people.

Tastings are free, and the first wine they offered was an unoaked Chardonnay. I loved this wine. It is so unliked the typical over-ripe, over-oaked California Chardonnay. Very fruity, with citrus and melon, Crisp. Something else, too. I can't put my finger on it. After my second or third sip, I realized, it tasted like an American-style Viognier. This would a great wine to substitute for Viognier or riesling for spicy food or smoked meats. Some of the grapes came from Nevada County, the woman pouring the wine said, because they like the cooler climate there. So first wine of the day I tried, I liked. I'm sorry to see it's not listed on their Web site. I hope this doesn't mean it's an experiment and won't be available in the future. Some of the other wines they had were okay. The only one that stood out was the Cabernet Franc, made with grapes from Monterey County. Nice blackberry and earthy flavors. I tasted several Cab Francs today and it was interesting how much different they are from French Cab Francs like, say Chinon. Open a new bottle of Chinon and it looks also like opaque Welch's grape juice. The tannins curl your nose hair. But the California style is much more like Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and is ready to drink. I wonder if anyone in this newsgroup has any thoughts about that. Overall, I liked Burch Hall. It's only a few years old. I bought two bottles of unoaked Chardonnay and one Cab Franc and went around the corner to Sierra Starr. They had a sauvingnon blanc made with grapes from Nevada County that was nice. I bought a bottle of that. Some of their other wines were good. They had a really light Zinfandel that was pretty bad. They had another special Zinfandel that was supposed to be a fruit bomb. It wasn't bad. But I can find better Zinfandels in my local store for less money. I bought a bottle of sauvignon blanc and set out for Lucchesi Vineyards. down the street next to the movie theater. There was lots of good wine there. I only ended up buying two bottles of the 2003 Masque red table wine. Lucchesi (pronounced with a "K" sound, like lukesi) probably had the strongest wines top to bottom. The

2003 Masque is 80 percent Cab Franc and 20 percent cab sauvignon. The Web site describes it as tasting like "blackberry preserves, tobacco, smoked bacon, cedar and sweet vanilla. Medium tannins, balanced acid and solid structure make this wine incredibly well-balanced and fill the palate with flavors of black cherries and cream, sweet oak, and black tea." I didn't taste all of that, but it's good stuff. I asked the wine pourer if the name is in any way tied to Masque, the restaurant that opened outside Sacramento in the foothills of El Dorado County, two counties south of Nevada County. She said it wasn't, but that the restaurant offered to buy all of it and make it their house wine. Masque, the restaurant, has gotten some pretty good reviews. So if that's true, it speaks to the quality of the wine. They also had a Cab Franc that was good but the wine that really got my attention was their 2003 Syrah. They list it as $23 a bottle on the Web site, but they were selling it for $28 a bottle in the store. That seemed a little steep, although now I wished I had bought at least one bottle. This is how they describe it on the Web site: "All the elements of a great Syrah - earthy, leathery, anise, black currents in the nose. Forward tannin and balanced acidity add to a richly textured body. The palate is dominated by black cherry jam, and roasted portabello mushroom. Pairs well with smoked or roasted meats and heartier food faire." I'd agree with the earthy and leathery part. A llittle peppery, too, although not like Shiraz. This could be the vineyard that puts Nevada County on the wine map. At this point, I was impressed with the quality of wine I'd tried. But it was mostly downhill from here. I hit rock bottom at the next stop, Nevada City Winery in Nevada City. They have a Rough and Ready Table wine that's not bad, but nothing special. When I got there, the woman pouring the wine seemed terribly distracted. There were two other couples already there. She poured me a white and then took a personal phone call. She stood behind a door to talk but her voice carried out into the tasting room. The white was mediocre and not interesting. I dumped it into the container and waited for the next. And waited. And waited. She came out to tout a rose. It was sold only in restaurants and there at the tasting room. I skipped a white to catch up with the couples and tried the rose. Again, nothing special. I can get a Jouget rose for $13 that has much better flavors and some complexity. She took another personal phone call and we waited. And waited. I took the opportunity to fill the other couples in on the tasting rooms in Grass Valley. Finally, she came out. Nevada City Winery makes lots of reds, but they were offering almost none of them today. I tried one. I don't remember which. And then wine pourer got tied up with some guy wearing an apron who walked in. I think he might work in a local restuarant and was there to buy wine. She focused exclusively on him, chatting about this and that while the five other people in the room stood with empty glasses. That was it for me. I walked out of there and she was oblivious to my departure. As I was walking to my next destination, Indian Springs Vineyards, I wondered if she did that intentionally because she sold mediocre wine and expected rejection. I had tried one Indian Springs wine before. Last year I discovered Rhone wines and began looking for Rhone style wines on my local store shelfs. Indian Springs makes a Viognier that's mediocre. The stuff they poured today wasn't much better. I asked the guy pouring the wine if the Chardonnay was oaked. He said it was. I told him no thanks, but he went ahead and poured it. Wretched wine. The big sales pitch came when we got into the reds. They had a merlot that normally sells for $9 a bottle. They had a case of it over there -- the last one, he assured me -- that I could buy for $48. It was overpriced. The wines were probably better than Nevada City Winery stuff, but nothing I'd want to drink. I politely thanked him and left. The only other wine tasting available without an appointment was Iron Mountain Vineyards. I tried four wines there. It's easily the best of the three places I visited that day in Nevada City. It's also kind of hard to find. It's next to the Chamber of Commerce, kind of hidden under a sign that says Assay Office. Iron Mountain has a Viognier made from grapes from Lodi (as were most of their wines). I asked if it was from Jewel. The guy pouring the wine said he didn't know. It tasted like Jewel viognier. Needless to say, I passed on that. They also had a Zinfandel and a Syrah they were touting. It wasn't bad, but again I find better examples of locally at a better price. They had a wine called Eligius that's a blend of of Syrah, Grenache, Carignane and Petite Syrah. It was a good wine. Better still, it was marked down to $10 a bottle from the regular $16 a bottle. I bought two. It's tough to describe. It doesn't taste like any Rhone blend I've tried before. Certainly not a Chateaneuf du Pape. Nice floral bouquet and blackberry flavors and long finish. At least for a $10 bottle of wine. More Nevada County wineries are supposed to open next year. I think I'll go back and try them. And I'll defintely be making trips again to Burch Hall and Lucchesi Vineyards.