Andy Abramson's Road Reports

Road Reports, Vol 2003, No. 3: San Francisco
© Andy Abramson
April 27, 2003

I just returned from an amazing wine event. The Sixth Annual Rhone Ranger Wine Tasting was hands down one of the best organized, easy to navigate wine events I've attended. On top of all that, I can safely say that Rhone winemaking is very much alive and well throughout the western United States, with representation from California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. With more than 130 wineries, wine country cuisiners and more, the event's festive atmosphere and all around good time feeling made it joy to attend.

While Syrah seemed to be the dominant wine, I saw lots of new releases of Grenache, experiments with old vine Carignane by many experienced and new producers and an expanded use of Viognier mixed in with Syrah to produce wines that were supposed to resemble Cote-Roties. Other winemaking trends seemed to be the blending of whites featuring an increased use of Grenache Blanc and Rolle and the use and more liberal adoption of Cinsault and Counoise in blends of reds.

Overall I was impressed with the quality of the wines I tasted. Candidly, the old veterans like Qupe's Bob Lindquist from Santa Barbara continue to make some of the most impressive wines, but many newcomers are making their mark in the shadow of Lindquist, including his own son, Ethan, whose debut 2001 Syrah showed that he is a chip off the old block. San Luis Obispo's Shadow Canyon Winery made a very impressive premiere releases, both the decadently rich 2001 Syrah and very lively 2002 Viognier makes this winery one to watch for.

From the northern reaches of the United States, Idaho's Sawtooth Winery's Syrah was downright impressive given it is only priced in the mid-teens. The winery owner said that their strategy is to make wine designed to counter the growing high price tag found on so many Washington State wineries. Given the success of Castle Rock here in California at making easy to drink, high quality, well priced wines, Sawtooth is on the right track in the Pacific Northwest.

While the prices for these wines may be high at $45-55, one of the best U.S. Syrah producers from outside California has to be McCrea Cellars. Their regional and vineyard designated Syrahs showed outstanding complexity, depth of fruit and true northern and southern Rhone quality, not found in many other Rhone clones. If any region in the USA is making Rhone style wines like those found in France, it is Washington State.

Oregon's Andrew Rich, who learned his craft at Bonny Doon winery, also has a very impressive 2001 Syrah. While folks in the San Diego region can find his Bordeaux-style blend at Barrons, the Syrah is the real winner from Rich.

And no Rhone Ranger event would ever be the same without Randall Graham. Bonny Doon's founder, and the chief disruptor of the wine industry, was in attendance in his glory with his minions, along with all the kind of hype and hoopla one would expect from this wine prankster.

While Bonny Doon's production of wines has increased to almost a quarter of a million bottles a year, Graham with his high-end Tempier lookalike pure Mourvedre Old Telegram and Chateauneuf du Pape/Cotes Du Rhone replacement Le Cigare Volant continues to pave the way for Rhone cloners. No other California producer over time has done as much to expose (and exploit) the Rhone grapes in the U.S. as Graham. The remote controlled flying saucer was a nice touch, and I just kept wondering when it was going to land.

There was so much wine and so little time ... I can't wait until next year's event!

Cheers,
Andy Abramson

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