Domaine de la Terre Rouge – Bill Easton, as much of a celebrity as one finds in the Sierra Foothills wine community, is enormously welcoming for a guy I’ve only met a few times and for a few moments at the Boston Wine Expo. I remember him – it’s hard to forget such an imposingly tall guy – but he also appears to remember me, which is surprising. He’s aboard a tractor when we arrive at the low-key Terre Rouge facility, and there’s the succulent smell of grapes in the air. Sure enough, there’s freshly-crushed roussanne frothing away just a few feet from the winery doorway. I dip a finger into the sticky brew; it’s pure fruit sugar, with stone fruit aromatics to spare.
While we’re waiting for him to finish whatever work he’s doing, we sip and spit our way through what’s on offer in the cozy, wood-toned tasting room. The staff is brisk, efficient, friendly, and informed, which is always welcome. And there’s a lot of open wine.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2001 “Vin Gris d’Amador” (Sierra Foothills) – The usual grenache/mourvèdre/syrah rosé blend. Fattish orange rind, big fruit, and honeysuckle. Blowsy.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge “Easton” 2001 “Natoma” (Sierra Foothills) – A white Bordeaux-style blend of sauvignon blanc and semillon. Succulent, showing apricot and full-bodied apple, the slightest suggestion of a dollop of botrytis (or maybe it’s my imagination), and a long, big-impact finish. Much, much better than an earlier vintage was a few years ago at the BWE. A proof of concept, in a way, though I seem to recall that he’s not making it anymore. True?
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2001 Roussanne (Sierra Foothills) – 10 months in French oak. This will be a deeply divisive wine: spiced hazelnut, cashew, and big, fat peach juice absent even the slightest hint of acid. The varietal juiciness is unmistakable, but it’s much better-suited to aperitif status than anything involving food.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2000 “Tête-à-Tête” (Sierra Foothills) – Strawberry bubblegum with the leaves included. Sugary and simple.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 1995 Mourvèdre (Amador County) – Huge blueberry and earthy black trumpet mushrooms, plus leather. Good balance, with ripe yet firm tannin to hold everything up. Still not done maturing.
Roussanne, you don’t have to ferment in red light
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2001 Syrah “Les Côtes de l’Ouest” (California) – Full of leather, red and black licorice, and graphite-like tannin for structure. Quite nice, and ageable.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge “Easton” 1998 Merlot (Shenandoah Valley) – Blueberry and thyme, starting out concentrated but quickly thinning and fraying at the edges, then at the core, which turns to herbal grenadine on the finish. There’s not much of a future here.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge “Easton” 2000 Barbera (Shenandoah Valley) – From 45-year old vines, spending eight months in French oak. Juicy cherry and strawberry jam, full of seeds. Lip-smacking.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge “Easton” 1998 Zinfandel (Shenandoah Valley) – Plum, black cherry, and blueberry juice with a chocolatey finish and a little structural tannin. OK now, but it should get a bit better with a few years. Just a few, though.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge “Easton” 1999 Zinfandel “Estate” (Shenandoah Valley) – Intense blueberry and blackberry with tracings of anise and licorice, showing incredible concentration and extremely ripe structural elements. Balanced and spicy, with excellent tannin and acidity, and a massively long finish. Just terrific. 15.1%.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2000 Muscat à Petits Grains (Shenandoah Valley) – Thick orange, nectarine, and grapefruit with a heady shot of brandy and quartz. Much fresher and more complex than the bottle consumed last night.
Easton is finally done with his work, at least for the moment (it is crush season), and takes us on a reasonably extensive barrel-tasting tour. Music blaring at a near-deafening volume echoes around the barrels and tanks; inevitably, given Easton’s own vintage and origins, it’s Bob Dylan. I mentally plug my ears and move on to the tasting…a brisk one, without too much wine-specific chat, but informative nonetheless.
All roussanne’s dreams, crushed
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2003 Roussanne (barrel sample) – Freshly-crushed and spending its first moments in a spanking-new high-toast barrel from Moreau’s central French sources, 1998 harvest. Sweet peach and apricot, pure juice without any apparent acidity. In this way, not unlike the actual wine.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2002 Mourvèdre (barrel sample) – Dense blueberry, black cherry, and rhubarb with dusty, dirty leather notes. Chewy and a bit charred, but this isn’t unusual when tasting from barrel.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2002 Mourvèdre (barrel sample) – This time from François Frères wood, medium-toast, 2000 harvest. Rougher, and showing more chocolate than anything else.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2002 Syrah (barrel sample) – ENTAV clones newly-destined for the “Estate,” thanks to low yields and small, intense clusters. Chewy anise, blueberry, and pencil shavings with huge tannin. Ripe and forceful.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2002 Syrah (barrel sample) – From 3200 feet. A bit hot, showing rough, chewy, barky tannin and a lot less ripeness than the previous sample.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2002 Syrah (barrel sample) – Source unspecified. More aromatic than either of the previous samples (“framboise” is what Easton immediately identifies), with a huge middle of blueberry and strawberry flowers, but not much of note around the perimeter. I can see this partnering well with the previous barrel; interior fruit matched to exterior structure.
The tall and the short of it
Domaine de la Terre Rouge “Easton” 2002 Barbera (barrel sample) – Bright cherry and plum, fruity and simple.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2002 Syrah Sentinel Oak (barrel sample) – The inherent quality of the vineyard immediately shows through in this sample. Plum, sandy earth, bark and dark soil with incredible persistence.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2002 Syrah (barrel sample) – Destined for “Les Côtes de l’Ouest,” blended with a little viognier. Rich blueberry, spiced plum, and leather. Smooth and elegant.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge “Easton” 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon (barrel sample) – Taransaud BCS-01. Bell pepper, cassis, black cherry and cedar.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge “Easton” 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon (barrel sample) – Taransaud BCS-03. Light red cherry, showing little else.
Domaine de la Terre Rouge “Easton” 2002 Zinfandel (barrel sample) – For the “Estate,” from new wood. Blueberry and sweet plum, with a sugary cast.
Vines on the red ground
Domaine de la Terre Rouge “Easton” 2002 Zinfandel (barrel sample) – From a neutral barrel. Crisper fruit, raspberry seed, plum, and apple with good, balanced tannin.
Rather than just tasting a single example of each variety, or each vineyard, Easton does a lot of container tasting with us. It’s always interesting to taste, without interference, the effect that differently-sourced, differently-treated, and differently-aged wood has on the same raw materials, and this tasting has been unusually instructive in that regard.
The wines themselves are (excepting the red Bordeaux varieties) solid across the board, with moments of real genius, and though they tread the edge of my personal tolerance for wood and fruit at times, they’re undeniably appealing, especially with age. Better yet, most of them speak quite clearly of their origin, something with which Easton agrees. “This area has a sense of terroir that comes through in the wines in a way that it doesn’t everywhere else.”
And with that, we’re done. But just for the day. We’ve another appointment with Easton tomorrow, this one considerably less tooth-staining.
![[roussanne]](http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/user_images/tci_ca03_tr_roussanne.jpg)
![[roussanne in the crusher]](http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/user_images/tci_ca03_crushed.jpg)
![[Thor & Bill Easton]](http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/user_images/tci_ca03_tr_thor_easton.jpg)
![[Terre Rouge vineyard]](http://www.myspeakerscorner.com/forum/user_images/tci_ca03_tr_vineyard_house.jpg)