Donald Williams

9.4

Scott makes such wonderful Barbera. — a month ago

with Bonnie

Stephen Mathews

9.5

There’s still gold in them Sierra Foothills… — 8 months ago

Paul J

9.6

This was great! Lovely gold color. Complex with minerality, melons, stone fruit, and subtle butter/oak. Big, deep wine! — 2 years ago

with Brooke

KD

8.9

Light gold (light for a viognier) with very fragrant notes of apricots, juicy nectarines, peaches and a little bit of white flowers on the nose. Medium light mouthfeel, lighter than expected, with medium high acidity that mellows quickly and leaves place to apricots, peaches, lemon and a subtle touch of honey and some salinity in the medium long finish. Not a typical viognier, but quite enjoyable! — 5 years ago

Luis Arguero (@winefromAtoZ)

9.0

David Girard Vineyards Estate Vineyard El Dorado Mourvèdre 2011: Full-bodied. Slight brown/rust in color. Layers of red & dark fruits. Leather. A nice smooth finish with some lingering spice. In my opinion, this was a very Nebbiolo like wine! All in all, a perfect ending to our mountain cabin life! Cheers🍷 — 5 years ago

Richie Mello

8.9

This was pretty kick butt. It definitely could use a bit more age to fully round out. — 6 years ago

Rhonely Boy

9.1

Slight haze (10 month skin contact in clay vessle, natural ferment, unfined, unfiltered, sediment in bottle) medium yellow-gold

Clean scent, very mild scent of apple cider vinegar, stones, youthful and would be interested to see where the aromas go with age. Smells like a good healthy natural wine.

Dry, medium acidity, medium tannin, medium body, medium intensity of clay and stones, light notes of dry under ripe peach.

Wine is more about texture than fruit and other characteristics. Medium finish.

Nice wine, not your typical Marsanne, look forward to future vintages. Would be interesting to see a portion of the Marsanne (or Roussanne) done in stainless (fruit retention) and blended in. Should talk with Big Basin about Roussanne - “2015 Roussanne Homestead Block is a super-expressive wine. In this vintage, most of the wine (80%) was fermented and aged in amphora, an approach that has worked beautifully here.”

TECHNICAL INFO
* Appellation: El Dorado Vineyard: Fenaughty Varietal: Marsanne Clone: Tablas Age: Planted 1990 Elevation: 2600 feet Soil: Decomposed granite w/red clay loam Harvested: September 12, 2017 Pressed: July 18, 2018 Maceration: 10 months in handmade Italian clay Fermentation: Wild yeast and bacteria Bottled: August 10, 2018 Production: 59 cases Release date: November 2018 — 8 years ago

Donald Williams

9.6

A great year for both Barbera and Syrah. As usual, Scott nailed it. — 6 months ago

with Bonnie

Peter van den Besselaar

9.3

Vintage 2008 | Restaurant Hohenzollern in Bad Neuenahr lies beautiful on a vineyard mountain overlooking the village; it does have a enchanting wine list with 22 pages covering Germany, but also 16 pages rest of the world. There are ripened wines from many regions. A 16 y old Zind Humbrecht Riesling is an opportunity not to miss. Gold coloured, fine smell with some almonds, a lot of minerals and enormous amount of butter and butterscotch. Wel balanced wine with tension. Paired with sea bass and curry shrimps. — 2 years ago

Elizabeth Harris

9.2

This wine is juicy. It has a wonderful juicy, vanilla, smooth aroma and taste. It has some vanilla notes and it's smooth but not buttery like in some Chardonnay. It's very fruit forward with peach flavors lingering after the finish. I'm surprised by this Chardonnay, wonderfully surprised. It is so good! I feel likenthe wine ages as you drink it, so you'll experience wondeful different flavors as you drink.

Color: Yellow, golden, wheat color like Chardonnay. Beautiful gold like a ome would expect in a gold carrier bracelet.

Aroma: lovely kinda sweet, creamy, vanilla aroma with some peach aromas. Smells quit fruit forward and like juice ripe fruit mixed in a creamy vanilla. But it doesn't smell sweet like dessert. There's some toasty aromas like Graham crackers. It smells absolutely delicious, you just can't wait to dive in.

Taste:
There's some nice acid that gives a little shock to the jaw as your tongue is loving layer with a smooth, vanillay flavor. The flavor gently fades away in the finish. It feels like you've bitten into a wonderful ripe piece of summer fruit like a juicy peach and tangerine. It's a clean refresh finish when chewed. As the wine airs, it gets gently bitter like an orange peel. — 4 years ago

S.S. Mandani

9.4

Just, just... just wonderful.

Initially, I get quince and a slight licorice that isn’t overpowering. Peach, of course.

The intangible here is just the well rounded character of the whole thing. It’s hard to nail down, but it’s got this savory, sweet, umami, bitter, acid quality to it that just brings a sip to the very edge of paradise as a flavor, a taste, an experience.

I’m glad I went for the gold here. I love drinking the canned sake and the 300 mL bottles when I’m going solo, so I upped the ante a bit and went for the mid-tier higher selection and it paid off. — 6 years ago

Melissa E

8.9

2014. Nice fruit. Tannins stood out more than I expected. Also lighter body than I expected. Enjoying it. — 7 years ago

Cecil Ramirez

9.2

2014 vintage. Daybright, deep straw, gold hues. Light body, med acid. Fresh cut green apple, peach, ripe tropical fruit, yeast, vanilla notes. Long, clean finish. A beautiful, classic Napa Valley mountain chardonnay. — 8 years ago

Tree Kilpatrick

9.1

Artistic, cool label. Lovely color. Smells pretty floral. Flavors are bigger, but lovely complex fruits and herbs. Rocks too. This is a nice zig from the zag kinda Grenache. Sorta higher mountain complex Red… — 8 months ago

Paul J

9.0

Very reserved wine compared to my previous two bottles. Might need a decent decant or more age. Very young wine. Light gold color. Minerality dominates the nose and palate. Medium minus depth and finish. — a year ago

with Brooke

Byron Hewett

9.3

I love this wine. Gringet is so interesting. Color is sort of a dark gold. It smells of mountain herbs, hay, minerals and grapefruit. It tastes the same. There is a slight note of oxidation, but in the best possible way. — 2 years ago

Donald Williams

9.5

Sensational. — 5 years ago

with Bonnie

KDU

8.9

Dark fruit and hint of vanilla on nose. Fruity, pleasantly high acidity, tannins mellow but present. Nice, thick mouthfeel which helps with lingering taste but not velvety. — 6 years ago

with KDU

Tom Casagrande

9.2

Deep gold color. Initial note of oxidation quickly blows off, giving way to a lovely Roussanne nose of lanolin and yellow orchard fruit, along with a whiff of mountain stream. Broad and oily-textured, it got slightly bitter, intense flavors and great length. Probably because of the hot 15 growing season, this wine shows its relationship to the Roussannes of the Northern Rhône. — 7 years ago

with Lyle

Steve Gerths

9.0

Italian grape blend grown in Placerville gold rush area. Refosco, aglianico, and carignane blend. Spicy and smooth — 8 years ago