Two years ago I blogged about crashing a wine club event at the Heller Estate Vineyards winery high in the mountains above Carmel Valley.  That was one year after the huge Basin Complex fire burned into Big Sur and north almost to this winery.  The smoke blanked the region for a couple of months and of course the grapes were affected.   At the winery event I pleaded with the winemaker to bottle what we were tasting in the barrel, smoke flavor and all.

We recently visited their tasting room in the Village of Carmel Valley to taste the results.  WOW!  Sure, smoked wine is not as well known as say smoked salmon or cheese, but it is great!  You can still taste Cab but the smoke in their 2008 organic Cachagua Cabernet Sauvignon is up front and exciting.

We enjoyed drinking the whole bottle on our patio on a warm summer day and paired with only light munchies such as sausages.  We would like to buy more and pair it with roasts, salmon, etc. and see what happens.

I’ve heard that most of the other vintners in the area did their best to eliminate the smoke from their local 2008 wines but fortunately Heller decided to see if there is a market for a wine that needs to be explored beyond the frontier of wine tasting.  Last I heard there are only a few cases left.

- jim

The Town of Carmel is known for Bing Crosby, Clint Eastwood, cozy cottage homes, tiny shops, and a beautiful beach next to Monterey Bay. Carmel is well-visited but 11 miles up the Carmel Valley is the Village of Carmel Valley with 9 tasting rooms!

The Heller tasting room in Carmel Valley

Heller Estate is in this nest of tasting rooms and we’ve discussed their Cab Sauv before. This is the winery with the smoked grapes from the huge 2008 wildfire in the Big Sur area and the nearby Ventana Wilderness.

Some of their wine comes from vineyards in the upper Carmel Valley and some from the Salinas Valley / Santa Lucia Highlands on the other side of those huge mountains above the village. This winery is known for their organic wines but not all their wines are organically farmed.

Katya and I just finished a bottle of their 2003 estate Cabernet Franc. Spicy, robust, and dry, just the flavor profile we love. This is one of those wines that is a bit hard to find among hundreds of wineries but at least for us is a real treat. We are waiting for the smoked wines to be bottled later this fall for another treat. It will be interesting to pair those wines with food.

- jim

Heller Estate is known for their Carmel Valley, Monterey County, CA organic wines. They have a nice tasting room in the Village of Carmel Valley about 11 miles up the valley from the Pacific and the famous town of Carmel.

We were testing our iPhone app and doing a little videography in the area not long ago and noticed temporary signs on Carmel Valley Road to Heller’s mountain winery, not the tasting room in the village. We decided to follow the signs and see what’s up.

They were having a wine club event and barrel tasting and Katya and I crashed it. Fortunately we were welcomed and joined the tastings. Also fortunately we were spending the night at a nearby cottage. There was a lot of wine to try and lots of lively conversation and interesting people to share it with.

The winery is located at the end of a long twisting drive off a long twisting road that branches from another long twisting road – Carmel Valley Road. It is off Cachaqua if you must know and is rarely open to the public. We got lucky. It is soooo beautiful up there!

We tasted who knows how many wines from bottles and barrels. Their rich, bold, and complex 2004 Cab really stood out and we would buy again. We tasted it at home over 2 days and it tastes great, but a bit different, each day. I was tasting chocolate which for me is a special treat in Cab.

Heller’s vineyards are near last summer’s huge wildfire in the Ventana Wilderness. During barrel sampling we tasted smoke and we are really excited about their 2008 vintage. A little smoke in the back-taste is a treasure!

- jim

Katya and I drove down to the Salinas Valley on a windy late afternoon a few weeks ago to attend a gourmet dinner at Pessagno Winery on River Road in the Monterey wine region. The west side of the Salinas Valley is called the Santa Lucia Highlands in the wine world. While there is some difference in the dirt it appears that the vineyards don’t want to be associated with their lettuce and row crop neighbors.

Anyway, River Road has about a dozen wineries along it and all produce tasty wines. Pessagno is a small family operation about half way along the trail and they host a Friday evening dinner occasionally and pack their tasting room with gourmet foodies for a great dinner and social event.

OK, so what’s the Zin Surprise?

We arrived a little early and tasted a few of their wines for the first time. While all are very enjoyable their 2006 Idyll Times Vineyard, San Benito County, Zin really got our attention. It had the nose of prunes and the taste of apricots, and neither was subtle.

I’m a former Santa Clara Valley prune and cot picker but Katya certainly isn’t (from the Russian north). I couldn’t believe what the terroir was doing to the wine so we bought a bottle, brought it home, and recently shared it with Jeff, a close friend and wine affectionado from Seattle.

We asked for an honest opinion, which with Jeff has to be a special request. I poured and Jeff did his sniffing. Prunes. He tasted. Apricots. He looked puzzled and confused. Did he understand right, we are tasting a Zin this evening?

This Zin is FUN!

- jim

While I’m primarily focused on wine tasting road trips I like to mention special wines that I pick up along the trails.  One of those is Chateau Christina Cab from the Pedregal Vineyard in San Benito County near Salinas, CA.

This vineyard sits on the famous San Andreas Fault and the soil has been churned for millions of years.  I’m finding a very dry Cab with noticeable tannins that is a bit different than the mainsteam Cabs. On day 2 of tasting it holds up great and becomes more interesting.

This wine is available in the Joyce Vineyards tasting room in the Village of Carmel Valley in Monterey County.

You may want to play with this one. Much more fun than most.

- jim

Last Saturday we brought six bottles aboard a 32′ Catalina sailboat sitting in a marina south of San Francisco. Accompanying the all red wines was a huge focacia meat loaf sandwhich.

Eleven people came and went during the long afternoon. The bottles slowly emptied, the spicy meatloaf sandwhich slices seemed to evaporate, and the conversations in the cozy cabin became more interesting.

Every faster loved every wine. No rejects. All are robust enough so we could enjoy them with full flavor and aroma for each varietal. None were so soft to be boring.

The favorite was the Estates 04 Paso Robles Petite Sirah. This is a wine club only selection but we “stole” it. It was lost in oak for over a year, yes, ignored and abandoned. We voted for Hahn to loose all the wines from now on!!

Other wines we selected in the tasting room which we really enjoyed.

Hahn Estates 06 Cab Franc
Hahn Estates 05 Malbec
Hahn SLH 06 Syrah
Hahn SLH 06 Pino Noir

We left a bottle of Pino aboard as a gift to Gil and his new boat. Everyone ageed we need to do this again. Maybe even sail first!

- jim

As we drove south on Hwy 101 toward the Salinas Valley, and more importantly the Santa Lucia Highlands vineyards of Monterey County, Katya and I pledged to avoid tasting rooms.  We wanted to focus on the photography for our upcoming Discover California Wine Regions videos and the River Road Wine Trail was the last shoot needed.

We have the same problem every region we shoot.  We start off dedicated to photography only and somehow stray off into tasting at some point.  We were already running a bit late and didn’t expect to arrive in the region until around noon.  With short days now we only had a few hours to shoot with sunlight.

We started on the south end near Arroyo Seco Road and did a little shoot at Paraiso Springs Vineyards‘ tasting room on the Santa Lucia Highlands “bench”.  We were good kids and shot and ran away.

The best views of the area are from Hahn’s tasting room high up on the side of the Salinas Valley.    As we drove up the mile long scenic drive we planned our attack.  Katya would shoot from the vineyard and frame the tasting room against the steep mountain.  I would shoot video of the picnic area, deck, and the incredible view across the Salinas Valley.

The shoot went perfect.  We’re getting good at this.  Then I wandered into the tasting room to say “Hi”.  As always the staff was friendly and conversant.  Soon we were talked into trying a couple of special wines.  We couldn’t escape.  I decided to keep tasting and develop a blog about their wines and warm tasting environment (to come).

We left the Hahn tasting room with less than an hour of sun left and managed a few more shots here and there.  We have enough but had to push hard to get them.

As always we kick ourselves for a decadent lack of self-discipline and control in tasting rooms all over California.  We can’t seem to stop wine questing when we should be working on other aspects of Wine Questers.  Then again, when we discover adventures in wine country you probably want to know about them and also be tempted to linger.

- jim