Tahoe City Wine Walk Introduces Sierra Foothill and Other Wines to Hundred of Wine Lovers

The 8^th Annual Tahoe City Wine Walk presented tourists and locals a chance to taste wines from regional California wine producers as they sashayed the streets of downtown Tahoe City on a nice summer day.  This fundraiser for the Tahoe City Downtown Association attracts great wineries and hundreds of wine lovers.

Julie Holeva, hostess at Tahoe
Mountain Brewing Company, pours
Main Street Chardonnay 2011

I started my tasting tour at Tahoe Mountain Brewing Company, where they poured a 2011 Chardonnay, Main Street Winery, St Helena, CA with grapes sourced from Santa Barbara County.  The result is a wine with aroma of pear and tropical fruit, and taste of melon, lemon and apple, a hint of toasted almonds.  It’s a nicely balanced and creamy wine, with a bit of spice.  13.5 percent alcohol.  It’s on the wine list at Tahoe Mountain Brewing Company for $6 the glass.

Rosemary Bluhm of CG di Arie pours
for winelover Brian Aebi

A favorite area winery of mine is CG di Arie, based in El Dorado County.  From its tasting location in front of Barifot, I sampled di Arie’s 2009 Sierra Legend, a red blend that won Double Gold in the 2013 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.  This blend (35% Syrah, 25% Primitivo, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc) features grapes from the Shenandoah Valley of California.  It has an aroma of berries and chocolate, with flavor of  fruit, and some savory and smoky notes too.  Well balanced and with a structured acidity, this is a food friendly wine perfect for summer meals!  14.3 percent alcohol.  $35/bottle.  www.cgdiarie.com



Bill Manson of Cielo
pours for Bill Youndt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cielo Estate of El Dorado County, poured wine at the North Tahoe Arts Center.  The yummy 2011 Magnifique, El Dorado, is a blend of 80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Cabernet Franc.  Wine Director Bill Manson was on hand to discuss this wine, which features flavors of red fruits such as black cherry, currant and cassis.  It is smooth, silky, and has a lingering finish.  13.9 per cent alcohol.   www.cieloestate.com

Mount Aukum, El Dorado County, chose Blue Stone Jewelry as its pouring venue.  I tasted the 2007 Syrah from the Fair Play AVA, and enjoyed this full-bodied wine.  The flavor is classic Syrah: very berry and firm spices with smoky tannins.    15.7 percent alcohol.  $35/bottle.  Buy at Blue Stone Jewelry in Truckee or go to www.mountaukum.com

Hatcher Sauvignon Blanc
featured at Uncorked

As you might expect, Uncorked in the Cobblestone Mall, Tahoe City, had many of these wines on hand for tasting and sale.  Their feature was Hatcher’s 2011 Sauvignon Blanc, Sierra Foothills.   A nice citrusy nose of grapefruit, and flavor of lime and green apple.  The medium acidity makes this a great summer wine! 14.3 percent alcohol.  $18/bottle.  www.hatcherwinery.com

Bogle Merlot at
Alpenglow Sports

Bogle’s 2011 Merlot  is a crowd-pleaser, and widely available.  Alpenglow Sports hosted this winery, and lines were long to sample this well-known wine.    Cherry cola is the dominant flavor, with currant and fig mingling with a pleasant herbal nature.  It has a smooth and lovely mouthfeel.  13.5 per cent alcohol.   Internet prices as low as $10/bottle!  Now, that’s a sweet spot for the summer!





This information first appeared in The Tahoe Weekly newspaper, where I write the Wine Time column, on July 3, 2013

Greg Baiocchi Speaks Out on his GST: it’s Pretty, Seductive, Complex



Greg Baiocchi
is Mr GST

“Like many in the wine business, I am tired of what one wine writer refers to as “that old CabChardPinot thingy”.   And so when we established Baiocchi Wines and Vineyards, we had a definite winemaking philosophy and vineyard plan,” notes Greg Baiocchi.  

“In many ways, I am a “millennial” winemaker:  I like to experiment.  Baiocchi is a new winery so we can afford to be different, as there are no expectations imposed from the wine critics yet.   I want to be authentic.  I want to deliver an experience that emanates from the vineyard and finds its way to the glass. I like to co –ferment the fruit, and that’s a point of origin of our blend, GST.  One wine lover has called me “Mr GST” because I believe in originality in my blends, and GST is a blend that is pretty, seductive, and complex.

Our winemaking philosophy, briefly, is that we co-ferment, use indigenous yeast, balance our use of new French oak, and believe in unfined and unfiltered wines.   We want to bring the fruit to the glass with as much transparency as possible. The vineyard philosophy was to plant Mourvedre, Grenache, Syrah & Tempranillo because of the excellence of our terroir for these varieties.

From a strategic winemaking viewpoint, these varietals all work well together in any growing season. This vineyard mix allows me to make handcrafted wines no matter what Mother Nature throws our way each year.

Our site in the FairPlay AVA of El Dorado County, CA.,  is perfectly suited for these varietals. I manage the vineyard to the terroir, which allows me to produce wine of defined character.  To me, creating a sense of place in our wines was critical to the winery business plan.

To enhance the sense of place, all our wines are fermented on indigenous yeast, with little or minimal intervention. This winemaking technique allows the purity and freshness of the fruit to come forward, thus further imparting a sense of place in our Baiocchi wines.

Gminor, our signature blend of Grenache-Syrah-Tempranillo, was our second experiment with co –fermenting.

Why GST?

I studied these varietals and where they originated and how they are blended throughout Spain and France.  I believed this blend would be a complex hybrid of origin, our El Dorado terroir, and fresh taste.

And so I handcrafted a wine that was pretty, seductive yet complex.

G minor:
a GST blend

Our GST is accessible at an early age, and can be opened anytime to share but still delivers structure that stands up proudly to food pairings.  We see it marching ahead on wine lists at a value price ($24.00) to consumers of all ages, but perhaps it will be particularly attractive to Millennials.

Grenache (44% of 2011 G minor) is so versatile and brings so much to the table. This is the pretty part of the GST blend, with great aromatics, nicely floral, and a strawberry essence -- it consumes the senses and is what captures you when first meeting the wine.

Syrah (32% of 2011 G minor) provides the weight, the curves, the seduction of the GST blend . Syrah holds the wine on the mid palate, melding blue fruit with all the red fruit of Grenache.  It plays an important role in the blend, because holding the wine on the mid palate long enough allows the acidity to catch up and then… the Tempranillo!

Tempranillo’s earthy tannins bring the structure, complexity and length to the finish in the GST blend.   Tempranillo constitutes 24% of 2011 G minor.

The compatibility of these three varietals is what makes Gminor great for food. Overall it is a medium-weight wine, earthy and ripe.

Where does GST go next?   Well, Christian Miller tasted this and put it on Spago (Beverly Hills) wine list.   We are confident at Baiocchi that GST, at a $24 retail price point, will find a welcome in the marketplace.”   

Greg and Sharon Baiocchi
in their brand-new tasting room
on Main Street, Sutter Creek CA

Read more about this GST wine, and Baiocchi Wines and Vineyards, at http://baiocchiwines.com