I took the 100 mile drive from the northern end of Humboldt County to the southern portion of the county to attend the Memorial weekend open house at Briceland Vineyards today. I had met assistant winemaker Andrew Morris and winemaker Joe Collins at a wine symposium earlier in the year, and decided to give their wines a try at this weekend open house. They were pouring their full lineup at the winery which included a sparkling wine, two sauvignon blancs, one Arneis, one Chardonnay, a rose, two pinot noirs, and a syrah. In general, the wines were well made, bright with acidity, and were good values. Notes on individual wines follow:
NV Humboldt Brut Sparkling Wine (recently disgorged) (2007 grapes)... This wine spent 3 and 1/2 years in bottle. It was yeasty, citrusy, lemony, with small bubbles, and a long aftertaste. A very good bubbly, and many people there just wanted to stay drinking this wine with the freshly shucked oysters and the pate served. Really a nice wine, and priced at $35.
2010 Humboldt Sauvignon Blanc (organically grown grapes)... a complex nose (gooseberry?) with an orangy and grassy taste, quite an acidic middle, and with a touch of bitterness at the end, this went well with food. $18
2010 Lake county Sauvignon Blanc, Dorn Vineyards, was a bit less acidic to my taste, with a similar nose, an almost orange muscat taste with a grassy edge which I enjoyed. Short finish. Nice wine for $16.
2009 Mendocino Arneis, Spirit Canyon Vineyard, an aromatic Italian white, with a lovely white flowers aroma, with slight white peach and orange flavors, nice citrusy acidity around the edges of my tongue, and a touch of bitterness. Good. $17
2010 Mendocino Chardonnay, Lolonis Vineyard, organically grown grapes, this wine saw no oak, and no malolactic fermentation. It had fresh sweet fruit aroma, almost like a light fruit salad, which was quite pleasant. A more viscous mouth feel than the above wines, it had a touch of butter flavor, ripe acidity, and a rich taste. Good. $21
2010 Humbolt Rose of Pinot Noir, Phelps Vineyard. Slightly deeper than copper color with roses on the nose, red cherries and berries in the taste with more pleasant berry flavor and a touch of ending bitterness. Nice wine. $16
2009 Humboldt Pinot Noir, Phelps Vineyard. This vineyard is about three miles from the winery on Elk Ridge. Wine is unfined, unfiltered. Martini clone. Bing cherry color but not opaque with a cranberry and deep cherry nose, nice cranberry/ cherry flavors with a touch of earth, and the same cherry and earthy aftertaste. Good. $27. 14.2% alc.
2008 Humboldt Pinot Noir, Elk Prairie Vineyard. This wine was my personal favorite. A darker bing cherry color, almost opaque, with mainly dark cherry flavors, a touch of cranberry, with a forest floor note in it. A touch of framing from an oak note, acid was not obtrusive, but pleasant. A good food wine, and a good value at $27. 13.9% alc.
2008 Lake County, Syrah, Turner Vineyard. This is the only wine I did not care for. It had to be filtered and stripped to get rid of smoke taint, and I felt it had lost its freshness and life. Pass.
There was quite a turnout for the event, and it is a lovely drive through old growth redwood trees to get to the winery. I enjoyed the wines and the winemakers.