Urban Winery Visit: DASHE and JC Cellars

So...cycling on Sunday I made a stop at the Fourth Street Oakland (Warehouse District/Jack London Square) outpost (shared) of JC Cellars and Dashe.

Dashe has a nice way with Zinfandel...dark, earthy, complex, not hot at all. The Grenache Les Enfants Terribles 2013 was only "ok" this year...a little too much on the dark fruited side.

JC Cellars surprised me. They tend to make much bigger and more extracted wines, in my past experience. This time, though their 2011 Grenache showed lovely aromatics and white pepper, strawberry, and a touch of blackberry. A quite lithe wine, despite the abv (15.0%), there was no heat.

But...the highlight of the tasting was the 2011 Rockpile Syrah. http://www.jeffcohncellars.com/wines/20 ... yard_Syrah

Wow. Definitely a big wine, but this hot climate Syrah was, again, still lithe and elegant. The Parker (boo hiss!) review above actually nails it...amazingly floral wine. Quite peppery too, and hints of meat. A delicious red, with a beautiful structure and not drinking anywhere as hot as one would expect at over 15%!

Jeff Cohn seems to be evolving in his winemaking style. I am liking the "litheness" of his latest offerings.

So...cycling on Sunday I made a stop at the Fourth Street Oakland (Warehouse District/Jack London Square) outpost (shared) of JC Cellars and Dashe.
Dashe has a nice way with Zinfandel...dark, earthy, complex, not hot at all. The Grenache Les Enfants Terribles 2013 was only "ok" this year...a little too much on the dark fruited side.
JC Cellars surprised me. They tend to make much bigger and more extracted wines, in my past experience. This time, though their 2011 Grenache showed lovely aromatics and white pepper, strawberry, and a touch of blackberry. A quite lithe wine, despite the abv (15.0%), there was no heat.

But...the highlight of the tasting was the 2011 Rockpile Syrah. http://www.jeffcohncellars.com/wines/20 ... yard_Syrah

Wow. Definitely a big wine, but this hot climate Syrah was, again, still lithe and elegant. The Parker (boo hiss!) review above actually nails it...amazingly floral wine. Quite peppery too, and hints of meat. A delicious red, with a beautiful structure and not drinking anywhere as hot as one would expect at over 15%!

Jeff Cohn seems to be evolving in his winemaking style. I am liking the "litheness" of his latest offerings.

Brian,
Did they have the Viognier, that Jeff made in cooperation w/ Gangloff, available to taste?? Jeff strong-armed me into ordering some.
Not sure I'd characterize Rockpile as hot-climate. It's way above the DCV valley floor and my sense is it's
much cooler up there. But all the wines out of there seem to have a pretty rugged structure to them. A bit like HowellMtn
w/o the earthy character.
I'm not a big fan of MikeDashe's LET wines. They seem to lack the brightness of his regular Zins and seem a bit muddled/funky/old-timey.
Tom

They did have a Viognier. I liked it, but it's not really a grape I prefer. Actually, the late harvest desert Viognier was quite nice!

I guess I make an assumption about Rockpile. It's way at the inland end of the Dry Creek Valley (which can be quite hot) and my experience there was riding up that excruitatingly steep grade on a bicycle. I certainly felt HOT that day...we are talking zig zagging across the roadway to make it up the grade. I'm having an off year, including being a little plump right now, so the thought of riding that road....it ain't gonna happen (plus my replacement bike has stiffer gearing!).

I've like previous LET wines, but this grenache just didn;t have much "grenachyness". Jeff's DID.