Grand Cru C-ville?

DelFosse Vineyards is one of those wineries that we generally enjoy but rarely remember to visit.  Since we’ve got some friends who’ve moved to the vicinity, hopefully we’ll be able to stop by a bit more often.  After all, they have a light and airy tasting room, and some really attractive grounds that contain hiking trails (and a rental cabin). Perhaps we’ll meet up for a hike and a bottle of wine….

For the moment, however, we headed south and visited the tasting room to do the larger reserve tasting (since we’ve found with prior visits that we tend to prefer the extra wines that get included in the full tasting).  We were fortunate enough to have the owner/winemaker, Claude, pouring for us.  FYI, DelFosse is well set up for busy days as you can do your tasting at the tasting bar or at one of the tables that make up the tasting room.  The one thing I dislike about their tasting experience is that the tasting notes are provided in a menu-like book.  While I’m happy to take my own notes, the menu folio just feels like a bit much to me.

As for the wines, there was a solid and varied portfolio of 17 wines available for tasting.  The ’08 sauv blanc began the tasting,but it had too much grapefruit and untamed acid for my taste.  The ’08 chard had a balanced level of oak with subtle toast and vanilla flavors, but it just wasn’t that interesting (and I’m not a huge chard fan).  The ’07 chard reserve, however, had a much heavier level of oak with more butter and butterscotch flavors going on (still not for me).  The ’08 Reserve D’Oriane was the first white that rated a would buy.  This blend of sauv blanc, chard, petit manseng, and viognier had lots of bright fruit flavors with a hint of spice.  The petit manseng was really the dominant flavor despite making up only 23% of the blend.  This complex sipper could be great on its own, but I can really see it paired with seafood or dish with a light cream sauce.  I also really enjoyed the ’07 viognier reserve – man was there peach in that bottle!

The ’07 petit manseng was up next; a flukey wine unlikely to be duplicated with 17% alcohol because of the hot ’07 summer.  The residual sugar isn’t really noticeable because of the alcohol content, but the grilled pineapple flavors are very noticeable.  The final white was the ’08 Deer Rock Farm White (chard, sauv blanc, viognier) – a table white with 2% residual sugar.  It’s a generic sweet white that didn’t do anything for me, but there’s nothing wrong with it.

We then moved on to the ’08 rosé (cab franc, merlot, petit verdot, malbec, cab sauv).  I’m starting to come around to the pink stuff, and this one offered strawberry and roses on the nose and some nice acidity and cherry in the mouth.

As usual, I was particularly interested in the red offerings. The ’08 Deer Rock Farm Red (merlot, cab franc, cab sauv) has 2% residual sugar, so I relegate it to mulling wine as I don’t like my reds sweet otherwise (dessert wines excepted), but this could also work for those who like a fruity chilled red in the summer.  The ’07 Cuvee Laurent (chambourcin, cab franc, merlot) is not my favorite chambourcin, but it has some nice fruity, smokiness going on.  I generally preferred the ’07 Grand Cru Olivier (cab sauv, touriga, petit verdot) with its soft tannins and cherry, vanilla, and toast flavors.

The Bordeaux reds began with the ’07 cab franc.  I was getting red licorice, oak, and spice along with a lot of tannins that made this wine a bit harsh without food (perhaps after a few years in the cellar?).  The ’06 merlot was just too darn oaked for me, but I was feeling the ’08 malbec with the dark fruit jam, leather and spice flavors (yum! was a tasting note on this one).  I also enjoyed the ’08 cab sauv (10% merlot) with its plums, berries, and a hint of toasty oak/vanilla.  The ’05 meritage (cab franc, petit verdot, merlot, cab sauv) had dark fruit, spice, and earthy elements.  The tannins are now super mellow, and I’d drink it in the near future if I had any as I doubt it’s going to hold up for all that much longer.

The ’06 Ambrosia (vidal blanc, viognier, petit manseng) rounded out the tasting.  FYI, the label says 15% residual sugar, but Claude thought it was closer to 10% and that that they got the label wrong (consulting his notes appears to have backed this up).  There was great acid to this that really cut through the sugar, and I really enjoyed the grilled peaches with vanilla glaze flavors.

On a final note, DelFosse may well offer the most flexible wine club in the state.  Members commit to purchasing a minimum of 2 bottles quarterly, but they get to pick the exact bottles they want each time.  Now if they’d just get all the links on their website working…

The Grand Cru C-ville? by Swirl, Sip, Snark, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.