Wood Family Vineyards will be introducing their new Sauvignon Blanc on April 28th. What makes this different than their current Sauvignon Blanc which is produced in stainless steel tanks, they made a barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc. This entailed making 4 barrels in neutral oak barrels and 1 in an Acacia barrel. After 3 months, they transferred the wine from the Acacia barrel to another neutral barrel. They continued aging the wine in oak for an additional 5 months before bottling. The great fact of the matter, Sauvignon Blanc wine lovers now will have a choice in two distinct profiles going ..read more

Photo ©Michael Kelly The Winery Photo from Wood Family Vineyards Website I have written many stories on Wood Family Vineyards and will direct you to click on the links to find out more about this prominent winemaker. Located in eastern Livermore Valley, Rhonda Wood owner & winemaker, has been producing award winning wines for over two decades at Wood Family Vineyards. You can read more on her background from airline pilot to award winning winemaker at: https://californiawinesandwineries.com/2016/02/10/wood-family-vineyards-2 and https://californiawinesandwineries.com/2022/11/24/2020 ..read more

The Winery Photo from LXV Wines Website A unique experience from a unique culture to the wine industry. Neeta Mittal is the owner of LXV Wines. It started in India in a village south of Mumbai, where her mother lives and frequently visits the spice market to find fragment herbs for Tandoori Masala. The goal of Neeta is unconventional in that her goal is to open up as she states “the restrained jargon of pH and acidity” to flavors and senses. The LXV Wine experience at the tasting room in Paso Robles was named to the Top 10 by USA Today. The end goal is to create at their tasting room “a movem ..read more

Photo ©Michael Kelly The Winery Pinot Noir is an elusive grape and difficult to make into a wonderful wine. A good friend of mine always stated “Pinot Noir is either wonderfully delicious or absolutely skunky bad”. I thought he might be overstating his affection or hatred of the wine, but I have grown to appreciate his position. After trying so many Pinot Noir wines, there are very few in the cellar, even though I vehemently seek to find a solid one!  While I have found a few in the “stratosphere pricing range”, it is difficult to find one in the more every day category. I recall a simil ..read more

Photo ©Michael Kelly The third and final event for the 5th Annual International Cabernet Franc Wine Competition and Celebration was a gourmet dinner featuring Cabernet Franc wines from around California. It was held at The Golf Club at Copper Valley clubhouse on Saturday April 13th, 2024. Featured Cabernet Franc wines were paired with specifically chosen foods to complement and enhance the experience. Each wine was entirely different, unique and represented the terroir from their respective regions. The wines will be described in more detail with each dish further below. Photo ©Michael Kelly ..read more

The Winery Picture from Ehret Family Winery Website The Ehret Family Winery owners are Pierre and Susan Ehret with their three children Alex, Christian and Isabella. They established the vineyard and started producing grapes in 1996 at the Bavarian Lion Vineyards. It is one of the largest estates in Knights Valley consisting of 1800 acres of both hillside and valley floor terrain. Currently 500 acres are planted in vineyards allowing the balance to provide an ecosystem for plants and birdlife to dwell. From 1996 they sold their fruit to some of the more well-known wineries throughout Napa and ..read more

 Not all the bottles of competition shown (Photo ©Michael Kelly) The 5th Annual Cabernet Franc Wine Competition was held yesterday on April 3rd, 2024 at the Copper Valley Golf Club Clubhouse. The format for the blind competition utilizes the Danish system, where the wines are “bagged and tagged with coded numbers”. There were four tables of wine judges (2 tables of Professional Judges and 2 tables People’s Choice Judges) voting on medal designation, Best of Category, Best of Show and Grand Sweepstakes. If not all agree on the medal, which seldom happens, then a lively discussion going ov ..read more

Photo ©Michael Kelly The Winery Pictures from Iron Hub Wines Website The winery was founded by Tom Jones from Lava Cap Winery fame in the Apple Hill area near Placerville. Tom completed his masters degree in Viticulture & Enology from UC Davis, and for almost 30 years developed award-winning wines. Tom and his wife Beth’s new endeavor began in 2014 with the purchase of the 33 acre property that had been known as Amador Foothill Winery. Having control of the grapes from vineyard to bottle was key in his quest for quality control with 17 acres planted in vines. The name of the winery came ..read more

The Winery Picture from Vermilion Valley Vineyards Had an exchange with Joe Juniper about entering the 5th Annual International Cabernet Franc Wine Competition. His concern was that the Ohio region/his winery, made wine more in the Chinon style and would not be fairly evaluated against California wines. I explained that each region is evaluated on their own terroir and not against other regions. He not only entered the competition but sent me a bottle of his 2020 Cabernet Franc to try. He was spot on with his lighter/Chinon style Cabernet Franc (see below under The Wine section). Recently did ..read more

Photo ©Michael Kelly The Winery The Ehret Family Winery owners are Pierre and Susan Ehret with their three children Alex, Christian and Isabella. They established the vineyard and started producing grapes in 1996 at the Bavarian Lion Vineyards. It is one of the largest estates in Knights Valley consisting of 1800 acres of both hillside and valley floor terrain. Currently 500 acres are planted in vineyards allowing the balance to provide an ecosystem for plants and birdlife to dwell. From 1996 they sold their fruit to some of the more well-known wineries throughout Napa and Sonoma counties. In ..read more