Last weekend a few of us got together to taste through as many of the local 2007 Cabernets as we could lay our hands on. The event was organised by Paul and Stef Romero of Stefania Wine, who were curious how their wines would stand up against similar wines from the region. The answer? Very well.

The wines were served in groups of three. Most of the people were not trying to take notes, so Wes Barton and myself soon found ourselves behind the rest of the group. As such the notes are somewhat brief, and are in the order the wines were poured. As far as I'm aware none of the wines were decanted or aired prior to pouring.

Our overall impression was that 2007 resulted in some very nice wines indeed. The group favourite was the
the Martin Ranch Dos Rios Vineyard, which was showing particularly well right now. Ridge Monte Bello and Mount Eden Estate did well as you might expect, despite being very young, and the Stefania Santa Cruz Mountains was just outside the top three.

2007 Mount Eden Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nice complex nose - initially cassis, mint and smoke with some mushroom emerging. That mushroom and cassis showed up again on the palate, with drying tannins on the finish. Good depth, and lots of structure.

2007 Cooper Garrod George's Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose was sweeter than #1, with sherbert and bramble.Fruity with bramble and boysenberry, plenty of tannin
eucalyptus coming out time.

2007 Chaine d'Or, Santa Cruz Mountains
Aromas of raw meat and dust.Tight, dry. grippy tannins - clearly needed air. Noticeable green pepper note, with some nice brambly fruit.

2007 Kathryn Kennedy 'Small Lot', Santa Cruz Mountains
Soft nose with nice black and red fruits. Smooth fruit - redcurrant and blackcurrant. I was thinking Saratoga or Santa Clara Valley.

2007 Ridge Monte Bello, Santa Cruz Mountains
Bright berry nose - blackberry and blackcurrant. Lots of blackcurrant cordial, tannin and - particularly - oak. Way too young.

2007 Martin Ranch Thérèse Vineyards Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains
Very perfumed nose, sweet smooth fruit, drying tannins. (By this point I was way behind, so my notes started getting terser.)

2007 P•M Staiger, Santa Cruz Mountains
Smoky, brambly nose. Smooth, sweet fruit. While enjoyable, this seemed the least complex of all the wines poured.

2007 La Honda Lonehawk Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains
Hint of volatile actidity on the nose? Lots of bramble and blackcurrant fruit, and lots of chewy tannin. I was guessing the Kennedy Small Lot.

2007 Stefania, Santa Cruz Mountains
Interesting nose; for some reason it made me think of a toilet puck. Structured berry fruit and lots of mouth-coating tannin. Needs time, but should be great.

2007 Ahlgren Bates Ranch, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose of barnyard and herbs, with the alcohol showing, but on the palate there was sweet redcurrant, turning oaky on the finish.

2007 Stefania Uvas Creek Vineyard, Santa Clara Valley
Earthy and ripe plum. Lots of sweet peppery blackcurrant fruit, tannin and earth.

2007 Woodside Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose dominated by smoky oak. Rather intense with hints of graphite and spice backed by smooth tannins.

2007 Thomas Fogarty, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose showed smoked sausage. Smooth, sweet cassis; I wouldn't age this, it's good now. I think this was the least expensive wine in the lineup, having been found at Sunnyvale Costco for under $20.

2007 Domaine Eden, Santa Cruz Mountains
Elegant, feminine, light. There's smooth red fruit and bright acidity. I guessed Cooper Garrod, so was only a couple of miles out.

2007 House Family Vineyards, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose is earthy and smoky. Seemed very tannic; there's some good black fruit there but it needs time.

2007 Ridge Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains
Rich nose showing caramel and eucalyptus. Light with some bright black fruits but decent structure.

2007 Martin Ranch Thérèse Vineyards Dos Rios Vineyard, Santa Clara Valley
Nose made me think of breakfast cereal. Lots of sweet caramel and black fruit, with nice chewy tannins. Quite the crowd pleaser.

2007 Creekview Vineyards, Santa Clara Valley
Nose of black fruit and eucalyptus; good intensity but very tannic at the moment.

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The Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association runs an annual Commercial Wine Competition, open to all of its members. This year's competition was held last Monday at Ma Maison restaurant in Aptos, and I was  invited to be a judge. The judging panel is made up of both trade professionals - restauranteurs, sommeliers, wine buyers etc., and consumers.

Judging Table. 8 judges each tasting a different set of wines.

I arrived in Aptos at 9:30 and was greeted by the chilly grey morning skies that help to make the western side of the mountain such a great place to grow Pinot Noir. I signed in at the main desk and was assigned Flight #5 - Pinot Noirs. When everyone had arrived we were led into the restaurant and told to sit at any table, in front of our particular number.

Each table had 8 judges, with every judge tasting a different flight. The purpose of this is so that you can talk to your fellow judges without worrying about affecting the results. The wines were laid out on the table in front of us, with each glass labelled only with a 4 digit code number. We were also given a sample of a white wine (a rather pleasant New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc at a guess) as an introduction.

The organisers gave some basic instructions on evaluating the wine. We were to score on the 100 point scale, with 90+ indicating a gold medal, 85-89 indicating silver and 80-85 indicating bronze. We were advised that around 20-25% of wines typically fall into the Gold category and around half fall into the Silver category. Very few get no medal at all. This seemed reasonable; in my personal scoring system anything below 85 isn't worth buying, anything below 80 is not worth drinking. On this scale 70-79 is supposed to indicate an 'average' wine, so I take that to indicate the mass of sub-$5 supermarket plonk.

As with most blind tastings the wines were poured in the same order for everyone. I typically go through the wines in order and smell them, to get a first impression. I then taste them in an order based on those impressions; if a wine seems odd or unbalanced I'll leave it until last. After tasting them all I'll go through them again to confirm my decisions.

The first flight. Each wine is identified by a 4 digit code number

The first flight was fairly straightforward. There were 7 wines, 2 of which I gave Gold scores to. They turned out to be 2008 Clos LaChance Santa Cruz Mountains and 2008 Sonnet Muns Vineyard. I gave good marks to the 2008 Domenico Santa Cruz Mountains and 2008 Black Ridge Estate.

The second flight had one wine that I found particularly unusual. It had almost overpowering notes of white pepper and spice. After trying it a couple of times I decided that it worked and awarded it a Gold - it turned out to be the 2008 Beauregard Santa Cruz Mountains. Another Gold went to the 2008 Santa Cruz Mountains Vineyard Branciforte Creek, and an honourable mention to the 2008 Ahlgren Veranda Vineyard.

The final flight was unusual in that the first and last wines seemed very strange; I left them until the end and declared them both to be not medal worthy. My favourite turned out to be the 2008 Woodside Estate, with 2008 Muccigrosso and 2009 Soquel Estate also scraping Golds.

We then had a pause while the administrators tallied up the scores to determine the top 10 wines. While we were waiting there were some snacks including some delicious rillettes on mini croissants.

Finally the top 10 wines were revealed. We were told the variety in each case, and they were presented in order of lightest to heaviest, so I sampled them in that order. I was suprised to see that the winning Pinot Noir was not on my tasting list. It turned out that there were so many entrants that a fourth flight of Pinots had been given to a different set of judges, who had also been tasting the 'mixed' reds and blends. Frankly I wasn't overly impressed by their choice; there seemed to be a lot of sulphur evident, with the nose showing struck match and the fruit muted.

One of the judges analysing a wine.

Picking a favourite from 10 completely diverse wines is tough; ranking them in order is tougher still. Of the reds I particularly liked the Cabernet Sauvignon which was revealed to be the 2007 Woodside Estate; they also were awarded the best Zinfandel. I correctly guessed that the Petite Sirah was from Sones, though I thought it was probably from French Camp. The Soquel Chardonnay was very good and well balanced, and the dessert wine - a 2004 Angelica from Picchetti - was in a class of its own in more ways than one.

But in the end the top award went to Martin Ranch for their delicious 2009 Thérèse Vineyards Malbec. What's even more impressive is that Martin Ranch also scooped the top honour last year for their 2007 Lester Family Vineyard Syrah. Congratulations to Dan and Thérèse Martin!

Top 10 wines (Santa Cruz Mountains AVA unless noted)
2009 Martin Ranch Thérèse Vineyards Malbec Santa Clara Valley, Dos Ninas Vineyard
2010 Soquel Chardonnay, Ben Lomond Mountain, Meyley Vineyard
2009 Black Ridge Viognier
2007 Byington Pinot Noir Block 4
2008 Martin Ranch JD Hurley Merlot, Santa Clara Valley
2008 Sones Petite Sirah, Lodi
2008 Bargetto Syrah, Nelson Vineyard
2007 Woodside Cabernet Estate
2007 Woodside Zinfandel Estate
2004 Picchetti Angelica of Chardonnay

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In 1960 Bob Mullen produced a batch of home-made wine from some abandoned vines in Woodside. Further research revealed that those vines were all that remained of Emmett Rixford's award winning La Questa vineyard, planted in the 19th century. Soon after Bob purchased a property on Kings Mountain Road in Woodside, planted vineyards of his own and founded Woodside Vineyards. The winery established a great reputation for their excellent red wines, all produced from small vineyards all over Woodside.



Eventually Bob retired from winemaking and was succeeded by his business partner Brian Caselden. In 2008 Bob decided to sell his home, so the winery needed to find new premises. They partnered with Buff Giurlani and Dick Burns, owners of Auto Vino in Menlo Park, a company specialising in the storage of fine wines and rare cars. Now after almost half a century on Kings Mountain Road, Woodside Vineyards has finally completed their move.

The new facility is at 205 Constitution Drive, just off 84 between Marsh and Willow, close to the Dumbarton Bridge. From the outside there are no signs that it's anything other than another business unit, but drive to the rear and you'll see the tell-tale discarded barrels.

Inside there's a mixture of high-tech and history. The main showroom is home to a dozen or so pristine vehicles from former race cars to classic Ferraris. Alongside them are winery relics including a century old corker, the hand crusher that Bob used until the mid 1970s, and Duane Cronin's old basket press. At one side there's an honour bar where club members can buy wine at any time, while at the other side there's a tasting area made from old champagne riddling racks propped up on barrels. Behind that through a window you can see the wine barrels stacked 5 high. In addition to guarding these pieces of automotive history AutoVino also rents out temperature controlled wine storage lockers (a 27 case unit costs $54 per month, if you were wondering).

The new facility will allow Brian and Bob to gradually increase production from the current 2,000 cases to a target of around 3,500 cases. The Woodside Vineyards wines will continue to be made only with estate grapes from the Woodside area, but there are plans to eventually introduce a second label made with fruit sourced from elsewhere in the Santa Cruz Mountains. There is also space for future expansion including a catering option.

Brian is currently preparing for the official relaunch, on Memorial day weekend. The winery will be open from 1-5PM on May 29th, 30th and 31st as well as on Sunday June 6th. Additionally the winery will open for the Vintners Festival on June 12th and 13th from 11AM-5PM the following weekend.

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Open Daily: Barterra, Domenico, La Nebbia, Thomas Fogarty
Open by appointment: Chaine d'Or/Stefania, Great Blue Heron, La Honda, Varner
Not Open: Clos de la Tech, King's Mountain, Martella, Orchard Hills, Rhys/Alesia, Waxwing, Woodside

The northern end of the Santa Cruz Mountains is known for Emmet Rixford's winery and La Questa vineyard. It's the coolest part of the AVA and is the source of some excellent Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

If you happen to be in Half Moon Bay there are two tasting rooms close by. Barterra is located in the town centre and La Nebbia is on Highway 92 to the east. But if you aren't in the city anyway it's difficult to justify making a special trip.

On the eastern side of the mountains Domenico in Redwood City is open from 12-5PM daily.
Thomas Fogarty on Skyline (Highway 35) is open Wed-Sat 11AM-5PM and Sunday 1-5PM.
La Honda Winery is located in Redwood City and is open by appointment. They are SCMWA members and often host other wineries on passport or Vintners' Festival weekends.
Varner are open midweek, by appointment only. The Spring Ridge Vineyard is located in Portola Valley.
Great Blue Heron is a tiny winery producing a few barrels of estate Pinot Noir from the owner's garage. Tasting is by appointment at weekends.
Chaine d'Or is located close to the junction of Highways 84 and 35. It's now managed by Paul and Stef Romero of Stefania Wine and takes visitors by appointment.

Varner, GBH, Chaine d'Or and Fogarty are all located within a half hour drive of each other. My recommendation would be to try to start at Varner or GBH, then go to Chaine d'Or and Fogarty. From Fogarty you can then go to La Honda and (if there's time) Domenico's. To get from Fogarty to La Honda the quickest way is via the 84, which takes you through Woodside. You can stop off at Roberts Market - they generally have an excellent selection of local wines. Alternatively you can head south on Skyline to Page Mill Road - that drive is around 20-30 minutes longer, but it's more scenic and fun.

Other wineries in the area:
Woodside Vineyards recently moved from their home of almost 50 years to a new facility in Menlo Park. Though one of the founders of SCMWA they don't pour on passport weekends and traditionally only open for events a few times a year, but the new premises may make appointments possible. Watch this space.
Kings Mountain are located in Woodside. Though the vineyards are visible from the road, the wine is made elsewhere. They are members of SCMWA and typically pour on passport weekends at other local wineries, such as La Honda or Domenico.
Rhys are based out of an industrial unit close to Domenico. They open a couple of times a year to allow mailing list members to pick up their wines, and they also organise a few vineyard tours in the summertime which get booked up well in advance. They are building a new facility off Skyline which is expected to open later in 2010.
Clos de la Tech are also building a facility off Skyline; the opening date hasn't been announced. In the meantime the wines are made at Domenico's facility; any tastings are by personal invitation from the owners. Domenico is also home to a number of other small producers, including Waxwing who have been known to pour on rare occasions.
Michael Martella is the winemaker at Thomas Fogarty. Occasionally one or more of his wines will be available in the tasting room. Martella is a SCMWA member and normally pours for their events at an alternate location, not at Fogarty.
Orchard Hills is based out of Atherton, though the wines are actually made in Paso Robles. The vineyards are visible from the road, but the city's rules prohibit any visitors or sales. If you want to taste the wines your best bet is Vino Locale in Palo Alto.

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Looking through my cellar I discovered a bottle of Woodside Chardonnay that I'd forgotten about. Although Woodside makes some really good reds I don't normally care for their Chardonnay and at first I wasn't sure why I'd bought it.

Then I remembered that at the last visit they were roasting chestnuts on a smoky wood fire. All I could smell and taste was the fire, not the wine, so I'd bought a bottle to try later. Turns out it wasn't anything to do with the fire after all.

2007 Woodside Chardonnay, Estate
The nose shows oak, with some pear and apple notes. On the palate there's oak. That's it, just masses of oak. No Chardonnay character whatsoever and no acidity to speak of. As far as I could tell it wasn't technically flawed (oxidised, corked etc.) so by the terms of the 100 point scale it earns 70 points, but no more.

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Yes, two 2005 Woodside wines in the same week. Sue me. I felt like a Zinfandel and there aren't that many local wineries who make it, which is a shame.
The nose is earthy with brambles and coffee. On the palate there's lots of rich sweet black fruit and an oaky, tannic finish. The oak has softened significantly since I last tasted it , I'm pleased to note, but I think it's still a year away from its prime. 89. Sold out at the winery, but the 2007 is now available on futures at $22.50 a bottle and I think that's a great value.

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Woodside Vineyards farm around 20 small domestic vineyards around the Woodside area. The 2005 Estate Pinot Noir was sourced from just two vineyards, one of which was planted by Bob Mullen at his home on Kings Mountain Road.

This is a really earthy Pinot. On the nose there's lots of funk and spice which carries through onto the palate; notes of mushrooms and wet leaves. Good acidity and tannin. Fruit was very much in the background on this occasion. 92 $36 at the winery - there's still some available. Recommended

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Last week I visited Woodside Vineyards for their barrel tasting. If you read my write-up you'll know that this wine was being poured close to a smoky wood fire where chestnuts were being roasted. It seemed unfair to rate it based on a flawed tasting, so I brought one home.

The nose is nice, with lemon, vanilla ice-cream and a minerality, like a fresh mountain stream (that might sound pretentious, but I can't think of a better descriptor). However on the palate it's like chewing oak staves. There's no smoke, but the wood is if anything stronger than it seemed last time, probably because my palate was trying to compensate. The nice lemon and lime component in the background is overpowered by the wood that really bites on the finish. It's not your typical mellow buttery oak that mars so many generic Californian Chardonnays, it's a harsh wood which gives me hope that given time it'll soften and let the fruit show. 82 $25

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Woodside Vineyards is a small 2000 case winery located on Kings Mountain Road in Woodside. Bonded in 1963, it's one of the wineries that helped define the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. Each year Woodside vineyards offers futures on their estate Zinfandel, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, and opens the winery for barrel samples. It was expected that this year's tasting would be in the new facility, but progress has been slow on that front, so we got one more chance to taste at the old facility. Forgive the image quality; I left my camera at home, so took these with my phone.

First, a white to try. I was standing very close to a smoky wood fire while tasting this, which affected my perception, hence the lack of a point score.

2007 Estate Chardonnay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose of lemon and wet stone. Oak seemed very pronounced, good lemon & lime flavours, Crisp finish. No rating, but I bought some to try again later.

Winemaker Brian Caselden poured three barrel samples in the barrel room. The 2008 Pinot Noir will remain in barrel for a few months more; the 2007 Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon have already been bottled - these barrels were held back for the tasting.

The futures offering gives a 25% discount over the list price, with half payable now and the remainder (including the sales tax) payable on delivery, a year from now. Minimum purchase is 12 bottles.

2008 Pinot Noir barrel sample
Sourced from four different vineyards, with new, 1 year and 2 year old French oak barrels. 8 out of 12 barrels made the blend.
Quite dark colour (though it was fairly dark in the room).
Oak and chocolate on the nose, a little smoke, not much fruit on nose at this stage.
Earthy, with liquorice root, red berry and black cherry. Oak prominent on the finish. 88-90 $36 list, $27 futures.

2007 Zinfandel barrel sample
Smoky, with raspberry and blackberry.
Rich, spicy raspberry fruit with a hint of cinnamon; peppery on the finish. Great value. 90-92 $30 list, $22.50 futures.

2007 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon barrel sample
The Estate Cabernet is the bigger brother to the softer King's Mountain Cab (which isn't offered on futures) and typically requires some cellar time.
Nose shows blackcurrant and blackberry, with espresso notes. Plenty of acidity and fine tannins. At this stage the fruit is restrained and the finish soft. 88-90 $40 list, $30 futures.

Finally Brian offered their newly released port:

2005 Port
Made from Zinfandel. As I've said before, I'm not much of a fan of port-style wines unless they are made from the traditional port grapes; I'd sooner have the genuine article.
Lightly oxidised, bright raspberry nose and sweet, spicy raspberry flavours. Well made, but not my thing. 84, but that's just me. $30 for 500ml

Update: See Wes Barton's take on the tastings too.

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There are a lot of events on at the weekends; it would be a full time job trying to keeping up with them. However one that I look forward to is the annual barrel tasting at Woodside.

As you probably know, the property at 340 Kings Mountain Road has been sold and the winery is moving to an industrial unit off Willow Road. However that move isn't complete yet so this year's tasting will be held at the old winery one last time.

Unlike previous years the tastings will be hourly, starting at 5PM, 6PM and 7PM on Fridays (4th and 11th) and 1PM, 2PM, 3PM and 4PM on Saturdays (5th and 12th) and Sundays (6th and 13th). Barrel samples of 2007 Estate Cabernet and Zinfandel, and 2008 Pinot Noir will be poured with the opportunity to buy on futures. Traditionally I believe the futures discount has been 20%, plus you only have to pay half the cost up front, with the balance due on delivery.

Over in Milpitas, Big Dog Winery is open from 12-5PM on Saturday and Sunday in December until Christmas. I have yet to taste their wines so I'll try to head over and report back. If you're interested they are at 4545 Felter Road in Milpitas.

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Bob Mullen's winery manages several small Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards scattered around the township of Woodside. The most famous is of course the La Questa vineyard, established by Emmett Rixford over a century ago but now down to barely one non-contiguous acre of vines. The rest of the fruit goes in to one of two blends; the structured Estate Cabernet and the more fruit-forward King's Mountain.

In 2006 yields were way down; at around 250 cases that's almost half that of the 2005 vintage. As a result there was only enough wine available to supply wine club members and restaurant contracts, not for general retail.

I opened my sole bottle at the weekend. On the nose there was a lot of barnyard, brambles and mint. At first I thought the barnyard was "brett", but it diminished with time in the glass. On the palate it was very earthy and structured; there was fruit but it was hidden under the tannin, acid and earth. I decided to leave the rest of the bottle until the following day.

As it happened, I didn't get chance to revisit it for about 3 days, by which time it had changed significantly. The barnyard element had faded into more of a forest floor; the mint was still present but the blackcurrant fruit stood out, both on the nose and on the palate. The tannins had softened, though it still showed good acidity.

Unfortunately, as I said before, if you aren't in the wine club then the only place you're likely to find this wine is on restaurant wine lists, which means it's unlikely to get the time in the cellar or decanter that it so desperately needs. Order it at lunchtime, have them decant it and come back for dinner or even the day after. 91 $25

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I met Kevin Monahan of Video 4 at Pinot Paradise. We had a brief chat; I enjoy video editing too, but it's very time consuming. He was recording the event, and has a series of videos up on YouTube. This is one of his - it's a short segment on some of the various vineyards that Woodside Vineyards manages.

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Woodside Vineyards doesn't open for tasting very often; one of the few events is over Memorial Day weekend. I went up on Monday to check out the current releases.

The 2006 Kings Mountain wasn't being poured; only 250 cases were produced and as a result it's only being sold to restaurants and wine club members. I managed to persuade them to let me buy a bottle, so that will get reviewed in the near future.

2003 Estate Brut Sparkling Wine
Woodside markets two sparkling wines; their non vintage "California Champagne" is manufactured for them by Weibel, but the vintage Sparkling Wine is made here from roughly 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay. It has a toasty, yeasty, mineral nose. On the palate it's creamy with lemon and apple flavours, mineral notes and a crisp, nutty finish.

2007 Woodside Chardonnay
Rich, full nose of vanilla, lemon and caramel. It's rather oaky with some lemon and tropical fruit, and a quite bitter, tannic finish. Just released; needs time to settle down.

2005 Pinot Noir
The fact that the major wine critics don't pay much attention to the Santa Cruz Mountains is the only reason this wine is still available to buy. Great nose of earth and underbrush, with cherry and strawberry underneath. On the palate it's balanced, rich and spicy; layered flavours of black cherry, Asian spice and earth, and a long finish. Very good, and highly Recommended.

2006 Zinfandel
Initially earthy, with raspberry and toast notes. Has good, pure raspberry fruit, though there's some unresolved oaky bitterness on the medium length finish. As with the 2005 I tried recently, I think a bit of cellar time is in order, but it certainly has potential.

2004 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
Musty at first, but that soon blew off to reveal nice blackcurrant fruit with hints of toast and earth. On the palate there's good blackcurrant fruit; more so than the 2002 I opened on Saturday and the tannins are less evident. However the acidity still shows rather prominently despite having a higher pH than the Zinfandel tasted just before. Definitely needs time.

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Woodside was built on Cabernet Sauvignon. The first vintages were made by Bob Mullen and his friend Bob Groetzinger from some forgotten Cabernet vines originally planted by Emmet Rixford.

Nowadays Woodside farms over 20 small vineyards dotted around the Woodside area in San Mateo County. Each year two Cabernets are produced, labelled Estate and Kings Mountain. The Kings Mountain tends to be fruit forward and more approachable on release; the Estate is more structured and should benefit from being cellared.

As is common for the Santa Cruz Mountains, the wines are held in bottle for some time prior to release. I recently took delivery of the as yet unreleased 2005 Estate Cabernet and was curious as to how the older vintage was progressing.

A dark wine with aromas of coffee and bright acidity. On the palate there's a LOT of structure; the acidity is prominent at first, with the tannins - both from the grapes and the oak - dominating the midpalate and finish. There is decent blackberry and cassis fruit, though whether there's enough to hold until the tannins are resolved remains to be seen. 185 cases made; paid $30 on release.

The winery will be open for their Spring tasting event the last two weekends in May, including Memorial Day, from 1AM to 5PM. The winery is located half a mile from Highway 84, outside the township of Woodside.

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I've been enjoying some local 2005 Zinfandels recently; so far all my experiences confirm that it's a very good vintage. The latest example is from Woodside Vineyards; I'd really enjoyed the 2004 release with its rich, bold fruit and expected this to be more of the same.

The first thing I noticed was the ring of tartrate crystals round the cork; presumably the wine wasn't cold stabilized before bottling. No problem; the crystals are easily removed and indicate that the winery doesn't believe in unnecessarily prcessing.

The wines is showing a LOT of oak influence right now. It's the dominant aroma on the nose, and the oak tannins are very evident on the tongue. There is good raspberry/loganberry fruit, but it's very much secondary at this stage. We agreed that the oak was too much and decided to open a Syrah instead.

After a few hours we came back to it. The oak was still very evident but the wine was more approachable; perhaps the air had smoothed it out or more likely our palates were dulled by the Syrah. Either way, I don't plan to open another of these for a while; we'll see what some time in the cellar does to those oak tannins.

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The February edition of the Woodside Vineyards newsletter confirms that Bob Mullen has all but completed the sale of his share of the company to Buff Giurlani and Dick Burns, owners of AutoVino, a custom car and wine storage facility based on Constitution Drive in Menlo Park. Brian Caselden will continue as a partner and as winemaker; Bob will continue to be active as a consultant.

The new winery is expected to be completed in good time for the 2009 harvest, and will be open to the public on the Memorial day weekend. The Kings Mountain property had already been sold to a different owner last year, though it is understood that Woodside will continue to manage and make wine from those vineyards.

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I've often said that there's not enough Zinfandel grown in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Conventional wisdom has it that Zinfandel is best suited to warmer areas such as Paso Robles, Lodi and Amador, and while I don't deny there are some good wines being made out of those areas I generally prefer the wines from Dry Creek and (obviously) the Santa Cruz Mountains. They have the rich flavours while keeping the alcohol down to around the 15% mark, still have enough acidity and while fruity aren't stuck with noticeable residual sugar.

A good example is the 2004 Woodside Estate Zinfandel. A great nose of smoked bacon and raspberries and some alcohol (it's 15.2%) leads in to a fruity wine with raspberry and clove flavours but no port-like characteristics, no overripe flavours. On the finish there's liquorice and adequate tannin and acidity.

The current release is 2005, with orders being taken for the 2006 vintage. I personally favour drinking Zinfandel within 5-6 years of the vintage; not that Zinfandel can't age, but it's all about that fresh fruit flavour.

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Woodside vineyards was bonded in 1963, which makes them officially 45 years old this year (and slightly older than me). In this anniversary year some significant changes are afoot. Now aged 82, Bob Mullen has sold his property on Kings Mountain Road along with the vineyard and winery buildings, but not the business. Woodside Vineyards is now in the process of looking for a new home, preferably within the Woodside area.

The good news is that the new owner isn't planning on taking immediate posession, so the 2008 vintage will continue to be produced as normal. The future of the vineyard is not certain, but it seems likely that it will continue to be managed by Woodside Vineyards for at least the next year, possibly longer. Since that is only one of around 25 vineyard sources used by the winery there shouldn't be any significant impact.

This last weekend the vineyard held an open house for mailing list members and were pouring several new releases. Wes and his group had visited on Saturday; I managed to get up there on Monday.

1997 Sparkling Wine I wasn't particularly impressed with this the last time I tasted it. The price has been reduced from $30 to $20 so clearly I'm not the only one. There's some green apple but a lot of what some might call minerrality, but to me it just tasted like baking soda. There's far better bubbly for the money. $20

2006 Chardonnay Lots of vanilla and green apples. Fruity with a rich mouthfeel. Quite low in acidity for a Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay and a surprisingly tannic finish; I'm guessing this was fermented on the skins for longer than is typical. I'm in two minds over this; I got one to try at a later date, but it's not my favourite. $22

2005 Pinot Noir This is the first chance I've had to taste the Pinot, but I've heard good things about it. At Pinot Paradise I think it was the first wine to run out, and unfortunately I'd started at the other end of the room. I wasn't disappointed; it really delivered. It reminded me of a much more concentrated version of the 07 Great Blue Heron I tried on Saturday; not entirely surprising given the proximity and the shared history. Lots of chocolate and cherry, with a long finish. $36. Go get some before it sells out!

2005 Estate Zinfandel I do like the Woodside Zinfandel. Lots of bright raspberry fruit and pepper, with some coffee and chocolate from the oak. The finish is long too. $30

2005 Kings Mountain Cabernet This wine and the Estate Cabernet both won Gold medals at the SCMWA Commercial Wine Competition, with the Kings Mountain being voted best SCM Red. I'm sorry, but the judges got it wrong. The Kings Mountain cab is a good wine; lots of blackberry/blackcurrant fruit, a little coffee and caramel, but it didn't wow me like the (Silver medal winning) Pinot did. I'm not even convinced that the 2005 is as good as the 2004 I opened recently, though to be fair the 2004 had a year of cellaring. Having said that it's still a damn fine wine and one of the best Santa Cruz Mountains cabs for opening tonight. Excellent value at $22. I bought two and would have liked a case.

2004 Estate Cabernet A lot more structure - tannin and acidity - than the Kings Mountain. Typically the Estate needs a few years in the cellar to show well and this one is no exception. There's plenty of fruit but it needs time to come round. $40.

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I finally got round to reading the press release from the SCMWA on the winners of the 2008 Santa Cruz Mountains Commercial Wine Competition.

First off, congratulations to the winners. Woodside Vineyards not only got best SCM red wine for their 2005 King's Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon (I reviewed the 2004 just last month and was very impressed) but also got gold for their Estate Cabernet and silvers for their 2005 estate Pinot Noir and Zinfandel. Beauregard got best SCM White for their 2006 Bald Mountain Vineyard Chardonnay, as well as three other silver medals, all for Chardonnays.

The two top wines were a bit of a surprise. Best In Show went to a white port from Picchetti Winery called Angelica. Now personally I find port to be over-rated; I'm more of a Sauternes fan. I'll withhold judgement until I've tried it. But the highest score of all went to a Soquel Vineyards Zinfandel from Lodi!? What's the world coming to?

I was a bit surprised by the number of medals that were handed out; there were more gold medals awarded than Michael Phelps got. It turns out that rather than divide the wines into classes and award first, second and third place within each class all the wines receive a score out of 100 (I'll put aside my views on the 100 point system for now). Anything scoring over 90 points gets a gold, anything over 85 gets a silver and anything over 80 gets a bronze. Out of almost 150 wines only five of them failed to get any kind of medal. It reminded me of the scene from Meet the Fockers where DeNiro says "I didn't know they make 9th place ribbons" and Hoffman replies "Oh, they've got them all the way up to 10th place."

All that aside there were some interesting results, including Golds for Black Ridge (I've been saying that they were worth keeping an eye on) and - of all things - a 2007 Pelican Ranch Lodi Pinotage.

Nice to see several wines from Santa Clara Valley getting decent scores, including Muccigrosso Vineyards "Lynzin" (90, Gold) and "Stanzin" (89, Silver), Sarah's Vineyard 2005 Estate Pinot Noir (89, Silver), Martin Ranch 2004 JD Hurley Cabernet Sauvignon (89, Silver) and Clos LaChance 2004 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (88, Silver).

The medal winners will be on display during the Santa Cruz County Fair, which runs from September 9th-14th. The SCMWA is organising a tasting event for that weekend.

The official results table is here.

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Emmet Rixford was one of the early wine-making pioneers in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In 1884 he planted "La Questa", a 40 acre vineyard in the hills above Woodside. The cuttings are said to have been sourced from Chateau Margaux in France. Eventually Rixford died and his sons didn't have the knowledge or vision to maintain the business. For a while the vineyard was managed by Rusty Ray, before finally being subdivided and used for housing. Of those original 40 acres around one acre still exists today, in the gardens of a couple of houses. They may be the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines in the USA.

The vines were rediscovered by Bob Groetzinger in 1957. His friend Bob Mullen began producing wine from them in 1960 as hobby. The following year Bob Mullen purchased a nearby property, and Woodside Vineyards was bonded in 1963.

Today the winery still manages that first acre and has added 16 or so more recently planted acres that it owns or manages around the town of Woodside. Production is up to about 2,000 cases. The winery makes three Cabernets, labelled Kings Mountain, Estate and - in good years - La Questa, which is sourced exclusively from that single acre.

The 2004 Kings Mountain is a rich, ripe Cabernet, made with grapes from other local vineyards that the winery manages. Lots of blackcurrant, not too much oak, soft tannins. Of the three it's the one that's intended to be drunk in the near term, and it's drinking really well right now. The 2004 is now sold out at the winery; the 2005 is priced at $22 a bottle, which I think is very good value.

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