Going Local: Whitcraft Winery

I have to admit, sometimes local wines can be surprisingly good.

I was at my old friend Drake Whitcraft's winery today tasting his current releases. This is what I tasted and what I think:

2009 Kick-On Ranch Chardonnay: Full malo, part neutral barrel, part stainless, this is a very pretty chard. Chablis-like with lean, citrus flavors and good acidity.

2009 Olivos del Mar Vineyard Chardonnay: Single Vineyard and technically a "monopole" for Drake, as he takes all the fruit. This wine has a very distinct nose, very close to many Puligny-Montrachet wines I have tasted, say on the high-quality village or even Premiere Cru level (Drake adroitly pointing out the smell of high-quality tuna-fish, a signature aspect of great Puligny wines). Also full malo, with no new oak, in the mouth this wine has a beautiful core of minerality that sets it apart from most other local Chards I've tasted. Weight and viscosity leads one to believe that this wine is not a creature of the Central Coast, but of somewhere greater.

2007 Morning Dew Ranch "FI" Pinot Noir: Racy acidity, this one. I think most Pinot drinkers without a lot of experience drinking French Pinot will find this wine odd. I found it super. It reminds me of the bracing acid profile of the 02 or 07 vintage in Burgundy, more specifically of a Village level Aloxe-Corton. This is definitely not a wine to be compared with wines of the Cotes du Nuits. That said, it is beautiful in it's awkwardness. It needs a strong fish like Salmon or some kind of cured meat to pair with...then it reveals it's beauty.

2007 Melville Vineyard Pinot Noir: This wine is a sexy, seductive beast. Very broad, cherry liqueur-like fruit. A gorgeous expression of local Pinot Noir.

2008 Addamo Vineyards Grenache: 100% Grenache. No topping off with Syrah (a rarity among local Grenache producers, not to mention Pinot producers...), picked at optimal ripeness. Consequently this wine actually looks like, smells like, tastes like, what a Grenache SHOULD look, smell, taste like. Drake even mentioned that he had second guessed this beautiful wine "because it didn't look like everyone elses. I thought I screwed it up." In reality, this wine has a gorgeous perfume of bright red fruit and a pectin, grapefruit like smell and freshness to it that I have only had in two other wines--one of which no longer exists, the other, The wines of Chateau Rayas in the Southern Rhone (the only Chateauneuf du Pape producer to make a 100% Grenache wine). This was my favorite wine of the afternoon.

2007 Clover Creek Syrah: I agreed with Drake, this Syrah is similar to the Syrah's typical of Crozes-Hermitage...which can be off-putting to some for their distinct white and black pepper smells and flavors. But I am a fan, especially when made with balance and freshness. Pretty blue and black fruit, chewy in the mouth. It's everything you want from what seems to me to be a pretty little cool-climate Syrah.

Drake is keeping it real with his wines, making true vins du terroir on the Central Coast. We'll be carrying a selection of his wines at La Tour (under the "Friends" exception), and I encourage everyone to make it in and try them when they're offered by the glass.