Shenandoah Winery: Bray Vineyards

Last Friday I wrote about my recent trip to the Shenandoah AVA in the Sierra foothills of Amador County. Another winery I visited that day was Bray Vineyards. Bray Vineyards was started in 1996 when the land was purchased from an estate. The property sits on 50 acres of rolling hills ranging in elevation from 1100 feet to 1300 feet. The soil is heavy with decomposed granite and is very rocky in places. Bray Vineyards is one of the first wineries in the area if you are arriving from the south. It definitely was my favorite.

I got to meet wine maker John Hoddy. He poured for me and spent time talking about the wines and grapes. John started out making wine at home for fun. After a while he took winemaking classes from UC Davis extension. He got more experience working with local winemakers during harvest and finally started working with Bray in 2004.

What really impressed me about John were his friendliness and his attitude towards wine. If I asked a question about a flavor of a wine I tasted, he’d sample the wine and make comments. He took the time to explain about the grapes they were growing and gave me some history behind their chooses at the winery.

Bray Vineyards grows several grapes that the Shenandoah appellation is know for, like Zinfandel and Petite Sirah. They produce several nice wines from these grapes. But what really impressed me was the variety of grapes, especially Portuguese varietals. They grow Touriga, Tinto Cao, Souzao and Alvarelhao to make their own Vinho Tinto (a great earthy example with medium mouth feel and nice tart tannins.) They even have a white from Verdelho. Other grapes they grow are Sangiovese, Barbera, Black Muscat and Primitivo. Another of the favorites I tasted that day was their Tempranillo (it had faint fruit, light tannins and the flavor was very good.)

For this wine geek, their array of grapes was awesome. I don’t know if John Hoddy is pouring every day for visitors, but if you get a chance to talk with him it will be the highlight of your visit to the Shenandoah Valley.

I definitely want to make a trip back soon to buy some of the other wines I tried that day. According to the web site, many of their wines can be found in stores local to Sacramento (see their list.) However, their more obscure varietals like the ones from Portuguese grapes are available only on site. I bought one of them on my visit, the Verdelho.

Verdelho is both a grape and a style of Madeira, a wine from the Madeira Island off the coast of Portugal. The heavy wines of Madeira go through a process where the wines are fortified and then oxidized slowly over time. Verdelho Madeira is between off-dry and sweet, depending upon the age of the wine.

Still wines made from the Verdelho in Portugal in the Duoro Valley can be off dry and bland. But when grown in hotter regions like Australia or the Shenandoah Valley they are light and citrus like the one I had. I couldn’t decide if it was more citrus or peachy. The wine was a lot like a Gavi in both aroma and taste. It has a light mouth feel and light tannins. The first flavor was peach as the wine hit my tongue, but then it changed. This wine is a good sipper all by itself but it would probably be good with seafood or Asian dishes. (This grape is # 53 on my way to 100 grapes.)

Tasting Notes:

2007 Bray Verdelho (13.9% alcohol, $16.00)

Color:  Light yellow

Aroma:  Peach or citrus

Taste:  Like Gavi, peach at first taste then it changes. Light mouth feel

Finish:  Faint tannins with pleasant aftertaste

Story Winery: The Mission Grape

I had a great trip last Friday visiting several wineries in California's Shenandoah Valley. Virginia has the more famous Shenandoah Valley, but Zinfandel has helped put California's on the map. According to Appelations America, it was a group from Virginia that first started making wine here during the Gold Rush. Though the valley produced wine in the late 1800s, it wasn't until the 1980s that a wine boom came to the area. The AVA, which covers parts of Amador and El Dorado counties, spreads over 10,000 acres, with over 2,000 acres under vine. There are now 16 local wineries, while many of the large California producers continue to access Shenandoah Valley grapes on contract.

Driving through the area was beautiful. It was a spring like day with trees budding, especially cherry trees and Bradford pear trees both with their white blossoms contrasting the dark fields of sleeping grapevines. Dafodils had sprung up lining the winery roads, their white and yellow heads craning to catch the warming sunlight. I didn't see any buds on the grapevines, but I'm sure they are almost ready to wake up!

Though Zinfandel is what the Shenandoah Valley is known for the Mission grape has been here just as long. This grape may have been the first grape grown for wine production in California. Spanish missionaries grew the grape as part of their attempt to be self sufficient. Wine was an important part of the mass and the Mission grape supplied it. The source of the Mission grape is unclear. Dr. Harold Olmo of the UCD Viticulture and Enology Department has a theory that the Mission grape is "a hybrid of Spanish Vinifera and the wild grapes of California (Olmo and Koyama, 31-41).

Whatever its history, it is still grown in some fields in the Shenandoah Valley. Deaver Winery in Plymouth had five acres of grapes dating from about 1855 were removed in 1997 due to old age. Around World War I, they gave some of the Mission stock to Story Winery who grafted it onto Zinfandel. Story still has 300 acres of Mission that it uses to produce a dry wine and a port style wine. This field is visible when you walk up to their tasting room. Off to the right, you see a slope containing some large, gnarly vines. They are planted on a south facing slope that cascades down a hill. If you could see their roots, they would probably fill the hill. Story Winery practices "dry farming" where they water new vines for only the first two years of their life. After that, they vines have to depend on rainfall and the water table.

The Story Winery Mission was my first sample of this wine. In color, it was light like a Pinot Noir. In flavor, it was earthy with lots of fruit, though not sweet. It almost tasted like a Zinfandel without the pepperiness. From what I had heard about Mission wine, I was surprised that I liked the Story Mission so much. I was expecting a weak, sour wine, but this was an interesting wine that would probably match with the same foods that Zinfandel does. If you ever have a chance to visit Story Winery you'll be greeted by very friendly tasting room staff. Though the winery is small and at the end of a long road, it seems to be a popular place. Their wine and their history make it that way.