#mantonvalley

Showing SO beautiful. Incredible perfume, harsh tobacco on the tongue, fruit definitely fading, acid and structure complimentary to it. . . . #mantonvalleyAVA #mantonvalley #tehamacounty #manton #sierrafoothillswine #wine #winelovers #PetiteSirah #wineblog #volcano #mtlassen (at Mt Tehama Winery) https://www.instagram.com/p/B45skcbHAGI/?igshid=esvf14an4epy

Okay all you label snobs you ready for this one? Yeah yeah yeah I know it's glossy it's got a dumb name it's got a flower on it and kind of a bad font too, but it's GOOD! Little tiny place up right above the 3000' line in Manton Valley AVA (this wine was produced WAAAAY before they got their AVA). They got really fire damaged a few years ago and then the place went up for sale, then they moved to another spot lower on the hill and then they sold that and I think someone recently bought it who isn't making wine. There's your soap opera. Manton has a grape-growing history back into the early 70's as contract growers for Napa & Sonoma discovered the micro climate and ridiculous volcanic soil. Manton Valley sits at the base of Mt. Lassen and the entire thing lays in the direct spit-path of Mt. Tehama's last eruption. I've had pinots 3X this price and pedigree not taste this well at 10 years. The color needs no description, and the nose is clean and spicy, no rubber band or toasted almond, fairly bright cherry and all kinds of floral and peat. Absolutely gorgeous smelling. In the mouth, cool, calm, and collected. Beautiful cherry bitter does a little sandpaper rasp on your tongue and throat after anesthetizing you with with a refreshing blast of sweet lubricating freshness. Steely in the middle, a stunning green-briar grows fervently under the supermodel-thin raspberry, becoming a totem of tannin carrying the long finish. I own one more bottle of the 09 and a few newer vintages and I wish I could share it with you or tell you where to buy it. And, like all undiscovered and out-of-the-way appellations, these were comfortably under 30 bucks. Just amazing. 2009 #shastadaisyvineyard (ONE POST!) #pinotnoir #mantonvalley #manton #SierraFoothills 13-4 (at Shasta Daisy Vineyard) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxq39eiHQKx/?igshid=1cdmkvuyjgx03

10 year old hand labeled Syrah grown in stupidly sparse dark red lava-filled volcanic soil at almost 3000 feet under the watchful eye of Mount Lassen. Many years before the Manton Valley AVA was granted. There's 4 or 5 wineries up there and if you do manage to find yourself in this area by all means get an appointment with Alain Teutschmann and his thick accent and tiny winery in the middle of his vineyard. But be sure and budget yourself a couple of hours because it's not a place you're going to get out of quickly. Gorgeous color--still dark ruby not bricking in the slightest, light sediment and a nose running burnt rubber and hot rocks over a baseline of Maraschino, bruised raspberry, and barley malt. This thing is gorgeous, bright and tight with some nice vegetal, astro-turf and cinnamon roll, it definitely has some tertiary but it's not running all tobacco and leather in the slightest. In the mouth, holy shit it's just flat-out straight pie cherry and acid. Big gobs of ridiculously tight fruit, not a hair of candy or aging. No fruit fading against tired nuances--no--everything is gorgeously jam-packed, deftly bitter, honed to a razor's edge and the big naked cherry and blackberry cruise through uninhibited. Wow. Glad I have a few more of these. I'm not going to tell you what they cost. 2009 MT TEHAMA WINERY #shiraz #syrah #mantonvalley #california 13-2 #libbeyglass (No. There's no instagram. www.mtwinery.com ) (at Mount Tehama Winery) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv0UbK-Ai88/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=lotkql6tu6zs

#winewednesday is about education so how about a completely new and unknown AVA?!? Since the late 70's #Mantonvalley up in the shadow of #mtlassen has produced wines rivaling the typical #sierrafoothillswineries of Amador, El Dorado, and Calaveras. And they can actually grow Pinot! Perfect color, thin bright greenbriar fruit, boiled hotdogs and tigerlilies, chalky and umber as the bottomless volcanic its grown in. This is up about 3000ft and I tend to smell and feel the conifer forest in the middle and tannin. A lovely pinot. Better than most Paso's. There's 10 or 15 wineries up there now, go check them out! #nocal #tehama #tehamacounty #roadtrip