Livermore Tasting Trip

Shane's Notes

Jen and I headed to Livermore on Saturday. We didn’t take any notes, so I will just briefly give our impressions of some of the wines we tasted (such as “we had too many malolacted Chardonnays”). We visited the following wineries – Concannon, Tamas, Kent, La Rochelle, Cedar Mountain, Wente and Retzlaff.

Believe it or not, the winner was Concannon. Three of their reserve wines – the 2003 Petite Syrah, the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2003 Malbec were all very well done. They had good varietal flavor and were not over oaked. Each was almost interesting and almost worth the price. We even bought a bottle of the Malbec (sourced from Napa). After Concannon, the good wines were far and few between. We had really liked the wines from Kent last time but found them less distinctive this time. Jen loves their Merrillie Chardonnay (despite the malolactic), but I was less impressed. We did the Pinot tasting at La Rochelle,. All their grapes were sourced from either the Santa Lucia Highlands or the outlying areas. The first two (from San Vincente) were mediocre and the next two were decent – including one sourced from Gary’s vineyard. It was mildly interesting, but Pinots sourced from this prime region should be more than mildly interesting, especially for $75.

At Tamas, we both enjoyed the Barbera. At Cedar Mountain, they make a pretty good Late Bottled Vintage “Port.” It was made from the Portuguese varietals and does have some decent, port flavors. The price is a little steep at $25 a bottle but the people at the winery were so nice that we bought it anyway. The rest of the wineries really aren’t worth mentioning.