A Phenomenal, Not-So-Well-Known-But-Outstanding Mendocino Gem: Navarro Vineyards

So I start the year with an end...an end to the series on California wineries. I've enjoyed delving into Sonoma and Napa, but I'm also looking forward to returning on the never ending exploration of wines around the world. I give total props to those who blog exclusively on Cali, but I personally have too much wine A.D.D. and travel wanderlust to stay committed to one area (plus, I really love dorking out on the history of wine regions and although I adore our winelands in the US, the story is short and not so dramatic. I want the drama!).

Today we end with a real bang and talk about a phenomenal, not-so-well-known-but-outstanding gem in Mendocino: Navarro Vineyards.

Mendocino is a large area just north of Sonoma. It has a lot of characteristics that I love in a wine region. For starters, it's super green. According to the Mendocino Winegrape and Wine Commission, 28% of the grapes grown are either organic or biodynamic (check out my post on what this means if you are interested!). 71% of the vineyards are Fish Friendly (meaning they don't have runoff into streams and rivers, disturbing habitats). The area is the home of the first organic winery and the first Biodynamic winery in the US (both titles go to Frey Vineyards). One-third of all organic grapes grown in California are from Mendocino. Pretty damn good if you ask me.

Another plus for Mendocino is the diversity of the area. There are two main regions and they each produce vastly different wine types because they have vastly different climates. A mountain range divides the area into the cool, maritime climate of the west and the hotter more continental climate of the east. From a wine perspective, it may as well be two completely different areas of the world given the weather conditions.

Lots of wine is grown in the hot eastern area, but much of the praise for Mendocino goes to it's western flank where the fog off the Navarro River and from the Pacific Ocean creates a cool climate that produces amazing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and even (rare for Cali) Gewurztraminer and Riesling, which require really cold climates to thrive and taste good.

Within the western area is the most famous AVA (American Viticultural Area), Anderson Valley. It's known for being one of the coolest areas in California for winegrape growing and this place is not some crap area. The very esteemed and famous Louis Roederer (think Cristal) looked for decades to find a place in California with a climate similar enough to Champagne to warrant investment. Whereas some of the House's counterparts sought to make a go of it in the cool Carneros region in southern Napa/Sonoma (it spans both regions), Roederer planted a flag firmly in Anderson Valley, and others followed (I would have reviewed Roederer's wines, but they were closed when we swung by!).

If I haven't peaked your interest in discovering a little about Mendocino, I'll say one more thing. This area is like what Sonoma and Napa were like 25 or 30 years ago. It consists mainly of family farmers who make wine for the love of the land and of the juice. Although you can still find this in Sonoma (and I have posted plenty of examples) and (sometimes) Napa, Mendocino wineries seem less concerned with financial targets and more concerned with farming. And the wines are an amazing value.

I happened upon Navarro Vineyards years ago on my first trip to wine country. When I visited tasting rooms in Sonoma I asked every person that I thought knew a little something about wine what their favorite winery was, and Navarro came up about 3 or 4 times in 8 wineries. I thought it would be all hype, but there's something to all this referral business!

Navarro is a family operation that has been around since 1974. As they say on their site, you won't find them in your local wine shop (unless you live in California) but their direct-to-consumer prices are so competitive that if you're interested in trying their wines, it's not such a risky proposition to order a few bottles. And if my opinion means anything, I think the wines are freaking amazing.

On our visit, I felt like I was hanging out with friends -- the tasting room staff is smart and casual and the experience was so personal. Thanks to Christopher and Rose! I was trying to limit the number of wines I tasted, but I felt like a kid in a candy store and left with 8 bottles and a stack full of wine notes. Given that, I'm going to do a quick rundown of each wine, not my regular detail, and give you the gist of how amazing each was...

Wine 1: 2008 Pinot Gris, Anderson Valley
Price: $19
Color: This wine had no skin contact and no barrel aging, so it was nearly colorless. It looked like water!
Smell: The nose was so fragrant -- like nectarines, orange blossoms, yellow apples and white flowers with a little bit of almond.
Taste: It was super fruit forward but also really dry. A perfect blend of nectarine, sour apple, and a touch of almond nuttiness with a snappy clean finish.
Drink or down the sink?: Drink. An absolutely delicious wine. Fruity but still restrained. I loved it.

Wine 2: 2008 Gewurztraminer, Estate Bottled
Price: $19
Color: It was like the Pinot Gris in that the wine was pale and nearly colorless. It had a little meat on the legs due to higher alcohol, but not a rich gold like many Gewurztraminers.
Smell: Typical for Gewurz, the wine was like a bowl of ripe peaches but in a bath of spicy orange tea. The wine also smelled like Chinese lychee too.
Taste: WOW! A lush yet dry wine, it was like apples, lime, pineapple, and lychee. It had very low acid but wasn't flabby -- just super silky. I could sip this all day long.
Drink or down the sink?: I remembered this as the best US Gewurztraminers I've ever had. It retains the crown. Outstanding wine. Outstanding.

Wine 3: 2009 Riesling, Anderson Valley
Price: $18
Color: Like the Pinot Gris and the Gewurztraminer, the lack of skin contact goes a long way. This wine was colorless.
Smell: This wasn't a real blockbuster. Slight pear and apple aromas were present, but not much else.
Taste: This is a very dry Riesling, which I loved. It was simple -- those pear and apple aromas were fresh and clean in my mouth. There was a slight mineral tang and good acid too.
Drink or down the sink?: Drink. I love a dry Riesling and this is a great one for sipping. It would be terrific with spicy Chinese or Thai for sure.

Wine 4: 2007 Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
Price: $19
Color: Just the color I like to see in a Pinot -- a light garnet to pinkish color, but not dark and rich. Dark Pinot Noir scares me -- it means that it's overripe or the winemaker has extracted too much color from the skin...probably with some bitter tannins for good measure.
Smell: Totally what I'd expect from a Pinot Noir -- a combination of fresh berries and dirt with a touch of rock and minerals. This tasted like raspberries and cherries ground up in some gravel -- in a good way.
Taste: This wine was bone dry so I felt you could really taste the berry flavors clearly and how they were complemented by the mineral quality. The lack of oak on the wine made the fruit the star here.
Drink or down the sink?: Drink. A great wine if you want to taste what the Pinot Noir grape *really* tastes like.

Wine 4: 2007 Pinot Noir Methode a l'Ancienne (85% estate grown fruit)*
Price: $29
Color: This was a rich ruby color, but still pink and light -- still the right color for Pinot in my opinion.
Smell: Similar to the first Pinot but with the berry and cherry flavors serving as a backbone to the richer dirt and dusty road characters. This was a DIRTY smelling wine.
Taste: Like the smell, there was a less pronounced berry flavor and more flavors from the soil (dirt) and light oak treatment (about 1/3 of the juice went into new French oak barrels, which gives the flavors I'm about to describe). From the oak, caramel, cloves, and a light smokiness flowed through the wine giving it lots of complexity.
Drink or down the sink?: I love me a dirty wine. This was unbelievably good. Not overdone, not too fruity, and lots of complex earthy flavors. This is why I love Navarro.

*Note: For comparison, we also tried the 2006 version of this wine. It was completely different! More like rhubarb, brown sugar, cinnamon, and iron than the smoky, mineral quality of the 2007, it was like trying a wine from a different producer and from a different place. Still delicious, but I preferred the 2007.

Whereas the previous wines were all grown around Navarro in the cool Anderson Valley and on the east side of the mountain divide, the Zin and the Syrah were grown in the hotter Ukiah Valley, which provides the right amount of bright sun and heat to make these sun worshiping grapes ripen to their best potential.

Wine 5: 2007 Zinfandel, Mendocino
Price: $19
Color: Yup, this was from a sunny area. Plum colored with dark, rich ruby tones, I expected lots of flavor from a wine of this depth.
Smell: This was just dripping with ripe fruit. It smelled like blueberry preserves or plum pie. Dark berries and cinnamon -- who could ask for more?
Taste: Tasted just like it smelled, only fresher. I got the sensation of pulling a raspberry off the vine and eating it. It was like a blueberry coffee cake, only with pretty strong mouth-drying tannins and kind of high alcohol (14.7%).
Drink or down the sink?: This was the best Zinfandel I had while in California this time around. Even after touring the Dry Creek Valley, which is famous for Zin, and trying some outstanding examples, this little $19 bottle took the cake. Fierce.

Wine 6: 2005 Syrah, Mendocino
Price: $25
Color: This wine was showing it's age -- it had a dark ruby center, but it was lightening up to a brownish, garnet rim (remember, red wines lighten with age -- think of it like grey hair on people).
Smell: This was a little medicinal and very leathery. It smelled like wet potting soil too, and like minerals.
Taste: There was a nice sour cherry note with some coffee flavor and a smoky, toasted thing too. Although 5 years old, the wine was still raging with strong mouth-puckering tannins.
Drink or down the sink?: I can't endorse down the sink, but I will say this was my least favorite of the bunch. With the lineup as strong as it is from Navarro, it's hard to compete. This is a good, but not great wine...which is ok when it seems like everything else that comes out of this place is liquid joy!

Thanks to Navarro for being down to earth, caring about wine so much, and making affordable juice for us all to love. I highly encourage a visit up Rte 128 to their Philo tasting room -- your wallet will be lighter for the trip, but your palate richer for the experience!!!