Cool Wine Tasting on a Wicked Hot Day in Livermore
Our first stop was Picazo Vineyards, which is family owned and operated by Jose and Pam Picazo. They focus on hand crafting extraordinary Bordeaux style varietals that express the best of the terroir. Their goals are to make small quantities of wine, with a high quality taste; make age worthy wine; and to focus on the vineyards. They are open by appointment only.
We called Mark Clarin, the winemaker, and set up a noon appointment with him at their Livermore location. We were introduced to Mark because he entered the following Haiku poem into our contest (we are accepting poems until 5/31). Who says poetry marketing doesn’t work???
I would like to know
Something about PICAZO
Lori can you help?
Mark’s background includes 25 years at Wente Vineyards, 3 years at Bonnie Doon Winery and a few enology classes at UC Davis. He has lived in Livermore most of his life. He joined Picazo in 2004 during their first vintage. They have 14 acres of Merlot grapes growing in the south hills of Livermore. Their first release in 2005 offered 350 cases. Each year they are yielding more grapes and they hope to top off at around 1,000 cases of their Estate Merlot per year.
In 2007 Picazo started to make a Cabernet Sauvignon as well as the Merlot up in Napa at Caldwell Vineyards. The ’07 vintage of Cabernet will be released in 2010 and they will only have 75 cases available. The following vintage will have 200 cases and they will work up to a max of 1,000 cases. At some point in the future they will have some Merlot and Cabernet blends to offer at both locations.
Mark makes a late harvest Merlot that he calls Ameris. After the bulk of the Merlot is picked during harvest Mark lets a certain amount of Merlot grapes hang on the vines as long as possible. He picks them just before the first rain and then lays them on an outdoor trellis that he covers in to protect from rain and birds. He then hand presses these grapes and ages them in a 16- gallon glass container. The wine when bottled is at 16% alcohol. It’s a very smooth, sweet, but not overpowering late harvest wine. I liked it with the chocolate, but I think it would be better with a cheesecake or some other light tasting dessert. It also is a great wine for sipping with a great book and a fire.
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After this wonderful experience we hopped into our cars that were probably 120 degrees since it was 100 outside and went down the hill to Tenuta Vineyards. Tenuta winery is very inviting. It is beautifully surrounded by the Livermore hills, has a nice large spacious tasting room with a good size bar. They offer tastes for $5.00 and $10.00. The Giants vs. Mets games was on the T.V. (Go Giants!) in the other part of the tasting room where they had couches to sit on and relax. They also had a nice selection of tables, chairs and umbrellas to provide shade outside. A few people dared sitting out there but most were inside. The people behind the counter were nice enough. I tried 3 different wines and enjoyed their Syrah. Rick Guaydacan, the winemaker, came out and spent a few minutes talking with us.
Tenuta Tasting Room
They have some very exciting programs there. One is a wine blending class where you get to blend your own wine and take it home. Another is cooking with the chef and at the end of the event you sit down to the dinner which is paired with Tenuta wine. Both would be nice events for a small group, party or corporate training event. They also have the room for outdoor weddings in their vineyards.
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After Tenuda the six of us drove for about 5 minutes and went to Eckert Estate Winery, which is very close to the Wente Vineyards Golf Course. We hadn’t been here since they opened about 10 years ago. They offered 3 wines to taste at no-charge. The first we tried was their ’07 Viognier. It was light, slightly tart and sweet and was more flavorful than many Viogniers I’ve tasted in the past. It was extremely refreshing in the heat. The second taste was 2007 Verdelho, which is a white grape originally from the Portuguese Azores and is grown in Lodi. This wine is more similar to a Fume Blanc but it has its own distinct flavor. Lastly we tasted their 2004 Mistura della Campagna which is an Italian field blend consisting of 9 different grape varietals. They offered some cheese, crackers and brownies to sample with the different wines.
Lori, Bill, Sandy, Luree and MaryBeth Picnicing at Eckert Estate
I would strongly suggest that if you want to try a different area for tasting wines you should go to the Livermore Valley. There are over 40 wineries to choose from and they offer everything from the large, well-established 125-year-old wineries such as; Wente Vineyards and Concannon, to the new ones that aren’t even open to the public without an appointment. Check out our listing of the different wineries on our ViciVino.com website.
Posted by Wine Travels With Lori at 5/19/2009 5:38 PM 
Categories: Livermore Valley, wine, grapes, picnics, wineries
Tags: grapes Tenuta Picazo Livermore Valley Eckert wineries picnics wine tasting Wente wine
Categories: Livermore Valley, wine, grapes, picnics, wineries
Tags: grapes Tenuta Picazo Livermore Valley Eckert wineries picnics wine tasting Wente wine
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