Dover Canyon Winery

Customer Comments and Reviews

I'd like to share some recent comments from our fans and customers.  Thank you so much!

From Rich Lappo in San Diego:

"Just wanted to pass along some props.  We had our monthly foodie cook-fest Saturday night.  One of the guests this time was a chef-friend that originally trained and worked New Orleans, so he obviously knows his stuff! Among other things, I brought a bottle of the 2005 Tre Noce.  There were several "heavyweight" wines during the evening including a 1999 Brunello di Montalcino,  2000 Chateauneuf du Pape, and a 2000 Barolo.  Our chef friend proclaimed the Tre Noce his wine of the night and praised it effusively.  It WAS really good!  Great combination of black raspberry and pepper with a nice but not overpowering heft to it."

From John Moon in Honolulu:

"Just thought I would tell you that last nite my friend Harry opened a 2003 Dover Hansen's Vineyard cab and it was just fabulous!  Still wonderfully earthy and spicy with a beautiful smoky finish...thank you!"

 

February Notes and Reviews

Hits for Inside a Wine Scam :

Mary Baker, Winiarski Detektyw  (Poland)  That's a pretty cool link.  You can call me "Winnie".

Deregulator, written by our customer and friend Rick Henderson, editorial writer for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado.

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Damn Good Wine reviews the Dover Canyon 2001 Barbera, 2001 Syrah DeBro Vineyard and 2001 Fralich Vineyard (syrah/zinfandel blend):

"It was Sunday late afternoon and I wasn’t sure what I was in the mood for, but it was definitely a big red. I blew the dust off a couple racks downstairs and grabbed a Dover Canyon Winery Barbera. Wait… the dust is leaving my brain and the distant past is racing back. I remembered that the good folks at Dover Canyon sent us the Barbara to taste. Sounds fair enough; not a bad recollection.

So let’s begin the tasting. The only problem is that it’s now 2008 and the Barbera was a 2001 vintage. Better late than never guys? I was really enjoying this Paso Robles Barbera. It’s powerful, but not overpowering -- fruit on the nose, lots of dark berry flavor, long finish. The color is a dark burgundy. It’s full bodied and very well balanced . . . " Read more here . . .

A Viognier Valentine: 2001 "The Terraces" Dessert Viognier

Many people decline to sample a dessert wine.  "Oh no," they say, "I don't like dessert wines."

"Oh," we say.  "Well, we are offering tastes of our white chocolate and macadamia nut brownies with our 2001 Dessert Viognier."  And then we hold up the golden-white morsels on a glass plate of deep blue. 

It's amazing what people will do for a brownie . . .

In our tasting room, we are currently offering tastes of our 2001 Dessert Viognier, "The Terraces".  This light dessert viognier was picked in September of 2001 and features aromas of banana, pear and lemon candy followed by flavors of pear tart, vanilla and nutmeg.  The fruit is from Chequera Vineyard's steep, terraced hillside, which produced under 1 ton per acre in 2001.  Bottle age has mellowed the original exotic fruit into a luscious sweet, bottled in a slender 350 ml bottle.

We developed this recipe specifically for The Terraces, but I'm sure these golden brownies will work with other dessert whites and even late harvest zins or port-style wines. 

So this is our Valentine to you.  Please feel free to copy and share our recipe for these scrumptious blond dessert brownies . . .

Robert Parker Fall Reviews

A recent issue of The Wine Advocate included some nice reviews of some of our 2005 releases.  "Many tasty offerings have emerged from Dover Canyon, one of the wineries situated along Vineyard Drive, Paso Robles’ most scenic wine road," says Parker.

"The complex 2005 White Bone is a blend of 67% Viognier and 33% Roussanne. Attractive floral, orange rind, marmalade, honeysuckle, and litchi nut characteristics emerge from this medium to full-bodied, exotic effort. Good acidity and pure fruit are also found in this dry white, which should drink beautifully with substantially flavored fish or poultry dishes." 

"The 2005 Viognier Hansen Vineyard possesses abundant amounts of apricot, peach, litchi, and pineapple notes, an excellent texture, medium body, beautiful fruit, and good underlying acidity." 

"The 2005 Roussanne Starr Ranch exhibits a honeyed, rose oil, litchi nut-scented bouquet, medium to full body, good depth as well as richness, and a subtle touch of oak. Drink all three of these white wines over the next 1-2 years."

"The 2005 Syrah Starr Ranch reveals notes of graphite, licorice, crushed rocks, spring flowers, and black fruits. Soft, medium-bodied, and elegant, it is built more on finesse and seamlessness than on power and concentration. Consume it over the next 4-5 years. In a blind tasting, it could easily be mistaken for a French St.-Joseph." 

Vinography: Dover Canyon 2004 Alto Pomar

Our thanks to wine writer Alder Yarrow for featuring Dover Canyon on his award winning blog, Vinography:

"Some wineries are small because they are new. Some wineries are small because they simply can't be successful enough to get any bigger. And then there are some wineries that are small by choice. Small because that is the only size that makes sense to them. Such wineries are some of my favorites because they are usually the product of interesting people with interesting stories, strong feelings and philosophies, and a commitment to some specific vision for what wine is.

Oh yeah. Sometimes they also make great wines . . . "

Of the 2004 Alto Pomar, Alder says:

"Dark garnet in the glass, this wine has a funky, distinctive nose of aromas that bounce between old socks, barnyard, and saddle leather. In the mouth it is smooth on the tongue with juicy flavors that have the spiciness of sandalwood incense and a plummy fruit quality that morphs to cassis as the wine heads towards a nice finish. This is an individualistic wine with something to say, and most will find the conversation very pleasing. I'd be particularly interested in seeing how this wine ages. "

Read the entire article here.

"If you want to know what makes small wineries so special, I've come across few such articulate explanations as theirs."

Wine Camp: Dover Canyon Syrah is "Big, Brawny and Delicious"

Craig Camp, author of the Wine Camp blog and a wine writer whom I greatly admire, has just reviewed our 2004 Dover Canyon Syrah, Jimmy's Vineyard.  Craig lived in Europe and covered the Italian wine scene in his well-regarded online publication, VinoCibo.  Craig was also named as one of the top wine blog authors by Food and Wine Magazine.

"Big wines are not my favorites, but sometimes they just seem to work. Such a wine is the richly seductive 2004 Dover Canyon Winery Syrah, Jimmy’s Vineyard, Paso Robles. I expected only my palate to be blown away, but it was me that was blown away instead. This wine is just concentrated delicious.

Make no mistake, this is a big wine for big food, but at the same time it maintains its balance perfectly as it is structured more on its acids than its alcohol. Sure it is loaded with big forward fruit, but what beautiful fruit it is - no simple fruit bomb here. While there is plenty of cassis throughout this wine, it is not the simple sweet cheap liqueur flavors you usually find in California syrah, but an electric, thoroughly bittersweet cassis essence that has the biting bitter sweetness of real black currants.

I matched this big beauty with a prime ribeye, well crusted with coarsely ground tellicherry peppercorns, grilled rare and served drizzled with black truffle olive oil. A drop or bite was not left.

Wines like this transcend personal preferences. They are so distinctive and so well made that if you have any passion for wine at all you can’t help but to love them."

Spring 2007 Wine Club Selections

Our next wine club shipment will begin in late March! 

Packages will be shipping at regular intervals throughout April and May, and we will have the new releases ready for pick up during the Paso Robles Zinfandel Festival March 16-18.  We'll be serving lavender-rubbed lambsicles and saffron-infused bouillabaisse to go with our spring releases.

If we are shipping your wine, please let us know in advance if you have any changes or special requests. 

• 2005 Tre Noce   $36    ( 67% Zinfandel, 33% Syrah)

Our first 100% estate bottling, this is a blend of our head-trained, dryfarmed zinfandel, and stress-irrigated syrah, all farmed organically and sustainably.  "Tre Noce" is Italian for Three Nuts.  And no, this does not refer to Dan--it's in honor of the three walnut trees still standing in the vineyard. 

• 2005 Old Vine Zinfandel,  Benito Dusi Vineyard   $27

If you are not already familiar with our unique Old Vine Zinfandel from this 80-year-old vineyard, please check out our previous posts and accolades:  Wine Reviews, Robert Parker Reviews, San Francisco Chronicle Zinfandel Tasting  and A Visit With Benito Dusi.  This is a briar and black pepper style zinfandel--a favorite among those who prefer a more classic style of zinfandel.

• 2005 Syrah, Starr Ranch  $32

Always a favorite release among wine club members, we are pleased to present another fine vintage from Starr Ranch, a high elevation vineyard in the Adelaida Hills.  Our 2004 release got a "wow" review by Appellation America. 

Please send your address and credit card changes now!

We will also have very limited quantities of:

• 2005 Zinfandel Reserve    $32   ( 75% Zinfandel, 25% Petite Sirah)

Aromas of raspberries, blueberries, and a whiff of campfire smoke lead into deeper, woodsy flavors of  black raspberries, sage and licorice in this rich, expressive release from west Paso Robles.    Only 4 barrels produced.

• 2005 Carmenere, Colbert Vineyard   $36   

The first 100% bottling of this 'forgotten Bordeaux' variety in Paso Robles, and possibly the United States.  Carmenere was originally considered one of the six classic Bordeaux varieties.  It disappeared from France entirely and was considered extinct until genetic testing identified vines in Chile as carmenere.  Paso grower Denny Colbert has devoted his entire vineyard to this gentle giant.  Plum, black cherry, chocolate and nutmeg dominate in an inky hued wine with soft, merlot-like tannins.  Only 50 cases produced.

Members who selected the Rare, Reserve & Estate optional shipment will receive these wines in late March:

• 2 bottles of 2005 Zinfandel Reserve and
• 1 bottle of 2005 Carmenere

For more information on our wine club and mailing list, please visit our website.  To order, use our printable order form.  If you have questions about shipping and long-term holds, please glance at our Wine Shipping and Storage Policy, or email your questions to us at dovercanyon@tcsn.net.

Customer Tasting Notes: 2000s

Don Ostergard (Carlsbad , Calif.) sent us these notes on the 2000 Menage:

"I just had a bottle of your 2000 Menage with my wife for our Valentine's dinner (it goes well with Alaskan King Crab and artichokes). I purchased the bottle last September . . . It was the first time we had visited your place and left with three cases between four couples. As a proud owner of one of those cases, I am ashamed to admit that the case I had purchased contained only one bottle of the aforementioned wine. I need more - the effect it had on my wife was... well you get the picture. Thank you and keep up the great work."

The 2000 Menage is a Bordeaux-style blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot from Cougar Ridge Vineyard, a limestone and shale vineyard with steep slopes at 1600’ elevation in northwest Paso Robles. Cabernet franc from De Rose Vineyard in Cienega Valley was the only “outside” fruit we have ever purchased—due to the intensity of color and flavor from this historic, old vine vineyard and winery on an earthquake fault near Santa Cruz. Only 5 barrels produced.

Jon Schwindt (San Diego, Calif.) wrote:

"Sorry to be so long in firing off my thanks for a wonderful contribution to our holiday repast. First a brief background: As I assume is the case with many of your devotees, we were introduced to your wines through the Cujo Zinfandel. We are relatively frequent customers at Wine Steals in San Diego, and they are big boosters of this wine. On a trip to Paso Robles this past summer we visited the tasting room, and of course proceeded to join the wine club after sampling the many other extremely tasty wines therein. We made a return visit in October and acquired a bottle of the 2000 Syrah. I really don’t remember buying it, but I know I must have had a good reason. Short story long, I noticed the bottle in the back of my storage unit in early December and decided that I would make it our centerpiece wine for the pork rib roast I was planning for Christmas Eve. I checked your website under cellaring, and could find no mention of it there. At the time I considered emailing to ask for your recommendation/assurance, but I just decided to fall back on the “must have had a good reason” (il)logic. I am certainly glad that I did, the wine was everything I anticipated and then some. Wonderful deep flavors that complemented the menu superbly--roasted yams with fennel, sweet onion and apple, cauliflower gratin, brussels with roasted chestnuts and pancetta. Easily one of the best pairings in which I have had the pleasure of partaking."

The 2000 Syrah was produced from two west Paso Robles vineyards, both in the Templeton Gap microclimate.   Chequera Vineyard syrah was fermented with 10% whole-cluster Mourvedre and native yeast, in small open top fermentors. Jimmy’s Vineyard was also fermented in small open tops, but with a Rhône isolate yeast. These lots were punched down by hand several times daily, racked by gravity,  aged for 18 months in new French and American oak, and bottled unfined and unfiltered.  Only 13.4% alcohol.

Vintage 2000 was our El Nino harvest, so the syrah struggled for ripeness, and was picked with fairly high acidity.  The wines produced that year are lighter in color and leaner in flavor than our usual releases, but they also exhibit more of the gravel, loam, leather and spice characteristics typical of west Paso Robles, which makes them exciting and unique.  For that reason, we held back one pallet each of these wines for later release.  With bottle age, the wines have become more integrated and complex, and are an interesting demonstration in how acidity is integral to keeping a wine youthful.  Nevertheless, 2000 was a difficult vintage and we do not feel these wines will improve much after 2007, so if you have some 2000 Dover Canyon in your cellar, this year is the perfect time to open them!

Winery Tasting Notes: 1997

As our annual Superbowl Party wound down, we invited a guest to select some bottles from our cellar.  In honor of Dover Canyon's 10th anniversary in January, he chose two bottles from our 1997 vintage.

The 1997 Merlot Reserve still had beautiful acidity--aroma of tart cherry, brioche and leather, sage; flavors of black cherry, pie cherry, and strawberry.  Upon opening it was very jammy with a bright streak of acidity and a long finish.  The second evening we had the remainder of the bottle with braised lamb shanks, and the wine still had a 20 second finish.  This wine is unfiltered and a gentle decanting is recommended.

The 1997 Syrah was also surprising.  This unfiltered wine is a blend of two vineyards--23% from Chequera Vineyard and 77% from Fralich Vineyard, both in the Templeton Gap region of Paso Robles.  A luscious presentation of candied cherry, cinnamon, leather and chocolate, buoyed by bright acidity.  The second day the wine did not show quite as well--the fruit was fading, leaving a hollow space between the dark, leathery flavors and the acidity, but it was still delicious, and I finished off the last glass while working on my computer.

For recommended drinking windows on our older vintages and library releases, visit our Cellaring Recommendations.

Eat Dirt, Drink Bone

In wine writer Natalie MacLean's new book, Red, White and Drunk All Over, she describes a visit to Chequera Vineyard in Paso Robles with Randall Grahm's (Bonny Doon) roving vineyard manager, Nicole Walsh.

Walsh kneels and digs her fingers into the soil.  "Smell this," she says.  I squat down beside her and put my nose to the handful.  The rich dirt has a voluptuous savory-sweet aroma.  I have a strange craving to eat it.  I can almost feel the ground beneath me seething with microorganisms groping in the dark. 

Fortunately, Dover Canyon fans can taste the same sweet-savory dirt in our far more tasty White Bone, a blend of viognier and roussanne.  (Chequera viognier is about 50% of the blend). We have been buying viognier from Chequera Vineyard since 1996.  For those of you familiar with Highway 46 West, Chequera (Spanish for 'checkbook') is the steeply terraced vineyard adjacent to Sycamore Herb Farm, nestled in the verdant and wind-swept Templeton Gap.

The name "White Bone' is a double entendre, referring obliquely to our red wine logo, a tongue-lolling St. Bernard, but also to the ancient seabed and calcium-rich soils studded with marine fossils that comprise our vineyard soils, and the soils of our source vineyards. 

Unlike some viognier vineyards, which lean heavily toward flavors of ripe pineapple and island fruits, the Chequera fruit is consistently lighter in color, creamy in texture, and very floral.  In our blending trials for the 2005 vintage, we tasted each wine on its own and in various combinations.  Roussanne as a varietal has a heavy unctuous texture and a spectrum of melon flavors; it is heavy and gentle on the palate.  In the 2005 'White Bone' the floral creaminess of the Chequera vineyard, combined with the rich texture and melon profile of the roussanne creates a crisp white blend with toned down viognier ebulliance and brighter melon flavors, like zipping a little Meyer lemon juice over a honeydew melon.

So don't eat dirt . . . just savor a White Bone.