Preface by Skipstone

Short of tasting a wine and knowing its quality, a wines label is as good of a selling point as any.  If that wine has a good reputation, then your expectations reflect the promise the label represents.  Vineyard terroir and viticulture along with hands-on quality control at the winery are what ensures that quality reputation.

Second label wines were started in the 1800's in Bordeaux, France to utilize juice from younger vines in prominant vineyards, vines that weren't quite ready for prime time; so a second label was created to get that juice out to market.  It made sense for both the winery and for wine lovers of that product.  Wineries could profitably market this extra juice and their customers could claim a certain brush with fame, even if it was just the second best wine from an illustrious property.

Flash forward: Wineries in California and elsewhere see this phenomenon and decide to cash in.  New World second labels, while often very good quality wines in themselves, weren't necessarily from the same vineyards as their namesakes.  (If the truth be known, some of the namesakes marketed as the primary labels weren't exactly what they were advertised as either...but that's a different subject.)  Then, in time, as the second label gains repute and market share, it is usually spun off; that is, it's sold, usually to an industry giant and whatever juice had previously gone into the bottle would be completely different henceforth.

Preface by Skipstone is different.  It is an authentic second label.  As a matter of fact, as its name implies, Preface may more accurately be called an introductory wine to Skipstone's better wines.  But that declaration may even understate things.  According to one reviewer, Preface is already of similar quality to Skipstone's more pricey offerings.  In other words, Preface is a fine red wine appreciably ranked with its peers in the Skipstone stable.

Preface is a Bordeaux blend of 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 9% Malbec and 6% Cabernet Franc.  The cool 2018 vintage meant a longer hangtime for the grapes resulting in "full flavored ripenesss and enhanced aromatics."  Skipstone's organic estate fruit is harvested at night to retain freshness.

Philippe Melka is Skipstone's consulting winemaker.  His record for scoring 100 point critically acclaimed wines is second only to Thomas Rivers Brown in California.

The North Coast AVA

As often happens in the blogging business, you start out with one topic in mind only to be overtaken by something else that commands your attention.  This time we started with Dough Wines of St. Helena, California which have been a popular item here at the store.  The variety currently in stock is their North Coast Sauvignon Blanc which, if you go to doughwines.com, they advertise on the same page as their Napa Sauv Blanc at twice the price.  So the question looms - Is the Napa appellation wine really twice as good as the North Coast?

Before moving on from Dough, since we are so critical of winery websites, we should commend them for a wonderful site.  Without romanticizing or fictionalizing their story like so many sites, they just say what they are about and it seems to be as much about food as about wine.  The site is tastefully done if that doesn't sound too punny.  

The Dough winemaker says the juice for their North Coast Sauv Blanc comes from two vineyards; one a warmer locale, the other, distinctly cooler.  The fruit from the warmer is more tropical; the cooler one, crisper with an acidic structure.  Blending them together results in a "lively and refreshing, gooseberry/tropical" quaff.  

And that brings us more to the point - North Coast appellation wines are often blends from disparate places created by big business wineries requiring huge volumes to maintain their mass market shelf space.  Such wines are not vying for best-of-kind status.  They are making a commodity for the marketplace, wine that meets a respectable quality standard for the North Coast appellation.

The North Coast AVA (American Viticultural Area) is huge...as in three million acres huge!  It includes all of Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake Counties and parts of Solano and Marin Counties. It's shape is a diagonal rectangle measuring a hundred twenty miles north to south and fifty miles inland.  Any further into the interior and the climate is considerably hotter.  Its proximity to the ocean provides the cooling fog and breezes that define its existence.

More than half of all California wineries are located in the North Coast AVA.  Half of all functioning organic wineries are located there.  Fifty-four smaller AVAs are located within the North Coast AVA.  The Russian River Valley, Oakville, Alexander Valley are brand names in themselves but they could just identify themselves by the North Coast appellation.  But it is always an indicator of quality for a wine label to narrow down their location.  We know the three AVAs above are Napa/Sonoma locales.  Benmore Valley, Yorkville Highlands and Suisun Valley are three from elsewhere in North Coast.  Could they be comparable to Napa/Sonoma?

Gros Manseng

Gros Manseng is one of three grapes in the Manseng family.  Both Gros and Petit Manseng are white grapes; Manseng Noir is the red variety.  Petit Manseng is the most covetted of the three.  It obviously makes some fine white wine.  Manseng Noir has fallen out of favor and is consequently rarely planted nowadays. 

We're writing about Gros Manseng now because we got in a pretty good example of the type courtesy of Boutinot USA, one of the really neat importers providing us with good quality, everyday-priced wines.  UVA Non Grata means "unwanted grape" and it's the name attached to our Gros Manseng wine. It's a 100% varietal example, which is rare for this usual blending grape.  In case you are wondering, Gros Manseng is a Rodney Dangerfield type, it gets little respect in the business, hence, the Non Grata name.

Gros Manseng wine can be made into two styles depending on the harvest time.  If picked early is makes a crisp, floral, citrussy (lemony) light dry white.  If picked a couple weeks or more later, you can make a richer, more complex wine with a smorgasbord of tropical fruit flavors.  UVA leans more toward the latter.  It's a fruit bomb.

So if this is such an ordinary type, what's the point here?  UVA is for the customer who is curious about different wine types.  It's a good example of Gros Manseng AND it makes a $12.99 retail.  Case closed.  Think of it as a nice picnicky seafood/chicken salad accompaniment.  In a more macro sense, Gros means large and that applies to both the size of the berries AND the bunches, which means economically, this is a winner for the industry.  Not only that, it's an easy grower in the vineyard too!

Gros Manseng finds its French home in the southwestern (Basque) corner of the country where the geneticists think it originated.  It may be related to Spanish Albarino.  The Jurancon district is ground zero for Gros Manseng but most whites labeled IGP Cotes de Gascogne use it to flesh-out out the blend.

Think of it as late-summer porch sitting wine!