I stopped by the Seghesio tasting room in Healdsburg earlier this week, not out of any love for their wines, but because it was about 4:30 and no one else was open. I’ve been there three or four times over the past 10 years, drawn originally out of curiosity about their arneis and sangiovese. In the past, most of the wines were badly overoaked and too high in alcohol. Sometimes it seemed like there was good fruit underneath, but the wines were overdone.
This time I was struck by how much more restrained the wines were (2011 San Lorenzo and 2012 Cortina zins, 2011 Venom sangiovese grosso and the 2012 Marian’s Reserve zin-petite sirah-carignane blend). Part of that may be that two were 2011s, but even the 2012s didn’t show a great deal of oak and the labeled alcohols were all under 15%.
Is this a sign of the times in California? Was there a change in winemaker there? I know 2011 was a cool year, but was it easier to make good wines in 2012 without alcohols going to nutty levels?
I wasn’t excited by any of the wines. They didn’t have a lot of character. But at least I wasn’t moved to spit immediately upon entry of wine in mouth.
Haven’t tried their wines in many a year, but it was sold off to the Crimson Wine Group in early/mid 2011. So it seems like there would have been a winemaker change for vintage 2011 and on .
I’m not sure how much of a sign it is in general but seghesio seems to have been on a transformation from generic mainstream bla to something with a bit more character. I consider it a safe pick for drinking with civilians…
Seghesio sold to Crimson Wine Group in 2011. Pete stayed on as consultant but I’d bet things started to change that vintage if not for anything else but new ownership.
The only Seghesio wine I see or drink regularly is the Sonoma Zin. I’ve always thought this was a relatively restrained wine. Both the 2012 and 2013 are really good, more restrained Zins without much oak and were definitely not fruit bombs.
Earl Martin left the helm of the Crimson group and has been replaced by Craig Williams, best known for the Insignia he made at Phelps for many years. Pete is making his own wine, Journeyman.
They had trouble selling their Sangiovese as Sangiovese so they called it Venom and it sells like hotcakes.
Thanks for the kind words. Pat DeLong replaced Erle as CEO @ Crimson last year. I have the pleasure of working with and for Ted Seghesio along with four other great winemakers within the Crimson Wine Group. IMO, Ted has been crafting terrific Zins for many years. Pete remains involved with some Seghesio events/marketing, while directing Journeyman along with his family. And yes, the Venom Sangiovese is very popular.
Craig, what kind words??..I never said the Insignia wines were any good…and when they were I give full credit to Ashley …
By the way, we are launching a wine called Antidote. We are opening up a tasting room just down the street from Ted. I just hope Pete doesn’t show up. He’ll make me explain something to his kids.
In November at the tasting room we tasted, and bought a bottle of, the 2011 Venom. I find the name corny, but the wine was pretty good. We also got a bottle of the 2012 Pagani Ranch zin. I hadn’t had their Sonoma zin in a while, but we liked the line-up at the tasting room.
Thanks for posting this. I used to purchase a few of the Sonoma Zins every year until I tried the 2011 which was egregiously overoaked compared to previous vintages. This caused me to stop buying. Perhaps I’ll jump back in with the latest vintage and see what’s going on with it.