Humboldt County

I haven’t seen any “Humboldt County” dedicated threads on here, so figured I’d start one.
Through last couple Berserker Days I have managed to explore two fantastic producers: Briceland and Cabot. Incredible QPRs from both in particular the Cabot Syrah and Briceland SVD Pinots.

What are some other wineries to look out for? Also, any thoughts on the last few vintages (2012-2015 in particular)?

Both are represented again this year, and both are (deservedly) forum favorites!

Thanks for starting this thread, Daniel.

I’d suggest people check Trinity River Vineyards. My friend Wil Franklin is the winemaker. He joined, but has been slow in regards to BerserkerDay. Perhaps we can get him started next year

The winery is newer, but the wines have been coming out nicely.

Andrew, what are your thoughts on the last few vintages?
I looked at a few vintage charts for the North Coast but they were pretty inconsistent and I’m unsure if they hold true for Humboldt anyways.

I am pumped to see someone grab a wine region and hold it up for fellow Berserkers to explore!

I hope to see more AVA’s/counties adopted for thread topics.

Props to you, Daniel!

Thanks to Andrew Morris of Briceland Vineyards for the shout out. Humboldt is a steep and deep region and we all are very proud of our world class wines. But one must drink a lot of good wine in order to make good wine, so I’m excited to learn from the vast collective knowledge of wine berserkers.

Wil - would you mind giving a little background info on Sun Valley Vineyards?

Thanks for asking Daniel. Let me just say, Sun Valley Vineyards is no more and Trinity River Vineyards has risen from the ashes. I manage a total of 10 acres in the Willow Creek, AVA. Established in 1983, it is one of the oldest, smallest, and now most northern of all California AVA’s - as Seiad AVA no longer has producing vineyards. This brand is growing out of the available vineyards in this small AVA, so we are beginning to source grapes from other locations in Humboldt and Mendocino County. The wines are honest, straight forward and more old world to the extent that they are bright, crisp and love to be paired with food. Also, they are agricultural products, not art molded in a predetermined way. My only goal is to produce wines that express the unique vineyards from which they are born. Maximum expression means not over extracting, not over oaking, but rather growing healthy grapes and keeping them clean in the winery. There is a lot more info you can explore at your leisure at http://www.trinityrivervineyards.com

No discussion of Humboldt County wine is complete without mention of Whitethorn Winery. Tasha Mckee is a total legend. My first crush experiences in 2001 and 2002 were at her operation on Shelter Cove Road in back of Whitethorn Construction. Part of it is in my book Slave to the Vine. Locals hand sorting bins of Hyde Vineyard and Hirsch Vineyard Pinot Noir way out in god’s country. She was dabbling a bit with Alder Springs Vineyard Bordeaux varietals then too. Way ahead of the times in a lot of ways. She’d make us root beer floats at the end of a long harvest day. Her son Galen is now working with her with some fruit from Lost Coast Vineyard wines (like John Cabot) and doing some things from a dry farmed vineyard nearby. Wines are hard to find outside of the county, but back in the day they were BTG at Chez Panisse.

Anyone remember Vinatura wines in back of the Arcata Co-Op? Rootsy sans soufre stuff.

It doesn’t get more Humboldt County than this either. Rest in Peace Daveau. I was a part of one of these bottling scenes in Redway back in 2002.

Thanks Wil, I’ll take a closer look at the site over the weekend.
Darren - I’m getting a “Please update your account to enable 3rd party hosting” msg in place of your picture.

Does anyone have any thoughts on recent vintage characteristics?





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It’s hard to generalize on recent vintages because the region is so large and diverse. In Eastern Humboldt we’ve had a long string of good to great vintages. I am particularly excited about 2017 in southern Humboldt, regarding Pinot noir and white varietals. The vineyards I work with had low to medium yields and an extremely slow even ripening period. It was such a pleasure to pick fruit at low sugar levels, at our leisure. We had one short heat spike but it was at the right time, as the fruit was behind at that point. The resulting wines are showing the finesse and elegance of a great vintage.

I am really glad that we have our own thread for our little, off the beaten path wine region.

Here is some general info on the county as a whole as seen from the POV of Clark Smith in 2012: Humbolt County Terroir - Humboldt County

I know some of you have seen this, but for those that have not, if gives some background on the Humboldt story.

For another peek into Humboldt grape growing region please see A Grape Idea | Views | North Coast Journal
first published in the North Coast Journal of April, 2014. It may also be of interest as a quick look into how it relates to Humboldt’s cannabis economy.

As for recent vintages description, I agree with Cabot that Humboldt is a large and diverse growing region. Perhaps all you can say about Humboldt is that it is variable. And that I hope is seen as a feature not a bug. For wine enthusiast that are after a story in a bottle, Humboldt has loads of story. For Willow Creek wines it very generally goes something like; 2012 richer, 2013 leaner, 2014 rich and very ripe, 2015 between 2013 and 2014. 2016 is just a touch riper than 2015. And 2017 is a lot like the 2015’s. But I can’t speak for Andrew in southern Humboldt, or Cabot to the north of Willow Creek.

Hope that helps.
Cheers,

I like to say that a good year in Humboldt County is on which does not have both a late spring and an early fall.

Frankly, I can’t say that I am the biggest fan of vintage charts to begin with. It is, as Cabot says, hard to generalize and even harder given the size and diversity of what is in our county.

Also, asking a winemaker this question is tricky. They will almost never tell you that they honestly feel that the vintages that they are currently pushing are bad ones.

Further, good or bad on which criteria? Some are looking for the warm years that give the most ripeness while others might find that they ultimately like the wines made in the cooler years better.

I generally agree with Wil except I think of the years in terms of warmer or cooler, then the vineyard management deals with that and the pick timing will also affect how rich or lean the wines are. I differ in that 12 was cooler than 13 from my POV both in So Hum and Orleans.

The 14 season in particular presented an interesting challenge in that it was an early start, a warm year and had some heat spells. I remember it kind of upended my view of Southern Humboldt Pinot harvests. Up until then, the picks always went in a certain order. Alderpoint, then Phelps, then Ronda’s, then Elk Prairie. The spread was always 3.5-6 weeks. I was expecting the same thing again and as I was arranging picking at Alderpoint, I got a call from Elk Prairie saying things were ready. I said “No F’ing way. I have 20+ years of records that … Blah Blah Blah”. Well, everything came was ready and picked in a period of a few days. I am very happy with the wines, but I can’t say that it was my favorite vintage from a practical POV.

I certainly learned something though.

2010 was the last vintage that I can say had real issues. Spring started late and the summer was not particularly warm. By the time the real rains came at the end of October, everything had to come off whether it was ripe or not. We declassified all of the PN from that year and made an appellation blend. About a 3rd of that batch was harvested at 20.8 Brix, not fully colored with a pH of 3.02. I am still amazed that the batch of wine came out as well as it did. Which was pretty nice if you like it tart and light. I learned something from that too. The books would tell you not to make red wine from that.

Hope that helps.

I have liked the Woodenhead Winery Humbolt Pinot Noir. They don’t make it anymore. Fruitland Rige Vineyard I think. Is there still sine coming from here?

Great info Andrew, Will, John, much appreciated. I’ll end up with some Humboldt wine after BD and will try to get some notes up in this thread as I go through them.

Andrew - lots of talk about your Petit Verdot. Whats the story there?

Hi Charlie.

Nick from Woodenhead made some nice Pinot from both Fruitland Ridge and Elk Prairie Vineyards, neighbors on that ridge above Myers Flat.

Both of those sites have produced nice wines in a range of producers hands (Including, IMHO, Briceland).

Each has had a change in ownership. Each of the new owners is in the process of getting a handle on those vineyards. I hope they do well this year and I look forward the potential of a return to producing wine from either or both of them once they get their viticulture under control.

I personally made Pinot Noir from Elk Prairie in 2015 and 17(deer ate the crop in 16). It’s an outstanding vineyard that shines even in less than ideal years. It was planted in 1999 and has been dry farmed for many years now. It has a nice mix of clones, 115, Martini, Pommard, and 777 IIRC.

Good to see you find a place that you can actually make comments, my friend!