TN: 2017 Sandlands Red Table Wine Contra Costa County

  • 2017 Sandlands Red Table Wine Contra Costa County - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County (7/23/2021)
    Purity, purity, purity. Red fruit, green herbs and warm earth with almost no distractions. The structure pokes through in the mid-palate, so a few more years of age could be really good. I kept sipping, and enjoying, then most of the bottle was gone. Managed to save a glass for tomorrow, but it wasn’t easy. Always nice when a wine is like that.

Posted from CellarTracker

3 Likes

It is a great wine. I will be loading up on this release.

Nice note David, sounds like you had to have willpower to save a glass. Have not tasted the 17 but love the 18 which is 55% Carignan 45% Mourvèdre. Is the 17 a similar blend. Curious if the blend will change significantly vintage to vintage.

Tom

I believe 2017 is similar, though not exactly the same.

Tasted the ‘18 tonight. Poised, beautifully balanced, savory and delicious. A fantastic wine alone, or even better with food.

1 Like

Love this wine. It’s been a very different wine every year & the '17 is definitely my fave.

Anything in particular that makes the 2017 stand out for you over 2018?

Sharper.

1 Like

My notes indicate that the 2017 California Red Table Wine is 65% Carignane, 35% Mataro. From release email: “The vineyard was planted in the 1920s in what is classified as Dehli blow sand.”

If memory serves this was the first edition of a "Red Table Wine’ from Sandlands. They now make different bottlings from the same vintage so there’s a greater need for specificity when referencing these bottlings. They are quite opaque about specifics such as appellation for these generic bottlings.

1 Like

They make a Lodi and a Contra Costa. How is that opaque as to appellation?

You’re right, I forgot that they have the appellation in small all caps lettering. The “Red Table Wine” is in bigger script, that’s what always catches my eye.

I have that same issue with Rhys, and end up opening Syrah when I go for a Pinot. I now always wear my glasses when pulling a Rhys.

They also use that font where the 3 and 5 are hard to discern from each other. Quinault L’Enclos does that too. Easy to confuse a 2013 with a 2015.

Brian’s response to the above statement, which asserts that every Sandlands wine label includes the county/AVA of origin, is true.

I’d love it if Sandlands’ release notes contained even more details. In some instances, a wine’s vineyard source might only be divulged in its inaugural vintage release email. It can be extremely challenging uncovering this info later.

Producers are free to disclose as much (or as little) info about their wines as they please, aside from what is required by law.


This 2018 article states the following about Sandlands’Contra Costa County” Carignan:

SF Gate
“Vineyard Wanderer Tegan Passalacqua Makes His Own Mark”

by Jon Bonné
August 24, 2018

“…There is Carignane from the century-old ‘Del Barba’ vineyard in Contra Costa County, an old parcel planted alongside Highway 160 near the Antioch Bridge. It is arguably the most finely textured example in a long time of a grape that was long disrespected. (Sandlands has also bottled that variety from the ‘Bedrock Vineyard’ in Sonoma Valley and from a plot near the cemetery in the Mendocino town of Ukiah.)…”.


There are at least 4 separate Oakley-area “Del Barba” vineyards: if Mr Passalacqua’s Sandlands CoCo fruit source has not changed since the above article was written, then the Sandlands Contra Costa reds are from the “Oakley Road Vyd”. This ancient, own-rooted site appears to be living on borrowed time.


Happy Shopping to all of Sandlands’ Fans!

Sandlands website: