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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
“…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.