Nancy and Barb are back from the Gold Country and continue to report their wine tour. "Park your car, stay overnight in Murphys, and taste some wines the next day! That's what we did!
Under the Calaveras Winegrape Alliance (calaveraswines.org) there are just over 20 wine tasting rooms here. Murphys alone has about 16 all within walking distance. Barb & I visited three of them: Zucca Mountain Vineyard, Twisted Oak, and Tanner Vineyards.
Right across the street from Murphys Historic Inn is Zucca's with a total of three floors. On the top floor is where we met Hannelore. She gave us a few samplings of the wine and mentioned the owners, Carol & Gary were with the wine club in Tuscany. There are 450 members and 20 of them were experiencing a winery in Italy.
We traveled downstairs and in the basement of this 150 year old historic building with a protruding soapstone in the corner where we met Len. He provided more tastes for us (No, we're not drunk)and gave us more of an in depth lesson about wine.
We learned that for a wine to be labeled with a grape name it must consist of at least 75% of a specific grape. For example, Zucca's 2006 Sangiovese and 2006 Barbera are two varieties measuring up to the 75%. Anything less than 75% cannot be labeled with the grape name, it becomes a blend and a name can be created. To surprise their guests they have a 2006 blend called Sorprendere (meaning surprise in Italian) consisting of three grapes: 40%, 40%, and 20%.
Zucca's is a smaller winery producing about 1,500 cases. They specialize in Barbera, Sangiovese, Syrah, and Syrah Port. All of their grapes are from the Calaveras county grape growers except for Barbera grapes and this variety comes from Amador county. Just recently at the CA State Fair they walked away with two Silver medals. In the basement is where you will view all the awards.
You can view their website and order wine at Zuccawines.com
Photos by Nancy Kozicki. Tech by Barbara Coletta
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