It’s California Wine month and Yolo County has a ton of award winning wines, amazing tasting experiences and vineyards right in our own backyard. We’re here to share a fantastic article Evan Ream wrote for the Davis Enterprise about Yolo’s wine scene. Keep reading for details and a huge thanks to Evan and The Davis Enterprise for letting us share this piece.
Move over, Napa, you’ve got some competition in Northern California.
Always known as a strong farming community, especially due to the prestigious agriculture school that UC Davis is, Yolo County only recently started becoming a major player on the wine scene.
While wineries such as Bogle and the now defunct R.H. Phillips originally brought wine-making to the county in the 1960s and 1970s, respectively, it wasn’t until recently that the region finally became a major player in the industry with over 37 wineries and tasting rooms according to the Yolo County Visitors Bureau.
“The wine industry is newer for Yolo County, but we’ve got a longer history of grape growing in the area,” said Chris Turkovich, the owner and winemaker of the Winters-based Turkovich Family Wines. “The whole Yolo County is a really productive part of the state. A lot of farming and a lot of grape growing has been going on. A lot of the grapes have been kind of shipped out to other counties.
“We’ve kind of been the supplier for a lot of areas, just as far as grapes go,” he added. “Not a lot of wineries and not a lot of wine production being done in the county, but it’s been in the top four or five crops in the county for a long, long time. It’s just kind of been an export crop for the county, going elsewhere.”
Turkovich also serves as the President of the “Roots to Wine” organization, a group of 10 area wineries that joined together in order to showcase the region’s diversity in wine.
From wineries so small in production levels that they don’t even have tasting rooms (most of the wine can be found in local grocery stores such as the local chain Nugget) to the behemoth of Matchbook Wine Company’s 1,300 acres of grapes, the “Roots to Wine” organization gives a good representative of the region’s wines.
Take for instance Zamora’s Matchbook, which got its name from brothers John and Karl Giguiere’s childhood obsession with lighting objects on fire (“We burned a few buildings down, I won’t get into that story,” says John).
The sprawling hills and food trucks make for an excellent way to relax on the porch with a glass of some of their Spanish varietals such as the recently-released Tinto Rey Verdejo, a white that pairs well with the often-seen lobster truck, or the more traditional Tempranillo.
“We didn’t know what kinds of grapes to plant,” John Giguiere, the former owner of R.H. Phillips said between sips of the Tinto Rey Verdejo. “We listened to the professors at Davis. Fast forward to 2016, we really know what does well. Spanish varietals do well because of the heat.
“We have an empty pallette to paint on,” Giguiere, the former owner of R.H. Phillips added. “We’re not restricted by tradition.”
Turkovich concurs, pointing out that while other wine regions are known mostly for specific varietals such as the Pinot Noirs of the Pacific Northwest or the Rieslings of Germany, the lack of firm expectations allows local winemakers to make wines of their own choosing rather than the wine others expect.
From the aforementioned Spanish varietals of Matchbook, to the Rhône-style wines of Capay’s Simas Family Vinyard, to the Italian rarities of Route 3 in the Dunnigan Hills, the diversity of wines in Yolo County set it apart.
“The most exciting part for me in being involved in wine at this stage in Yolo County is we’re kind of at the pioneer stage of the wine side of it, which makes it real fun and exciting, to be able to have free reign to just kind of do whatever we want, try whatever we want,” Turkovich said. “Even with the neighbors and other wineries, all the different varieties that are being tried, different styles of wine.
“We’re not kind of stuck in this industry that’s already been decided for us saying, ‘these are the varieties you have to try and the style of wine you have to make,’ which makes it real fun as a winemaker, to have the freedom to experiment and try new stuff.”
Said Route 3 winemaker Gio Ferrendelli after taking a long sniff from a jar of his vineyard’s soil: “I think the wines come down to the place they’re grown. I’m not going to say whether or not you can taste the wine and tell where it’s from, but each different place add its own flavors to it.”
Not able to make it out to all the wineries, or looking to enjoy a more urban atmosphere? Each of Davis, Winters and Woodland features at least one tasting room that can be planned around a trip to Davis’ world-class Farmer’s Market, the local favorite Buckhorn restaurant in Winters or a show at the Woodland Opera House.
Some spots are also available for special events, such as Taber Ranch, a Capay Valley winery that is in the process of building its own tasting room.
In addition to its large crops of Olives, Taber Ranch specializes in weddings, featuring a flattened off hill large enough for wedding ceremonies, that overlooks the entire valley.
After the ceremony, guests can dance their socks off in the barn or partake in a game of bocce ball while sipping on any of the four varietals, including the “Wedding Hill White,” a Sauvignon Blanc grown around that picturesque ceremony hill.
Typical bottles in the area, no matter which location visited, tend to run much less than competing regions, with many of the bottles in the $20-$30 range.
“The biggest thing from the customer standpoint is the value, the quality of wine for the price,” Turkovich said. “Since our land prices aren’t crazy here, it’s just not overrun yet with tourists, we can make good wine but still offer it at affordable prices. You can get really good wine for $20, $30, $40 in Yolo County, that’s just kind of an entry-level wine (price) if you go over to Napa or some of those other places.”
With a wide variety of choices, affordable prices and world class food to boot, the Yolo County wine region is the hidden gem that provides something for everyone.
Just don’t expect it to stay hidden for much longer.
Check out all of Yolo’s wineries and find exciting wine events all year.
*Article originally appeared in the Davis Enterprise.
