Tasting Palmina Wines at East Beach Wine

A lot of California wineries say their wines are made to be food friendly, are balanced, and have sufficient acidity. But few actually pull it off. Palmina, Steve and Chrystal Clifton's Italian-inspired winery, is one of those few that makes genuine food wine. I don't mean that in the sense that the wines are unbalanced and need food. Rather, they have higher acidity and less new oak, and thus have an affinity for food.

Local shop East Beach Wine hosted a Palmina tasting last Friday, and both Steve and Chrystal Clifton were pouring their wines and chatting with customers. Not that it matters with respect to the wine, but Steve and Chrystal were very affable and took the time to discuss their wines in detail. I suspect that at this point Palmina is reaching quasi-cult status (as much as balanced table wines can do this), but it's still nice that the proprietors take time to hand sell their wines. As mentioned previously, the wines tend to be higher in acid with less new oak than most in California. Additionally, the alcohols are lower and there's a certain Old World influence. The wines nonetheless are Californian given the fullness of the fruit. They aren't going to blow people away with power; instead they are expertly made in a fashion that can't be ignored.

Here are my notes and comments:

2008 Arneis - Good citrusy acidity, mouth watering, mineral/iron, apricot and vanilla aromas. $19.

Additional commentary: This wine definitely has more phenolic bite than a typical white, suggesting it gets a bit more extraction than most. There's a hint of tannin and excellent depth.

2008 Botasea Rosato - 50% Dolcetto, 30% Nebbiolo, 20% Barbera. Creamy mouthfeel, watermelon strawberry, good earth, medium acid. $18.

Additional commentary: Not much else to add other than this is a fine dry rosé.

2008 Dolcetto - Santa Barbara County bottling. Pinot-like spice on the nose, earth, some heat. Red fruit, mild tannin, somewhat astringent. $18.

Additional commentary: This is my least favorite in the lineup as it's a bit awkward and alcoholic without the stuffing to handle the heat. I felt the same way about the '07 SBC bottling as well.

2007 Alisos - 80% Sangiovese, 20% Merlot w/ ~1% mat-dried Sangiovese. Macerated cherries, tobacco, mild mouthfeel and tannins. Slight dried fruit quality. $25.

Additional commentary: A small amount of Sangiovese dried on mats for use in a dessert wine is blended into this. Named Alisos based on vineyard sourcing.

2007 Barbera - Santa Barbara County bottling. Savory, dark fruit, herbs, smoke. Cab Franc-like, with some animality. Edgy and lean. High acidity. $22.

Additional commentary: One of my favorites of the tasting. Seemed the most Old World with brooding complexity and no extra fat. It definitely reminded me of less rustic, well-fruited Chinon.

2004 Stolpman Vineyard Nebbiolo - Dried red fruit, petrol/tar, red currant jelly, good acid, drying tannin, well structured. Long finish, a sipping wine. $40.

Additional commentary: My favorite of the tasting. Definitely on the riper side based on the nose, but much of the fruit character derives from the age. The structure is superb as it's not overwhelming, but gives the wine a real spine. One of four (?) Nebbiolos Palmina produces.

2006 Savoia - 50% Nebbiolo, 25% Barbera, 25% Syrah. Good tannic structure and acidity. Dark fruit. Seems young. $50.

Additional commentary: This one had a tough act to follow after the previous wine. Clearly has the structure and raw material, but seemed very primary.

2006 Osare - Port-like quality, but not fortified. Made from mat-dried Sangiovese. Raisins and milk chocolate, long finish. $39.

Additional commentary: This is the dessert wine where the mat-dried Sangiovese ends up. I didn't write it down, but I believe I was told this is aged for 3 years in neutral oak.

WN: Due Dolcetti

Or perhaps a Dolcetto duel? Either way, the entrants into my latest side-by-side tasting are the Palmina 2007 Santa Barbara County Dolcetto and the Bricco del Cucù 2005 "Bricco San Bernardo" Dogliani. Both are priced just under $20 per bottle and both have good pedigrees. Palmina is Steve Clifton's Cal-Ital label, and his work with Italian varietals in Santa Barbara is generally well-regarded. I had previously tasted Palmina's single vineyard Dolcetto and really liked it, thus my expectations for the appellation designated Dolcetto were similarly high. Meanwhile, Dogliani is a DOCG devoted solely to Dolcetto. DOCG roughly translates to Guaranteed Controlled Domain of Origin, meaning any wine sold with DOCG on its label must meet strict legal criteria and demonstrate typicity for the region and varietal. A DOC label is used for wines that display "correct" characteristics for a given region; a DOCG label in principle suggests the wine should be an outstanding exemplar for that style and region. However, as I've learned repeatedly, price, appellation or producer is never a true guarantee.

Dolcetto is a varietal indigenous to northern Italy that is typically grown in Piedmont along with Barbera and Nebbiolo. While Nebbiolo is considered an age-worthy and truly noble varietal, Dolcetto is thought of as a simpler wine intended for enjoyment in its youth without much pretense. It's a dark grape that according to different sources is either tannic and low in acid or acidic and low in tannin. I have no idea what's right, but terroir and wine making usually overshadow the varietal anyway (one can limit tannins by reducing the amount of time the juice is in contact with grape skins, for example). The ultimate truth is what's in the bottle.

As it turned out, both wines showed a common characteristic of spice of the nose. The Palmina in particular had what came across as ginger, while the Bricco San Bernardo was more subtle in its expression of cooking spices and floral aromas. Both showed some dark fruit and a refined character (i.e. not rustic), but the ginger of the Palmina was the star of the show.

The two wines differed greatly in their flavor profiles, though. The Palmina, listed at 14.7% ABV, tasted very sweet, almost like caramel, in comparison to the Bricco San Bernardo. Although both wines were likely fully dry, alcohol imparts a sweet flavor, and in the Palmina this was a dominant feature. Predictably, there was also some heat on the finish. The Bricco San Bernardo was more acidic, yet also showed more fruit as well. Neither wine was heavily oaky, while both showed copious, but soft tannins on the finish.

My preference was for the Bricco San Bernardo, which was much better balanced. Despite the interesting bouquet, the Palmina tasted overripe and one-dimensional. This was a bit perplexing given how much I liked their Honea Vineyard Dolcetto, but the tasting notes on the single-vineyard version may hint at why I preferred it:

Not one to shy away from a challenge, in 2007 Steve expanded the cane pruning experiment he began in 2006 in the Dolcetto block at Honea Vineyard. Once again, the crop size was smaller, the clusters longer and heavier and each one uniformly ripe. Picked at lower sugar levels than in the first year, and with a gleam in Steve’s eye, the whole clusters were placed into 1.5 ton open top fermenters, cold soaked for a few days and then fermented with stems. At the completion of fermentation, the cane-pruned Dolcetto aged for 11 months in French oak.

The Honea Dolcetto is pruned differently, harvest at lower sugar ripeness, and fermented on the stems. Certainly the complex aromatics and earthy flavors of the Honea Dolcetto reflect less ripe fruit with some "stemmy" (in a good way) qualities. The Santa Barbara County Dolcetto is most likely a mix of wine that didn't make the cut for the Honea bottling and other vineyards that produce less balanced grapes.

The verdict here is the Bricco San Bernardo is the better value. The Palmina Santa Barbara County Dolcetto is also a good wine with a bit of unique character, but needs more Ital and less Cal on the palate. I'll probably look for the Honea Vineyard Dolcetto if I'm going to buy a Cal-Ital Dolcetto in the future.

Palmina 2007 Santa Barbara County Dolcetto
Score: 83-86
Price: $18 from East Beach Wine

Bricco del Cucù 2005 "Bricco San Bernardo" Dogliani
Score: 87-89
Price: $17 from K&L Wines

A Trip Through Santa Barbara County: Day 2

Our second day of tasting in Santa Barbara brought us to the Santa Rita Hills and Lompoc. Descriptions and notes follow.

Our initial stop was at Melville Winery. Melville primarily produces big Pinot Noirs (power-Pinot) with varying levels of earthy-funk. In particular, they produce multiple bottlings focused upon terroir and clone specific expression, several of which I have noted below. However, the tasting room experience was one of the worst we've had. Although it wasn't busy since we were there in the late morning, the pourer ignored us and instead discussed the wine with other customers. What separates a $50 Pinot Noir from a $30 Pinot Noir is typically that it is produced from a specific vineyard site and expresses some unique characteristics. Thus, it is important to connect the source of the grapes to the wine in a customer's glass. The server, unfortunately, was inattentive to the point of rudeness. I contacted the tasting room manager afterward; she was apologetic and wanted to ensure future visits were more enjoyable. Nonetheless, it's still hard to recommend a tasting room with one of the highest tasting fees in the area that did not engage all of its customers. Hopefully I'll be able to post about a better experience in the future.

Wines of interest:

2007 Clone 115 Pinot Noir - Deep earthy nose, heart of darkness. Herbs and earthy flavor. Top notch.
2007 Terraces Pinot Noir - Herb nose, tarragon? Something green and delicious. Spicy finish.

Next we made a stop in the 'Lompoc Wine Ghetto' to taste at Palmina Winery. Despite the tasting room's location in an industrial park, this was a much more satisfactory and intellectually stimulating experience than our prior stop at a beautifully manicured estate. (Perhaps it is true that beauty and personality are negatively correlated!) Although Palmina's wines can pretty much sell themselves, one has the opportunity to taste the wine sitting down, paired with cheese and prosciutto. It certainly makes sense to place the wines in the context in which they should be enjoyed. Palmina is focused on Italian varietals, which seem to have intrinsic streak of earth and minerality, but their wines also show the extroverted fruit one would expect of California wines. Although the single varietal bottlings were uniformly excellent, their blends were the most interesting aspect of the tasting as they represented the sorts of wines that can only be produced in regions like Santa Barbara County with great geographic diversity over small distances. There aren't many wine regions that can produce a blend of Refosco, Cabernet Franc and Merlot or a blend of Nebbiolo, Syrah and Barbera. There's a certain feeling of 'rightness' to a winery producing unique wines that express its region, especially when so many wineries attempt to emulate a model that is ill-suited to their climate and geography.

Wines of interest:

2007 Dolcetto - Floral, medium body. Minerals and wet earth. Tannic.
2004 Mattia - Refosco, Cab Franc and Merlot blend. Plum and red fruit. Big fruit attack, then mineral finish. Alisos Vineyard and Bien Nacido Vineyard fruit.
2005 Savoia - House of Savoy simultaneously ruled Piedmont and the Rhone, hence the name for Nebbiolo, Barbera and Syrah blend. Big blueberry and floral. Round; tannic finish. Structured.

Our last stop was at Cold Heaven Cellars, a winery devoted almost exclusively to cool-climate Viognier. Although tastings are by appointment only, winemaker Morgan Clendenen took the time to meet us at the winery and pour her favorite selections from the current releases. How often does a winemaker pour his or her own wines, especially those that are respected as some of the best Viognier in California, and chat informally with common folks? It's experiences like these that allow one to learn a lot. For example, Morgan Clendenen explained that the historical purpose of blending Viognier and Syrah in the Northern Rhone was largely pragmatic. Although Viognier's aromatics lift up Syrah, it also reaches high sugar levels earlier than Syrah and can be used to 'fix' under ripe Syrah in tough years. As far as the wine is concerned, Cold Heaven's Viognier is unmistakable aromatic in that flower blossoms and peaches way, yet it is retains lively acidity. Often a lack of acidity is the largest failing of Viognier from warmer regions.

Wines of interest:

2007 Viognier Santa Rita Hills - Initially found it crisp with an orange cream-sickle aroma. Drinking it again as I type now, that's not nearly enough credit for this wine, the "basic" cuveé from Cold Heaven. The wine smells like springtime hillsides in bloom, fresh peaches, green apple and orange cream-sickle. It's fully dry, yet tastes like nectar; the flavor lingers for minutes.