Witch Creek Winery 2012 Montepulciano
Witch Creek Winery 2012 Montepulciano Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California, Mexico
Over the last weekend my husband and I went to Julian CA and we stopped by Witch Creek Winery tasting room. The wine tasting was $10 for 5 tastings. They produce wide variety of wines and most of them were reds. The wine server explained to us they do not grow their own grapes, they buy them from selective wine growers. At first I was like that was weird and did that mean we could not get same wines(?). But after a minute I realized even same wine maker, same grape but different year produces different flavors. So, I changed my mind to “interesting”. She also told us their wines are made using traditional winemaking techniques which she calls old style wines. I love they did not use pourer stopper. To me I’m here to enjoy your wines, why you need to be so shy, pour me!!
Most of their wines were nice, elegant, smooth and has complexity to it. I think thats what she meant “Old style”. One of the wines really sticked out; The 2012 Montepulciano. The grapes were from Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California, Mexico. Yes, from Mexico. I think sooner or later Mexico will be a next growing wine country after Argentina or Chile. I never heard of Montepulciano grapes and this was the first time I ever tried it and it was delicious. She told us these Italian grapes taste salty like mineral. Italians use a lot of tomatoes in their food witch is acidic so they need the saltiness to balance their palate. They call it savory (what a fancy word). On the other hand, California red grapes are fruity because they pair with filet mignon, NY steak or rib eye.
This Witch Creek Winery 2012 Montepulciano offers dark plum color with leather and sweet spice aroma. On the palate it starts with good amount of mineral type of saltiness, earth tones and finishes with jammy blackberry and spice. It is complex flavor and medium bodied. I would say enjoy it by itself but if I paired with food I would say salmon piccata.
The most famous Montepulciano wines come from the east coast of Italy, specifically the Abruzzo region. Montepulciano was Italy’s second most planted red wine variety, just behind Sangiovese.
Witch Creek Winery: witchcreekwinery.com