We had an appointment to meet Jonathan Lachs, the owner/founder/vineyard manager/winemaker at Cedarville Vineyard in Fair Play, California. He and his wife (fellow owner/winemaker) are both Davis-trained. He worked at HP (before Carly F--the question was raised: how can you get elected in CA if you already have 10,500 people (HP former and present employees) who despise you?). Then once they had saved up the money to start this place, it all unfolded by dint of talent and hard work.
Fair Play is north of the Shenandoah Valley, which is N of Plymouth, CA. It's a hike but worth it. The soils are decomposed granite--it looks like dusty black and white granite but crumbles in your hand.
Jonathan's place is not far past Fitzpatrick, a quirky and fun place with a lap pool, lookout tower, fig trees, art for sale, pizzeria, Irish pub, B&B, and, oh yes, a winery. And all of it in the most-remote gorgeous dry rolling hills. Jonathan's wines are described (aptly) by Parker as "producing some very tasty wines at most intriguing prices . . . well-made, reasonably priced, delicious efforts."
Cedarville Vineyard grows and offers Viognier, Grenache, Cab, Zin and Syrah (those two are the signature wines of the AVA, which is mammoth, extending from Nevada City in the north (NW of Tahoe and our first wine stop) down to Placerville, then Plymouth and Fair Play, then all the way south to Murphys--all old gold mining towns in the golden-grassed, rolling black-rocky foothills of the Sierras), and Petit Syrah and Cab. All the wines are expertly made. My question is how to project what the wines will be in the future, because they seem tight, big and minerally now. Some of the Amador County wines from N of Plymouth have an odd undercurrent that I can't quite describe well--I suspect it's from the reddish soil down there--maybe it's a soapiness/meatiness/funky taste? that I just don't like. But up in Fair Play--1000' higher where the red soils give way to the wonderful crumbly granite--the wines are totally pure; the minerals "just right." I want the Cedarville wines to open up with time, and everyone (even folks from other wineries) assured us that Johathan's wines DO emerge gorgeously after a couple of years. He was so kind as to give us an older bottle, which I cannot wait to taste, once it has rested from its trip from Fair Play to Reno to Portland.
I think Jonathan is highly skilled (aside from a wonderful person to meet, and he just joined the ZAP board, with the big boys in Zinfandel). All the wines here have good acidic structure, which makes them great with food. They are not the jammy wines from Walla Walla which I love so, but they are well made, elegant, big and tasty. And the prices are great! I will offer his wines and if you have the patience to lay them down for a year or two, you will be amazed.
Jonathan adopted some cool trellising methods for his various grapes (he grows all the grapes used in his 2000 case/year production). Above is a pic of his cab sauv (excellent wine!) on quadilateral lyre trellises. Fun!
Finally, the light in Fair Play. O, the light! It is a little like the light in Tuscany, only more intense. And the crumbly granitic soil is very special.
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