California 2009 - Nadeau Family Vintners

Nadeau Family Vintners www.nadeaufamilyvintners.com  is a very tiny place with very big wines.  Their case production ranges from as low as 99 cases for one of their varieties to a whopping 250 cases for their highest production.  This is our second visit and we continue to be very impressed.

The tasting room is one of the smallest I have seen and doubles as their wine lab.  The person pouring your tasting is more than likely one of the owners.  In this case, it was Patricia Nadeau, whose husband makes the wine.

Wines we tasted:

2007 Roussanne – beautiful wine with lots of peach, melon and a luscious richness.  Excellent example of what Roussanne should taste like.  $21.00

2006 Petite Sirah – deep rich color and flavor.  Classic black pepper character, loaded with fruit, and with enough tannin for aging well, but drinkable now.  $23.00

2005 Zinfandel – “Home Ranch” – incredible nose, bursting with berries, blackberry and raspberry.  All this followed with some nice plum in the flavor.  Velvety tannin.  $25.00

2006 Zinfandel – “West Side” – 100% Zinfandel from 3 different vineyards.  A hint of hay in the aroma with nice fruit.  Rich and full bodied with a long, lush finish.  $28.00

2005 Zinfandel “Late Harvest” – this 4% residual sugar Zin comes across lightly sweet and very pleasant.  Easy sipper.  $19.00

Linne Calodo Wines

After visiting Nadeau Family Vintners, we decided to stop at a place called Linne Calodo Wines.  The name apparently comes from the unique limestone property in that area.

While I prefer not to make derogatory remarks about a place (and truthfully, there is generally something good about most of them), we were quite taken aback at the tasting fee and cost of the wines.  The tasting fee was $10.00 per person for barely a one ounce pour of 4 wines.  While some of the wines were pretty good, the prices started at $45.00 and went up to $68.00 per bottle.  Considering all of the wines we have tasted in Paso Robles, we found better wines for half the price and many don’t charge for tastings.

Next:  Some food finds