Last week, "Wine Buzz" visited Shafer Vineyards in Napa, which recently earned "wine of the year" honors by Wine Spectator magazine. Turns out one local winery earned some year-end kudos from Wine Spectator as well.
Terre Rouge & Easton Wines of Amador County was named among Wine Spectator's "top 100 outstanding values of 2012."
The noted bottle is the Easton 2010 Zinfandel Amador County, priced at $18 and described by Wine Spectator's managing editor as "a rich tasting zinfandel from California's Sierra Foothills." A bottle was also featured in a prominent photo spread of fellow best-value wines.
This 2010 zinfandel earned 90 points from Wine Spectator earlier this year and was featured in a number of issues including a piece on zinfandel.
"That was really sweet," said Bill Easton, the winemaker and proprietor of Terre Rouge & Easton Wines. "They'd been giving us good reviews for the last couple of years, but having that bottle in the photo spread was really cool. We've been leading up to this the whole year."
If you want a taste of this wine, time's running short. Only nine cases are left at the winery (10801 Dickson Road, Plymouth) and they're expected to go fast.
A few stray bottles might also be found at Sacramento-area wine shops and restaurants. Give Taylor's Market a call, (877) 770-6077, or Corti Brothers (916) 736-3800 to see if any are left.
Either way, the 2011 vintage of this wine was released last Wednesday. It also sells for a very reasonable $18. Easton finds many stylistic similarities between the two wines. Both come from cooler-than-average vintages, which also presented many winemaking challenges, including crops that were damaged by weather.
"Both of the wines have a really nice fruit and balance," said Easton. "They're very similar, and similarly priced. We're trying to grow this particular production (of zinfandel) and build some momentum for us."
For more information: (209) 245-3117, www.terrerougewines.com.
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