Mariposa Viceroy 2010

This wine is still titled Mariposa, which was the former name of the winery that simply calls itself Cru Wine Company.  Located in Madera California which sits about 10 miles north of San Francisco in swanky Marin County and only about 30 miles south of both Sonoma and Napa, Cru Wine Company is perhaps perfectly situated to source grapes and then easily sell their wines.

    That being said, selling in Marin is uber competitive as literally every single start up in the valley is trying to place their wines there and there isn’t any home field advantage to speak of.  Cru’s big advantage, outside of an owner with especially deep pockets, is that they have perhaps the most engaging and unique winemaker in the industry.  Ken Post had already had two separate careers before the wine bug hit, he had built his family farm into a 2,000 acre behemoth in Paso Robles as well as building a highway construction business from the ground up. He also rides a motorcycle, or at least did before a fall left him a year of rehab.

    From all the choices at the winery, I found this wine to be the most engaging.  First, it’s an entry level price point for GSM in Paso Robles, at $23 retail and the spirit of that tag comes through, it’s made to be consumed early and isn’t overly tannic.  (Please note, we've shipped this wine previously in our Explorations Wine Club) Of course, I think there are some connections from previously owning a large farm in the area which Ken rather sheepishly admittedly to the last time I saw him. When so many consumers dislike Syrah & have never heard of, nor tried a Grenache, I often want to show them a wine like this, the nature of this wine surprises with hints more consistently with cherries and bright fruit, rather than the brooding and contemptible versions of Syrah and wine in general that we’re accustomed to from Paso Robles.

    I think there’s also time here to talk a bit about the 2010 vintage in Paso Robles.  So often within the wine industry we hear about how good, bad or indifferent a vintage was in Napa, but other regions hardly rate a mention at all. 2010 was called apocalyptic in Napa and throughout much of California due to the cold early start to the growing season (which leads to farmers cutting fruit and canopy cover to ensure they get to ripeness) following by an unbelievably hot August (which burned the life out of grapes that didn’t have a large enough canopy to cover them) in combination with water restrictions due to the California drought.  In comparison to other fine wine regions across the state, Paso knows it’s pretty damn hot during the summer.  While a series of 100 degree days in Sonoma and downtown Napa sends the natives scurrying to the beach, in Paso that’s part of the normal summer experience even in west side Paso (where this wine is from).  That knowledge of impending heat and really being able to count on mother nature sending that heat made 2010 a better year to look for values in Paso than it is elsewhere in California.  Then again they’re calling 2010 Bordeaux the vintage of the century, or was that 09? Or maybe 2007 in Napa? Yes, vintages get a lot of hype, perhaps too much so when we’re talking about a $23 bottle we just want to hold up well.