March 2007 Wine Tasting Notes:
2004 Barreto Cellars Verdelho, Lodi.
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This wine is golden straw in color. The nose offers medium intensity creamy tropical notes with a light note of freshly mowed grass backed by hints of stone fruit and white flowers. The palate is herbal with light floral and honeyed tropical notes and a mineral edge. The combination of distinct minerality, soft acids and slightly warm alcohol levels makes for a fuller body with a dry, soft mouthfeel. The finish offers light minerality and waxy citrus peel, ending a bit warm. |
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Cumulative Score: 87 breakdown 14.7% Alcohol $15.99 Retail (from winery); 69 cases produced |
Crisp, dry and mineral, this subtle wine is very food-friendly. The nose is sleek and delicately layered while the herbal and mineral palate is soft and curvy. Best served Chilled. This wine will make a nice social drink for a hot summer day. Pair with grilled fish and seafood. |
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More Barreto Cellars reviews. More on the Lodi AVA |
100% Verdelho sourced from Silvaspoons Vineyard in Lodi. No malolactic fermentation. Aged in stainless steel tanks for approximately 6 months.
Verdelho traces its Portuguese history for at least 500 years. This variety, with small, thick-skinned, golden-hued berries high in acidity ripens early and is capable of producing high yields. It is most readily associated with island of Madeira where it has been used to make dry table wines and sweet, fortified wines named after the island. It is planted on the mainland as well. Following the outbreak of Phyloxera, in 19th century Europe, not many Verdelho vines remained in Portugal. Finally, in the 1970s, proactive measures were undertaken on Madeira to revive the variety. It is now planted all over the world - though not necessarily in vast quantities. It is found in Australia, Portugal (where it is used to make white Port), Spain and makes its most significant foothold in Lodi and Amador County in California. As seems to be the case with many grapes of Iberian origin, Verdelho also may be present in other countries (including Italy) under different names. When made as a dry table wine in Portugal, Verdelho is crisp and tart. In the Central Coast, it tense to be fuller bodied, sweeter and more aromatic with notes of white flowers. This is also enhanced with oak treatment, which also affords Verdelho some longevity. Cooler climates bring out more citrus and herbal characteristics while more heat and hang time coaxes out tropical flavors. Verdelho walks a fine line in warmer climates as it can have high alcohol if picked too ripe.
The hot 2004 growing season was one of the shortest in the history of the state. Harvest came two to three weeks earlier than usual, at the start of August. Statewide reports of light to normal yields of excellent quality fruit with superb extraction raised anticipation of the wines to come. While this "crop of crops" was lauded as producing highly extracted fruit, some wines have been rather unbalanced while others were stunning an memorable. This seems to depend more on the combination of AVA and vineyard management, rather than winemaking techniques. Each offering from this vintage should be judged individually and not by virtue of vintage alone since the shortened growing season affected different varietals in different AVAs and even vineyards.
Silvaspoons Vineyard, in Lodi’s Alta Mesa sub-appellation, produces mainly Zinfandel. However it is also know for its Portuguese, Italian and Rhône varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Nero de’ Avola and Grenache – all of which it produces in small amounts. The 55,000 acre Alta Mesa AVA sits on a slightly elevated mesa (about 150 feet at most) of dense clay and gravel soils that are difficult for vine roots to penetrate. It is one of the warmest of the seven sub-regions of the Lodi AVA.
Barreto Cellar was unofficially born in 2002 when husband and wife Michael and Joey Barreto moved to the Central Coast region after leaving their jobs and selling their house in 2001 with the aim of claiming their stake in the wine boom. Michael Barreto first made home wine. As his fascination grew, he became very serious about learning the ins and outs of winemaking and went back to school, taking classes at Fresno State. In 2001, he took on a job as a cellar worker at Courtside Cellars in San Miguel and in 2003 he became assistant winemaker at Sylvester Winery and began to make wines under his own label in that facility. Making generally small lots, he approaches wine making with a minimalist philosophy of gentle handling. His wines are a New World take on Spanish and Portuguese wines and offer wine lovers partial to more extracted and expressive wines an opportunity to enjoy these varieties.
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5 points |
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Nose |
3 points |
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Palate |
2 points |
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Finish |
2 points |
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Astringency/Minerality |
5 points |
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Acidity |
5 points |
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Alcohol |
5 points |
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Aging potential |
2 points |
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Overall quality |
8 points |
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