An Evening with: J Vineyards & Winery

This evening’s program of the San Diego Wine Guild was ‘J Vineyards & Winery’ and had been the topic of several conversations in previous meetings, because they were bringing & presenting several sparkling wines. Our meeting started with some recaps from current officers about financials & membership. We then did our yearly duty & held Guild elections. With that over, dinner served and news out of the way, we were all asked to place 3 glasses at the end of our tables as corks began popping off bottles.

Tonight’s presenter was Winemaker Nicole Hitchcock of J Vineyards & Winery in Healdsburg, CA. She gave us a history of the winery, opening in 1986 they have specialized in sparkling wine and estate grown pinot noir. They also produce a few other varietal wines too.

From Carmel, California, Nicole first discovered her passion for wine while working alongside sommeliers. She studied at UC Davis, earning a degree in Viticulture & Enology with a minor in Italian. Today she is the head winemaker at J Vineyards & Winery, where she oversees all aspects of winemaking. After going through how she got into winemaking, she then explained the ‘methode champenoise’ way of making sparkling wines.

Now that we knew who was going to be presenting the wines of the evening & how they are made, we began to look at the 3 lovely glasses of bubbly sitting in front of each of us. The very first wine of the evening was the J N.V. Cuvée 20 Brut (link). It has the typical yeast notes of the nose and fine strings of bubbles. The sip was creamy and citrus driven. Our second wine of the evening was J N.V. Brut Rosé (link). This rosé was a light salmon with a fruity / floral nose and a raspberry / citrus body with nice strings of bubbles. It was refreshing, light and totally something I would sit on the beach with.

The third & final sparkling wine we tasted was an aged 2010 J Vintage Brut (link). The wine was complex & delightful. It opened with a very aromatic nose and is followed up by a palate of fine bubbles, creamy texture and layers of flavors. They poured a fourth white wine, a 2015 Bow Tie Vineyard Chardonnay, Russian River Valley (link). The nose showed the presence of oak barrels and floral aromas. The palate continued the theme of Oak, along with fresh orchard fruit.

It was now time to switch directions and change the color of our drink. The Pinot Noir comparison was to begin. The first round, was going to be 2 pours. The first was their 2015 J Pinot Noir (link), a blend from Monterey/Sonoma/Santa Barbara Counties. Its pairing was the 2015 J Vineyards Russian River Valley Pinot Noir (link). They both shared a sour cherry note, but other than that were totally different. The blended Pinot had a tea & spice note with fruit on the nose. The sip was smooth & complex layers of red fruit and baking spices. The other wine was more ‘old world’ in style with a leather and herb note coming from the glass. The layers of red fruit, cola, and a medium length spice finish.

The last comparison of the evening was between pour #7 - 2015 J Bow Tie Vineyard Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley (link) & #8 - 2015 J Canfield Vineyard Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley (link).

I started with wine #7 and got floral notes & dried fruit. The palate was jammy fruit & spice. I put it down, and as I did hear someone exclaim, “Now that’s what I’m talking about baby!” He had just stuck his nose into wine #8, this caused me to rush past the winemaker’s description & guided tasting to pick up my last glass. It punched me in the face with notes commonly found in Boudreaux or Burgundy wines. The nose was leather, cooked meat, and spike notes. The palate was dark fruit, leather notes, pomegranate & baking spices.

This concluded the meeting this evening. Our table was so busy discussing the wines we tasted that we were the last table to get cleared. What a nice evening. Lovely fun bubbles & great pinots.