How a wine region carves out an identity, where once there was none
The El Dorado Eight redefines the El Dorado AVA in terms of Sierra Spice
How does a wine region with essentially no reputation at all gain something of a profile for... something, anything?
I suppose you can strike gold, like the fictional ‘60s television character named Jed Clampett. Actually, it did happen in real life. It was the discovery of gold in 1848 that did, in fact, transform a tiny, hitherto unknown place, called Sutter’s Mill in the town of Coloma, tucked some 800 feet up in Sierra Nevada, into something world famous. Swarms of people from across the country and all around the world descended upon this tiny speck in the hills to find their own fortunes.
It was important, mostly because money talks. It moves people, and proverbial mountains. In less than two years California became a state. The rest, you can say, is history.
Although the Gold Rush is still associated with California’s Amador County, Sutter’s Mill is actually located in El Dorado County, separated from Amador by the Cosumnes River, a waterway fed by snowmelt 7,600-ft. up high in Sierra Nevada, flowing down through the Central Valley before emptying into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which sits below sea level.
Which brings us to our subject: The El Dorado Viticultural Area.
Are you a wine lover? Put it this way, are you a wine professional? If you are, can you tell me anything about El Dorado, or what makes it special? If you cannot, you are not alone, and I can’t say I blame you. Figuratively speaking, El Dorado is a long ways from Napa Valley, the region which over 90% of consumers across the country still believes all California wines comes from (Napa grows just 4% of California wine). For all a wine consumer living east of the Rockies knows, El Dorado might as well be a region located south of L.A., or way north of Mendocino.
I confess to not knowing a thing about El Dorado, even though it’s been an AVA since 1983, until the early 2000s, when a winemaker/friend named Marco Cappelli moved there. Until then, Marco had presided as winemaker of Napa Valley’s Swanson Vineyards for 17 years. I was a Cappelli fan for two reasons: 1) He had a magic touch with Merlot, a varietal restaurateurs such as me hated yet were compelled to sell; and 2) he learned much of his craft from the legendary André Tchelistcheff, who I still count as one of the two most influential wine industry people I have ever met (the other being Kermit Lynch).
Cappelli moved to El Dorado County ostensibly to “get away” from Napa Valley⏤if you ever met him, you know that he is a low key, somewhat contemplative soul, which made a rural, out-of-the-way mountain community such as El Dorado perfect for him⏤and also because he found a vineyard planted to Zinfandel consisting of a coarse sand/decomposed granite soil not too different from what you find in the Lodi and Contra Costa regions, 2,500-feet below, in the vicinity of the California Delta.
There was no shortage of work for Cappelli. In 2004 he took the head winemaker position for Miraflores Winery estate⏤planted to Bordeaux varieties, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah on 2,500 to 3,000-ft. elevation slopes⏤and began consulting for another four or five small wineries at a time, all in the El Dorado AVA.
Although curiosity kills the cat, I was curious, and began to learn enough about El Dorado wines to become dangerous. In 2009 I even dragged a group of 40 sommeliers from across the country up to El Dorado, determined to share a “Terroir Experience” (that’s what I called it) entailing a study of high elevation winegrowing. I seriously doubt it sunk in with any of them. To this day, El Dorado remains far off the radar of most sommeliers; and for that matter, the vast majority of retailers, distributors and media across the country.
Enter the El Dorado Eight⏤and the concept of Sierra Spice
I can say that I have seen, and have enthusiastically driven through, many an El Dorado vineyard over the past 22 or so years. But really, it is only recently that I have been able to put a finger, more or less, on what makes El Dorado wines distinctive, or interesting, at least in terms of any other wines from California or the rest of the world.
It took the El Dorado Eight—formerly known as El Dorado 8—to set that aright.
Take, for instance, phenolic content: Primarily the combination of polyphenols such as tannin and anthocyanins that deepen the structure and color of wines, thereby enhancing a sense of concentration or flavor making wines (particularly red wines) more appealing, especially as it pertains to perception of quality.
When I first began visiting Mr. Cappelli up in El Dorado, we often talked about “granite” quality of these particular high elevation wines. To us, this was the iron-like grip derived primarily from accentuated phenolic sensations; a quality perceived on the palate, rather than an aromatic one. Typical of high altitude regions, El Dorado produces wines elevated in color, tannin and acidity, by dint of both moderate temperature swings mitigating daytime highs (diurnal swings can be be as much as 10 to 20 degrees narrower in California regions higher than 2,000 feet) and higher UV (ultraviolet light) when grapes are grown above fog lines, causing grapes to respond to enhanced sunlight by growing thicker skins to protect their seeds.
Accentuated phenolic content and acidity, however, are not qualities exclusive to El Dorado wines, even though the AVA has the highest elevation vineyards in the state. There are other regions in California that achieve similar palate feels: The nested Napa Valley AVAs of Howell Mountain, Atlas Peak, Mount Veeder and Spring Mountain District; the upper reaches of Sonoma County such as Moon Mountain, Sonoma Mountain, Rockpile, the non-designated Cooley Ranch and the mountainsides of easterly Alexander Valley; Loma Prieta, Skyline Ridge and Monte Bello Ridge in Santa Cruz Mountains; Mendocino’s Yorkville Highlands and Mendocino Ridge; Lake County’s High Valley and Red Hills Lake County⏤all these sub-regions, among others unmentioned, produce wines with varying levels of elevated polyphenols and acid.
Cognizant of that, winemakers and growers representing eight El Dorado AVA wineries began meeting on a monthly basis in May of 2024. Their original objective was to taste and share technical viticultural and winemaking information. But as Lee Hodo⏤the veteran wine industry marketing and media specialist who helped found and manages the El Dorado Eight⏤recently reported to me:
After years of tastings and discussions across multiple vintages and varieties, my group of winemaker/growers felt confident enough to name a distinctive sensory character shared by many of their high elevation wines.
Think “garrigue”⏤or in our case, a forest garrigue, which is more of an Alpine spice character perceptible in our wines, mirroring the forests surrounding El Dorado vineyards.
Our theory is that it is volatile terpenes released by surrounding Ponderosa pine, incense-cedar, Douglas fir and other plants that are showing up in the wines.
This is important for El Dorado⏤finally being able to “own” a distinction that we can point to as a regional signature. We are calling it Sierra Spice. The more we find it, the more we find that it is evident everywhere here in El Dorado.
That said, I was intrigued. Without question, wine aromas derived directly from airborne elements have been well documented in wine regions all around the world. What has been interesting about Hodo’s communiqués about the El Dorado Eight’s findings is the fact that, like most of California’s wine regions, there are numerous grapes grown in the AVA.
In fact, one of the reasons why a defining, terroir-related identity has eluded El Dorado, where grape growing can be traced all the way back to the decades immediately following the Gold Rush (the 1850s to 1880s) is because there has never been one outstanding cultivar associated with the region. Versatility is good, but it’s hard to become well known when you stand for everything and nothing.
There are now approximately 2,000 acres of some 80 different grapes planted in the appellation, sold by over 70 brands, a good number out of brick-and-mortar facilities. The observation that “Sierra Spice” can be found in varying degrees in a wide variety of varietals and blends of grapes grown in the region gives this hypothesis a self-evident relevance; at least to the extent that such an aromatic quality can be perceived, and confirmed.
Therefore for El Dorado, Sierra Spice it is.
Tasting with the El Dorado Eight
For the record, the El Dorado Eight is a 501 (c)(6) non-profit comprised of nine wineries, all of whom produce wines primarily from their own vineyards:
Boeger Winery
Bumgarner Winery
Cedarville Vineyard
Edio at Delfino Farms
Element 70 Vineyards
Lava Cap Winery
Madroña Vineyards
Miraflores Winery
Starfield Vineyards
Before we dive into my tasting experience with the group, a couple of remarks on the terroir.
First, the region’s elevation, ranging from 1,200 to 3,500-ft., is naturally the prevailing factor, although the environment of the lower slopes of Sierra Nevada makes it a little different from those of California’s coastal regions, beginning with the fact that El Dorado’s higher elevation sites do see winter snow. Colder winters means bud break is as much as a month later than in other regions, pushing harvests later in the season, falling in the cooler months of September, October and occasionally November.
Second, the El Dorado Eight has come to identify their particular Alpine terroir, or Sierra Spice, in terms of four profiles, roughly divided by prevalent flora found in different corners of the appellation:
Douglas fir⏤manifested as sweetly scented, woodsy/evergreen pine and citrus earth fragrances, identified by many an American by its “Christmas tree” spice.
Incense-cedar⏤sweet/spicy woodsy cedar box scents with notes of resiny oil.
Ponderosa pine⏤bark-driven terpene fragrances, often suggesting kitchen smells such as vanilla, butterscotch and baking cookies.
Blended notes of trees, shrubs and ground cover⏤Douglas fir, cedar, pine and occasionally sequoia aromas mingling with suggestions of forest floor and resinous herbs derived from plants ranging from bear clover (a.k.a., mountain misery, giving scrubby/herbal/licorice nuanced scents) and Scotch broom (lemon and camphor-like notes) to hosts of other hillside chapparal (sagebrush, toyon, manzanita, et al.).
Over dinner before my initial meeting with a larger representation of the El Dorado Eight, Hodo presented four tall glass jars stuffed with plants representing these four aforementioned aromatic profiles, put together by Rob Sinton, the winemaker/partner of Starfield Vineyards.
As I stuck my nose into the jarred samples, Nolan Jones, the third generation winemaker of Lava Cap, explained: “We’ve actually been using the term ‘Sierra Spice’ for years, but it’s only recently that we’ve made an effort to define it so we can actually communicate the idea.”
Needless to say, smelling anything before tasting wines⏤be it tobacco, any fruit, herbs, flowers, baking breads or cooking foods⏤can be highly suggestive. You start to smell anything in the air in glasses of wines. Sure enough, a bottle of 2023 Lava Cap 40th Anniversary El Dorado Blend (56% Syrah, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Cabernet Franc) came across as redolent with not only peppery spiced, black olive and herby notes of the fruit components, but also ringingly floral in notes of evergreen and sweet tree bark, melding into savory spice qualities on the palate. In this case, though, the intensity of this woodsiness came across as sufficient enough to conclude that it was very much a part of the wine.
Also present at the dinner was Jonathan Lachs, the owner/founder/winemaker of Cedarville Vineyard, another modern day El Dorado institution. Lachs crafts Zinfandels grown on head trained vines in the sandy soils of El Dorado’s Fair Play AVA, which have always stood out like a sore thumb at big events such as San Francisco’s yearly ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) tastings because of its lighter colored, silky, flowery, red berry profile (for years, the opposite of the gigantic, ultra-ripe fruited and dark colored styles of regions such as Sonoma County).
However, on this night I found something in the 2022 Cedarville El Dorado Zinfandel that I hadn’t noticed in the numerous times I had previously tasted Cedarville Zinfandels over the years: An aroma strongly suggestive of freshly hewn pinewood, mingling with further notes of an herbal/licorice-like quality coming, according to Lachs, “from clumps of mountain misery [Chamaebatia australis] in the vineyard.” Perhaps this was why Cedarville Zinfandels always stood out among hundreds of other California Zinfandels⏤something I had never thought to notice before.
Does Sierra Spice exist, or was it just the power of suggestion? The following morning I set out to investigate this further with two rounds of blind tasting.
El Dorado Grenache and Grenache blends
In the following morning, at Lava Cap Winery, I met with six members of the El Dorado Eight. We sat down to a blind tasting of seven wines⏤five of them El Dorado grown and, unbeknownst to me, two ringers, a first-rate Gigondas and reputable Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Well played, as it turned out, as I did find a commonality among the El Dorado wines, but it had more to do with bright, ripe red berry aromas as opposed to the more floral and lower key red berry fragrances of the two Southern Rhône reds. All the wines, French and Californian, fell between 14.1% and 15.5% ABV. And while there were predictably earthy tones in the Rhônes, those aromas were a far cry from an “Alpine” woodsiness.
Insofar as Sierra Spice: I found perceptible amounts of the woodsy/pine needle-like notes only in the 2024 Lava Cap El Dorado Grenache⏤while faint, most certainly discernible. The predominant attribute of this 100% Grenache, though, was its floral/berry varietal perfume tinged with a peppery note of rotundone intrinsic in the grape. Although weighing in at 14.5% ABV, the wine was closer to medium than full bodied, coming across as slim, easy, light and refreshing. But if I were to compare this wine to pure Grenache bottlings from other regions in California, I would have to say that its Sierra Spice, as faint as it was, gave the Lava Cap a distinctive character.
The brightest wine among the seven Grenache and Grenache-based reds was the 2021 Bumgarner “Fiona” Fair Play-El Dorado GSM: An organically farmed, native yeast fermented blend of predominantly Grenache with Mourvèdre and Syrah, grown at about a 2,750-ft. elevation, among the highest in the AVA. Zesty acidity punctuates a medium weight body unencumbered by moderate tannin and a feel of fleshiness. I found a very mild spice suggesting woodland scrub in the backdrop of the wine’s strawberry/cherry cola aroma notwithstanding touches of French oak, but probably only because I was looking for some sense of terroir. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the woodsiness; but it matters not because the wine is still a very nice California-ized iteration of a classic GSM.
Besides both being 100% varietals, the 2023 Starfield El Dorado Grenache and 2024 Edio El Dorado Grenache came across as plush, fruit-forward reds; the Starfield with a Jolly Rancher-like cherry/anise profile, the Edio with more of a raspberry jam-like exuberance (derived from a partially carbonic response to whole berry fermentation). But like that of the Lava Cap Grenache, the profiles of the Starfield and Edio seemed indicative of fruit picked on the ripe side⏤winemaking decisions rather than dictates of Nature⏤making it difficult to discern some degree of transparency reflecting a sense of place such as Sierra Spice.
In terms of transparency, other wines, such as the 2023 Cedarville Fair Play-El Dorado “Turnabout’s” (50% Grenache, 40% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre), were just as challenging because of the influence of thicker skinned grapes deepening a fruit (as opposed to terroir) driven profile; whatever woodsy nuance to be found, further obscured by a thin veneer of vanillin oak.
Ditto for the 2023 Château de Saint Cosme Gigondas (70% Grenache, 15% Mourvèdre, 14% Syrah, 1% Cinsaut) and 2023 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape (75% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre, 5% Cinsaut): Both Rhônes, a touch fuller in body, denser in tannin and plumper in ripe fruit qualities than any of the El Dorado reds⏤and completely lacking, of course, anything resembling high elevation woodsiness.
Stronger Alpine influences in El Dorado Cabernet Sauvignons
In our second round of blind tasting, the El Dorado Eight could not have included more dramatically contrasting ringers than the two wines they chose: A 2022 Château Haut-Bages-Libéral (a Fifth Growth Pauillac), and a 2023 Schrader Cellars Double Diamond Oakville-Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
Right off the bat, all four El Dorado Cabernet Sauvignons showed pronounced qualities of elevated phenolic content and accentuated acidity of higher elevation viticulture; plus, though, unmistakeable variations of Sierra Spice, which of course were entirely absent in the two ringers.
Ergo, for whatever reason—most likely because of the thick skin characteristic of the grape—Cabernet Sauvignon appears to be far more predisposed to the influence of Sierra Spice than Grenache. Although on this visit I only had a chance to examine two of the numerous varieties grown in the AVA, I suspect this sensory marker varies in its perceptibility from grape to grape.
For me, the standout in the blind tasting was the 2023 Cedarville Fair Play-El Dorado Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, a sexy yet sleek, compact mélange of brambly red and blackberry-like fruit, kitchen spices (cinnamon, clove, white pepper) and subtly herbal notes of pyrazine, while replete with woodsy, scrubby, mountain-fresh notes of its place, tucked into a rounded, finely textured medium-full body
Reminiscent of the classic Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons of the ‘50s, ‘60s and early ‘70s, the Cedarville is a 100% varietal; attesting to environmental conditions giving the grape a completely natural affinity to the terroir, without needing to be enhanced by grape blending or an excess of oak (the ’23 Cedarville spent 21 months in French oak, just 50% new).
Even more on the lavish side, the 2023 Lava Cap El Dorado Cabernet Sauvignon came across as an explosion of fresh plucked cherry, floral scents, black tea and herby/minty aromas suffused in the earthy/woodsy spice of the terroir, only adding to deep, long, savory, densely packed qualities on the palate. Like the Cedarville, the Lava Cap is a pure varietal and sees just 20% new oak (all French), which serve to emphasize its terroir-related nuances.
I have never defined quality, however, in terms of intensity. While lower key, I found 2020 Edio El Dorado Cabernet Sauvignon to be equally or more compelling, particularly for the originality of its origin; sourced from a a 3,000-ft. site planted in 1981 to own-rooted Cabernet that does not fully ripen every year. When it does ripen, you get a wine like this: Redolent of fruit veering into the black cherry/cranberry spectrum of the varietal (as unusual as this is) lit up by a “Christmas tree” variant of the Sierra Spice, attributed directly to the stands of Douglas fir, incense-cedar and madrone circling the vineyard. On the palate, deep, zesty yet rounded, with a restrained “melting” tannin structure, unencumbered by sweet notes of French oak.
Even more restrained, the 2021 Bumgarner El Dorado Cabernet Sauvignon (with 6% Petit Verdot) flashed a faintly woodsy variation of the Sierra Spice infusing black cherry and cassis-like varietal notes and smidgens of green peppercorn under a vanillin veil, filling a fleshy medium-full body enlivened by notable acid zip.
By way of contrast, the high point of the ’22 Haut-Bages-Libéral (87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot) was its wonderfully rich, dense, velvet texturing; its low point, barnyard-like notes of Brettanyomyces marring otherwise handsome black fruit and cassis notes. A wine so different from the El Dorado Cabernet Sauvignons, though, it might as well be made from different grapes, or come from another planet.
If anything, the ’23 Schrader Double Diamond (100% Cabernet Sauvignon) was “very Napa Valley”⏤intense, pungently toasty in oak, replete in concentrated blackcurrant and cantankerous dollops of green herby methoxypyrazine. As such, very much “un-El Dorado.”
Which, I think, should be the point. It would be a dull world indeed if every Cabernet-based red tasted like it came from Napa or Bordeaux. As well they shouldn’t!
Sierra Spice! I’ve definitely experienced this in some El Dorado wines I’ve tried, particularly Mourvèdres. And a variation of it in some Santa Barbara Syrahs. I love it.