Art and Wine: Unveiling Karmere Vineyards’ Unique Tasting Experience
Zinfandel, Barbera and Syrah are some of the great California wines produced in the Shenandoah Valley in Gold Country. The oak dotted golden hills are perched 1,600 feet above the San Joaquin Valley where you can often see Sacramento through the San Juaquin Valley haze.
Karmere Vineyards and Winery resides in these hills north of Plymouth, California. The tasting room is Spanish Ranchero with wooden beams harvested from a railroad bridge in Oregon. They produce mostly red wine but have a sprinkling of Viogneir and sparkling almond, raspberry, Peach and strawberry wines.
Originally established to grow and sell their grape, things changed in 2000 when Sutter Home stopped purchasing from them. So, they became winemakers.
They’ve been open since 2004 and offer a taste for $10, waived with purchase of a bottle wine. All of their vineyards are named after the women of the family, daughters, grand-daughters & daughter-in laws.
What did we taste?
2021 Doreen’s GSM Rose $24 ✰+
2020 Empress Gertrude’s Grenache $32 ✰+
2019 Empress Drew Syrah $29 star+
2020 Empress Julie Ann Barbera $32 ✰+
2018 Empress Hayley Zinfandel $29 ✰+
NV Temperance Naughty Bawdy $27 ✰
The two striking things we noticed were beautiful paintings by artist Stephanie Emanuel Gardner perched throughout the winery walls and on their bottles. They have a striking resemblance to Gustolf Klimpt paintings (one of which recently sold for a European record of $108.4 million.)
The other interesting wine is their non-vintage Temperance Naughty Baudy wine. It’s a blend of every one of their red wines, a little of this little of that, the label poking a little fun at the temperance movement. They don’t offer vintages but are offering their 14th & 15th year version. We bought the 15th year.
Gold Country wine is a treat. You should visit if you’re looking for new experiences, new twists on great varitels.
Some notes on our wine ranking system.
Bill & Erin Hodge write about California Wine, the estates & winemakers producing them and educational information about Vino. Living in California Wine Country provides a front row seat to the places you want to visit the most here in the Golden State.
– -✰ means -What’s next on your list of wines
-✰ means -Not liking it too much
✰ means -We’ll drink this wine, especially if it’s hosted!
✰+ means -You’ve got our attention and we might buy this wine.
✰+ + means -We’re hooked and we’re going to buy this wine.
When you see -✰/✰+ with a slash, it means we disagree.
