Contra Costa California Wineries - Tamayo and Viano

I had the pleasure of tasting wines from two Contra Costa County based wineries at a the recent Contra Costa Winegrowers Association "Summer Celebration."

Viano Vineyards in Martinez is a century-old vineyard producing several notable wines. I was thrilled to meet David Viano, a soft spoken man in dusty cowboy boots, certainly more comfortable in his vineyard than at the loud, bustling tasting room.

The Viano Chardonnay was the most classic example I tasted that day. I found that many of the other wines relied too heavily on new French oak. The Viano Chardonnay successfully balanced French Oak with the grapes' traditional fruity notes.

The Viano Petit Sirah offers a lower level of tannins than a Cabernet Sauvignon, making it a gentler wine and more accessible to wine drinkers that shy away from 'tannic fruit bombs' so famous in California. If a novice wine drinker enjoys Merlot, this would be a good first step towards widening of the palate.

I enjoyed the Viano Sangiovese. The Viano family has started with a quality plant stock. This wine shows the traditional flavor of a Sangiovese, with a silky smell, light tannnins and the proper level of acidity.

Tamayo wines were a pleasure to taste. I enjoyed the Tamayo Red. Usually, a winery's "house" red and white are forgettable glasses of wine from forgotten corners of the vineyard, but the Tamayo Red was a pleasant, smiling wine with a complex smell I savored for at least a minute before my first taste.

Mark Enlow, the vineyard's general manger, was very well spoken and told the story of Cana, Tamayo's flagship wine, with such eloquence I dare not try to paraphrase it here.
Find out more about Cana here: https://www2.ibgcheckout.com/tamayo/catalog/view_product.jsp?product_id=1065&cat_id=1002

What struck me about these two wineries is that they were far more like the small, family-owned Finger Lakes wineries I love than the massive, commercialized, 'amusement park' wineries that have become so successful in nearby Napa and Sonoma.

David and Mark really love the process of growing grapes and creating wine that is true to the Contra Costa area, and their passion expresses itself in their wines.