This Spring, we had the opportunity to travel with Idle Hour Winery for a fantastic trip along the Douro River in Portugal, followed by a private Tempranillo tour along the Ribera del Duero in Spain. How great it was to get to know the winery owners Anna Marie Dos Remedios and Deb Payne on a more personal level. The whole experience was amazing – so well done!
We hadn’t talked to Anna Marie pretty much all of the pandemic. We heard so much on this cruise about how Anna Marie and Deb had to re-tool their businesses (winery, inn, and restaurant) almost immediately – when people visitors quit coming to stay at their Queen’s Inn. Their priority became keeping people employed during this challenging time. As a result, the restaurant became more of the focus, putting wine making on the back burner.
While on the cruise, we had several wine tastings and a wine dinner with the Idle Hour crew. Today I am highlighting the wines we tasted on the cruise. I made a deliberate decision not to take wine tasting notes on my vacation, but some were previously reviewed in this blog and I have included them again here. These are presented more or less in the order tasted. Any quotes below come from their website. Any factual errors outside of the quotes are mine alone. This is what happens when you don’t take proper notes…
I have written about Idle Hour wines several times – just type “Idle Hour” in the search bar to find them. I include Idle Hour in this blog due to their tasting room located in Carmel Valley Village – and their increasing menu of Monterey County wines. You can read more about their wine making approach and history here.
2017 Idle Hour Heringer Estate Vineyard Cabernet Franc, Clarksburg AVA, 13.6%, ABV, $30 (Wine #22)
My Review: My daughter called this wine “spicy and good.” In addition to spice, I picked up cherry and raspberry on the palate with a little oak and green pepper. Upon this second tasting, I still find this lean and elegant.
2017 Idle Hour Heringer Estate Vineyard Tempranillo, Clarksburg AVA, 14.4% ABV, $30 (Wine #729)
Winemaker’s Notes: “Tempranillo has become one of our flagship wines, one of two wines of the many varieties we produce that will always be on the list here at Idle Hour. I fashion our Tempranillos after the region I find to be the most alluring in Spain, where this Iberian varietal calls home, the Ribera del Duero. Perhaps the variety sees more press from Rioja, where it is the main wine in the blends produced there. I find the 100% Tempranillo wines from the Ribera to be the most honest and enticing. I hope you enjoy our version!” 225 cases produced.
In my humble opinion, Idle Hour makes on of the best US-produced Tempranillo wines. She knows what she is doing. I’d love to do a side-by-side with those Ribera del Duero wines we had later on our trip.
2019 Idle Hour Alicante Bouschet, Madera County (Wine #728)
Here was a great opportunity to taste this as a single varietal bottling, as we usually find it as a blending grape. I would like to try this wine again!
2019 Idle Hour Viognier, Sierra Foothills AVA, 14% ABV, $28 (Wine #725)
While I can’t find any winemaker notes for this wine, we typically really like the Idle Hour Viognier for its true expression of the fruit. This was a great wine to start our on-board tasting!
2019 Idle Hour Chardonnay, Arroyo Seco AVA, 14% ABV, $28 (Wine #726)
This Chardonnay comes from one of my favorite Monterey County AVAs: Arroyo Seco. This is a clean, big Chardonnay. We tasted it during the first on-board tasting and it was very good – not the big, buttery Chardonnays we think of, but a great expression of the minerality in Arroyo Seco soil. We tasted it again at the Winemaker’s Dinner, this time in a Burgundy glass – what a difference the glass can make! It was big, fruitier, with much more depth and florals than the first time we tasted it. If you can find this wine, I highly recommend it.
2019 Idle Hour Clone 667 Pinot Noir, Griva Vineyard, Arroyo Seco AVA, 14.2% ABV, $40 (Wine #727)
Winemaker’s Notes: “The crispness and brightness of Bing Cherry followed by the earthy aromas of forest floor and the sweet and savory notes of sassafras and cola. This wine is the most Burgundian Pinot Noir I have ever made. It’s light color and silky tannins are testament to the extra year of aging on the sediment that I gave it. The wine finishes with the fine structure on your tongue of wet stones.”
You all know by now that I am not that big of a Pinot Noir fan. The way this wine was made resulted in a more complex and rich wine, one of the best Pinot Noirs I have tasted from Monterey County. I selected this wine to present at my upcoming John Marshall Chapter, Northern Virginia AWS class.
2017 Idle Hour Heringer Estate Vineyard Tannat, Clarksburg AVA, 14.1% ABV, $ (Wine #126) 175 cases produced.
This was an interesting wine to taste! I was surprised how many people we were traveling with had never heard of Tannat. This was a big, boastful, delicious wine which quickly rose to be one of our favorites on the whole trip. Nicely done!
Idle Hour Blanc de Blanc Méthode Champenoise Sparkling Wine, Clement Hills, Lodi, 11.2% ABV, $38 (Wine #59) 100% Chardonnay; 44 cases produced.
94 points by Rich Cook – You can read his review here: https://idlehourwinery.orderport.net/product-details/0091/Blanc-de-Blanc-Methode-Champenoise-Sparkling-Wine
Crisp and tasty. If you can find it, I recommend it! And the label is equally delicious.
2014 Idle Hour Winemaker’s Reserve Syrah, Love Ranch Vineyard, Madera County, (Wine #730) 96% Syrah, 4% Viognier 4%
The more time I spend on the West Coast, the bigger Syrah wine fan I become. It has superseded my previous love of Zinfandel. It started with Carmel Valley Syrahs – then Arroyo Seco – then Santa Barbara – and now Washington State! We had a previous vintage of this Syrah which my husband just loved. And we both enjoyed the 2014, pairing well with our meal. We need to get more of this!
2013 Idle Hour Heringer Estate Vineyard Tempranillo, Clarksburg AVA, 14.6% (Wine #731)
We tasted this during more of a social hour for the Idle Hour trip participants – we felt very privileges to have this vintage on board and we all enjoyed it very much.
You can purchase their wines from the Idle Hour website here. Check out how to visit them in Oakhurst here. Their tasting room in Carmel Valley Village may not be currently open. Check their Facebook page Idle Hour Tasting Room @IdleHourWine for the latest info!
© Decanting Monterey 2023
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