Foothill table wines win big at El Dorado County Fair

If you are perpetually on the prowl for wonderful wines that won?t break the bank ? daily drinkers that go great with food ? you need look no further than the foothills.Wineries all along Route 49 have for years produced simple, unpretentious, non-vintage wines that are typically blends of multiple varietals, and sometimes concocted from adjacent vintages. Routinely overlooked and occasionally maligned by serious wine buyers, the quality of foothill table wines has improved radically in recent years.For evidence of this trend, all you need do is consult the winner?s list of the recent El Dorado County Fair Commercial Wine Competition in which wineries from all over the state were eligible to compete. Of 364 medals awarded, just 17 entries were distinguished with a coveted ?Double Gold.? Of this number, two were lowly foothill table wines: ?Hangtown Red? (Lot 30, $8) from Boeger Winery in Placerville, and ?Slug Gulch Red? (#8, $8) from Oakstone in Fair Play. Remarkably, six El Dorado County table wines (all from the Fair Play AVA) finished in the money: ?Pammies Cuvee? ($10) from Single Leaf Winery & Vineyard snared silver, as did ?Sierra Reserve Red? ($9.50) from Granite Springs Winery. Bronze medals were garnered by ?Gold Rush Red? ($9.50) from Latcham Vineyards and ?Monsieur Omo?s Red Sunshine? ($10) from Charles B. Mitchell Vineyards. All of the wines are red, and they share many characteristics. Most are big and chewy, imbued with massive fruit flavors and less than 14 percent alcohol. They are typically young and sometimes aggressive, often with serious spice and pepper leading to names such as Nevada City?s ?Rough & Ready.? Hangtown Red is an exception. ?We purposely make it as a lighter wine, and reserve a bigger style for our name brands,? explained winemaker Justin Boeger. This year, the winery will produce about 20,000 cases, of which about 1,200 will be Hangtown Red. His goal is to make an affordable wine that is ready to enjoy now. And at $8 a bottle he added, ?It moves really fast at that price point.?These wines all offer a wake-up call for your taste buds, and they are wonderfully unique. They are, however, anything but consistent. The blends, aromas and flavors of each can change decidedly from year to year. Early on, foothill table wines were often the result of a winemaker attempting to salvage grapes from a poor harvest. Or a varietal in the bottle was downgraded because it fell short of quality standards. In the quest for full disclosure, some wineries have gone to great lengths to dampen consumer expectations. Oakstone at one time positioned Slug Gulch Red as ?The wine that made mediocrity famous.? And Charles B. Mitchell offered a muted appeal for its Monsieur Omo?s Red Sunshine: ?Meant to be enjoyed, not discussed or collected.?No more. Today, foothill winemakers carefully craft these little gems, spurred by the challenge of creating a palate-pleasing wine for less than 10 bucks. Winemaker Craig Boyd of Oakstone, for example, blended six varietals for the current vintage of SGR: carignane, zinfandel, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and sangiovese. Justin Boeger?s classic Hangtown Red was an even more complex brew of seven grapes, anchored by barbera and sangiovese.Accolades for these plebeian wines couldn?t be more timely (though success in competitions is not a new phenomenon). With the wine market focused squarely on the under-$10 category ? or under $3 thanks to Charles Shaw ? having the quality of their wines validated independently is a marketing bonanza.One way to discover your own foothill favorite is to purchase a bottle of each and sponsor your own wine tasting at home for friends. You?ll be sure to find a great one to buy by the case and serve confidently as your own house wine.The sad reality is these wines are made in very small quantities, and if they reach cult status, they sell out quickly or can be very difficult to locate. That?s what happened with my first find, Gold Hill?s NV Red Table Wine that I purchased in 1999. I bought a couple of bottles for $10 a piece, and fell in love with the stuff. I returned immediately to the winery and bought the last 11 they had.I?m down to four bottles now, and while I know the wine may have peaked, I keep talking myself out of opening another bottle. I just don?t want it to be over. Wine writer Gary Moffat owns Carpe Vino in Old Town Auburn. He can be reached at 823-0320.