Winelog #7 Groth Vineyards

Groth Vineyard & Winery:                                                          

750 Oakville Cross Road, Oakville, CA. 94562

year established 1980

bldg finished 1991

121 acres Oakville

46 acres Yountville

all planted

80,000 cases per year

4 varietals, 1/2 sauvignon blanc

tasting fee $25 for 4 wines

$10 refunded for purchase of a bottle

Mon-Sat. Tours available on 48 hour notice

all wines distributed

Jason was kind enough to walk me from the concierge desk at the left of the front door to a short tasting bar at the right of the front door. Very convenient for a quick and easy tasting. 

See the little people here, dwarfed both by the massive foyer-hung impressionist likeness of the facade from the outside, and also by the dump bucket built for twenty. Little Jason swinging his bottle, and little me, as though freshly jostled by the jacket collar, maybe for standing too close or too far from something. Little people. I would send Jason an email letting him know that I am blogging, but he doesn't have an email address at Groth.   

This is essentially the way Groth is set up, a massive, pink southwestern adobe commanding over the Oakville vinescape, shyly clothed by a thin stand of arbor, scarcely concealing it's success. Very little of this property is normally open to the public, only a small bar and wine shop. Groth is mostly a working facility, successful enough at a distance that it has little space for public up close and offers little access, fitting for the bulk of Groth's business; distribution, half-production higher-end.

   

2010 Sauvignon Blanc; voted New York Times Best Wine of the Year. This wine has 3% semillon and a good acidity. $19.50 

2009 Chardonnay: 7000 cases, 25% new oak, zero ml, from Hillside Vineyard in Yountville. apples, stone fruit, little butter from the oak. 

2008 Oakville Cab: 80% Oakville grown. Current releases only. Set up to lay down 15 years. 17,000 case production, heavily aromatic black fruit, bread, tar, anise, clove, chocolate, also what I have come to recognize as worked.

2008 Reserve Cab: 100% Oakville grown. Current releases only. 1700 cases. about a 40 second finish.

For me, for whom visiting properties is as much about the experience as it is about the wines, Groth is more a place to enjoy the wines from afar. There's simply not much else to do here. 

The Groth family made their big fortune in low-priced consumer goods, CFO of Target. They bought it, built it, hired Nils Venge, won 100 points from Robert Parker for the 1985 Reserve Cabernet. That's all she wrote. 

Behold! The mighty Groth Barrel Room! Dare not dare tread upon these hallowed floors, mere mortal!

Jason showed me and another gentleman around the barrel rooms. I was duly impressed.