Our first day of tastings was in the Carlton area. We started with a winery tour and barrel tasting with the assistant winemaker at Hamacher. Hamacher has been recognized as one of the few truly “green” facilities by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System from the U.S. Green Building Council. It’s a very interesting facility if you’ve gone green yourself so call ahead for a tour. Currently nine independent, smaller production wineries call the Carlton Wine Studio as their home. While there we mostly tasted the 2006 vintage from aged barrels (Hamacher typically uses 30% new French oak). I found each of the three barrels samples to be clean with good, pure fruit. I’m optimistic towards what I tasted and will be buying as a result.
Our second stop in the Carlton area was Lemelson. Lemelson is owned by an environmental lawyer who chose to build the “blue print” for green, gravity fed wineries in the area. “The Enterprise” is the center piece of the fermentation area. This large stainless steel structure runs along the drain tracks between the fermentation tanks. Grapes are fork lifted up to the platform in ½ and 1 ton bins where it is culled and destemmed before being dumped into one of the fermentation tanks. Quite impressive if not also quite expensive. The three level facility was definitely impressive but I fail to see how this elevated the wines we tasted. We mostly tasted through their 2005 vintage Pinots (along with their 2006 whites) and I found most of them to have a heavy and somewhat unpleasant nose of sulphur. The one standout here was the 2005 Meyer Vineyard Pinot Noir.
Our third stop was the Scott Paul tasting room in “downtown” Carlton. Scott Paul is a smaller producer with 3-4 wines released per year. Something interesting about the tasting room is that Scott Paul is also the local Burgundy representative so while tasting you can taste through their current Burgundy selections along side the Scott Paul offering(s) for an interesting comparison. We tasted the 2005 La Paulee here and found it to be one of the better Pinots we tasted during the entire trip. Bottled under screw cap as well!
Our final stop in the Carlton area was The Tasting Room in downtown across from the Tyrus Evans tasting room. The Tasting Room seeks out and represents small boutique wineries including EIEIO. Not a bad little tasting but I’d recommend passing the next time.