Denner Vineyards, Paso Robles

Denner, like Booker, Caliza, Brian Benson and a few others, has been in the spotlight lately. As a result, it was a must-see while we visited Paso Robles last month, though since everyone else had the same idea, they were nearly tapped out of wine to try. Boo-hoo!

The Denner vineyards were planted in 1999. They’ve an excellent map and description of the property, grape varieties, etc. here. According to their site, about 45 of the 108 total planted acres ends up in Denner Estate wines. They sell the rest to other “ultra-premium producers” in the area, like Linne Calodo and JUSTIN. They’ve a whole range of Rhône and Bordeaux whites and reds on the vine.

The Denner winery, completed in 2005, is gorgeous. Apparently it uses gravity flow along the hillside to process grapes, and is one of the few in California that does. Visually stunning, too, it made our visit that much more enjoyable.

The tasting room is large and expansive. The staff was quite friendly and almost apologetic, for there were only two wines left to try:

2010 Viognier: This was a very pale clear yellow with lots of tropical fruit aromas, complex and full bodied, it opens up dramatically with lots of mineral, yellow fruit, peach and slight pepper notes. This was excellent.

2008 Mother of Exiles: The 2008 is the first release of this Bordeaux style blend of cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot and cabernet franc. An opaque deep purple red, it had a striking nose, rich velvety mouth-feel chock full of red fruit with medium body and a long finish. Good if not extraordinary.

I am a bit vexed about not being able to taste the syrah, so I’m flirting with joining their wine club to lay my hands on some. What do you think?