Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/990824
june 2018 / the tasting panel / 7 This lack of recognition might also be due to the region's comparative remoteness, though it's not that far as the crow flies. Some of the county's vineyards are just 10 miles from the Napa County line, 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and a mere 100 miles from San Francisco. Napa and Sonoma have the advantage of easy access via the Golden Gate or Bay bridges from the city, but it takes a little more time to reach Lake County due to the mountain ranges surrounding it. If you're not a crow, these three ranges (the Mayacamas to the west, the Vaca Mountains to the southeast, and the Mendocino Range to the north) limit your routes; the main path traverses the length of Napa Valley, but it's a scenic journey to an exceedingly worthwhile destination. The relative isolation also offers several benefits. When you arrive, you'll be breathing the cleanest air in California. This isn't just good for your lungs: It also happens to be beneficial for grape vines. Lake County vineyards, especially at moun- tain elevations, enjoy excellent ultraviolet exposure, which produces thicker skins, better phenolic development, and, ultimately, more complex, flavorful wines. But while Lake County might still be little known to outsiders, it's long been an open secret to many savvy wine professionals. Jess Jackson purchased vineyard land there in the 1970s and made Lakeport the home of Kendall- Jackson Winery in 1984. Prominent Napa winegrower Andy Beckstoffer also has large vineyard investments in the region, particularly in the up-and-coming Red Hills AVA. Currently, as land values in Napa and Sonoma continue to skyrocket, Lake County real estate is still a bargain. Standout Sauvignon Blanc Although many grape varieties perform well within Lake County's diverse terroir, Sauvignon Blanc is one of the standouts. The fruit's quality serves to attract vintners from other wine regions, most notably Napa Valley, where prohibi- tive farming costs have prompted growers to replace other varieties with plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon. This poses a dilemma for producers like Honig Vineyard and Winery, whose Sauvignon Blanc is popular with discerning consumers. While Honig's limited-production reserve wine continues to be sourced from the winery's Rutherford estate, Lake County provides high-quality fruit for its popular value bottling. The 2017 vintage was made with 19 percent Lake County grapes. "I like the extra dimensions we get from Lake County," Winemaker Kristen Belair says. "We get more stone fruit and phenolic structure from those vineyards." Thanks to Lake County's wide variety of soil compositions and elevations, you can find as many distinctive expressions of place and style in Lake County Sauvignon Blanc wines as you can in those from Sancerre, Bordeaux, or New Zealand. Stylistically, they range from exhibiting lean minerality (Dancing Crow's from the Red Hills AVA is a good example) to showing generous stone fruit notes (like Greg Graham from Big Valley). For more information on Lake County and its wines, visit lakecountywines.org. The first-ever Sauvignon Blanc Experience, held May 4–5, brought people and wineries to Lake County from around the world to explore, taste, and celebrate the grape and its wines. Dancing Crow Vineyard's Sauvignon Blanc offers one of the region's distinctive expressions of Sauvignon Blanc.