Neyers Sage Canyon Red Rhône Blend Wine 2020

Neyers Sage Canyon Red Rhône Blend Wine 2020 

With grilled beefsteak sandwiches with avocado, roasted potatoes and caprese balsamic salad we opened this Rhône style California red blend. We just picked up several bottles and were eager to try it. 

In 1970, Bruce Neyer’s deployment in the Army brought him and his wife Barbara to San Francisco during which time they developed a keen interest in wine. Upon discharge from the Army in 1972 Bruce landed a job at Mayacamas Winery in the Napa Valley where he spent two years as assistant winemaker to Bob Travers. While there he studied enology at the University of California, Davis. 

In 1974, Bruce and Barbara moved to the Nahe region in Germany where Bruce worked as an apprentice winemaker, returning to the US in March 1975. At that time, he was hired by Joseph Phelps in his new winery that bears his name, where he worked for 17 years, leaving as GM in 1992.

During that time, In 1982, Barbara and Bruce started Neyers Vineyards and in 1984 bought a 35-acre parcel in Conn Valley and began to develop it for vineyards with the idea of starting their own winery. 

In the fall of 1999, they purchased a 30-acre parcel in the Sage Canyon area of Napa Valley, a few miles east of Rutherford on Highway 128, near Lake Hennessey. There they built a winery with ‘state of the art’ wine production facilities. 

In 2004, they hired Tadeo Borchardt as winemaker. Tadeo’s winemaking experience was learned in the vineyard and the winery through on-the-job training.

Working for Restaurateur Roger Roessler, who was building a wine label in Santa Rosa with Copain winemaker Wells Guthrie, Borchardt was sent to the Russian River Valley to help with the harvest. What was intended to be seasonal work turned into a full-time position as Guthrie’s assistant. Borchardt later traveled to New Zealand to experience harvest in the southern hemisphere at Craggy Range, before returning to California to join Neyers Vineyards in 2004.

After leaving Phelps, Bruce became national sales manager for Berkeley-based importer Kermit Lynch until his retirement in 2017, where he grew the business many times over during his years there. Working closely with 100+ French wine producers, he was exposed to and learned winemaking, farming practices and production techniques.

During this time, they continued to develop their own estate Cabernet and Merlot growing production to 15,000 cases annually.

During his time with Kermit Lynch, Bruce became particularly interested in the wines from the southern Rhône. On the urging of Daniel Brunier of Châteauneuf du Pape producer Domaine Vieux Telegraphe, who he calls ‘one of my favorite producers from the area,’ he sought out to develop this blend similar in style to the great wines of that region. 

Reader’s of these pages know we’re big fans of Daniel Bruner and his wines and feature our visits to Domaine Vieux Telegraphe here. 

Neyers and Borchardt spent the next several years seeking out sources of the red varieties traditionally grown in the south of France and honing the techniques used to craft such wines. They also traveled together through the wine regions of France, where they met multi-generational winemakers who grew up among the vineyards, learning by doing. The instinctual approach of Old World winemakers in Burgundy and the Rhône Valley left an indelible impression on Borchardt. The wines he crafts for Neyers are heavily influenced by the philosophical approach of French winemakers.

Neyers Sage Canyon California Red Wine 2020

In the southern Rhône style, this is a blend of Rhône varietals Carignan, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault, and Syrah.

The 2020 is mainly old vine Carignan Evangelho & Jessie’s Grove vinyards with smaller amounts of Grenache, Mourvèdre, and a dash of Syrah for completeness. The added fruit is sourced from vineyards in Monterey County, San Luis Obispo County, Lodi, and the Sierra Foothills to the unique blend. This broadened the wine’s complexity and added ‘further elements of rusticity and elegance’.

The grapes for this wine are all hand-harvested, meticulously sorted during a visual inspection, then crushed by foot rather than by machine, using traditional French ‘pigeage’. 

The wine spent 18 months aging in neutral French oak barrels.

Winemaker notes - Look for a broad aroma of wild fruits and exotic spices accompanied by attractive flavors of berries and ginger. 

Dark garnet colored, medium full bodied, this had bright vibrant expressive juicy ripe black and red berry fruits accented by notes of spice and cedar with a tangy acidic finish. 

This was good with the steak but would be better suited with pizza, tangy bbq or pasta. 

RM 89 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=4438724

https://www.neyersvineyards.com/