At DERBY WINE ESTATES is family owned and we met with the Winemaker on 8/24/22. Sean Geoghean started in 2019,. Derby sells around 3500 cases. A large grower for other wineries, they decided to make their own wine from the best of it. Currently makes less than a 10th of the grapes they grow and they are ready to grow with new outlets for sales.
Two vineyards,
- Paso Robles. Was owned by Eberle – now Derby the Laura Vineyard. Farming 300 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon. Focus Derby Rhone varietals. Templeton Gap, hilly.
- Derby Shire, formerly part of the Hearst cattle ranch produces Chard, Pinot Noir,
DERBY is housed in a historical converted almond processing facility. They renovated it for a wine processing and tasting room. Very cool repurposed building. See pictures.
THE WINES were all good. Those tried:
1. Pinot Gris, very nice. Aging on lees (see next), created a ripe, racy, bright but lovely and smoothness texture and not too zippy. Aromatic. Green pear and apple in tropical flavors. It’s the winemaker’s favorite wine. $22 bottle retail.
It’s always good to do a blog lesson. What is “aging on the lees?” — glad you asked! A process called yeast autolysis occurs, leads to the release of various cellular changes in the wine. These yeast materials will enrichthe wine with a greater stability and modification of sensorial profile.
2. ”1510” white, a 2021. While intially confusing numbers, the 1510 is their historically significant address for the Almond factory. This blend of whites includes Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Picpoul. It is rich and complex lemon lime and honey. Residual sweetness on the end. Very nice flavor balances, popping with lingering aftertaste. Because it’s quite young will smooth out in about 6 more months. Won’t be released for 3 months. Great food wine. $26, worth more.
3. Chardonnay, 8 months in French oak. Lovely full-malolactic acid weight. Bright and crisp with a rich lemon zest and creme brulee hints. Very nice crisp acidity for coastal vineyard, racked on the lees (see above) and stainless steel barrelled to finish off the fermentation. Rounded out acidity and smooth layers, Can stand up to some hardy flavors with food. $30.
4. Pinot Noir 2019, 100 cases. Beautiful light garnet color. Has a little bit of sediment because it wasn’t filtered. Sean felt that a Pinot Noir is so delicate and usually doesn’t need to be filtered, but this vintage does have unutual sediment. As long as the customer doesn’t think it’s ‘bad’ because it has ‘floaters’ then the wine is awesome.. Lovely light and bright fruit flavors of cherry and raspberry. Very very nice wine. Easy sipping, balanced acidity and tannin. It was Sean’s first year making that wine for Derby, so going forward he has a lot of ideas.
5. The”1510″ Derby Red blend 2018 — this is a GSM + C = Cinsault. Jammy, Southern French Châteauneuf-du-Pape model with 14.6% alcohol. Lovely jammy fruits with lots of balanced flavors. Weight and texture. Light to medium tannin. With food, this will be extra lovely. Very easy drinking. $32
6. Derby Cabernet Select from Laura’s Vineyard, 2018. Will be retiring the current gold label for consistent branding of the white label next year. Beautiful aromas fresh whole berries, herbal spice. Very integrated without overpowerring tannin, not a powerhouse with astringent or bitter tannins we’ve had in Paso Robles. It has good structure. Very approachable and lovely. I like this for sipping. A crowd pleaser in general easy palette. Tremendous value price at 32 a bottle. An easy sipping nice Cabernet that is a great alternative in Paso Robles California.
Overall the Derby Wines we tried were lovely jammy, easy drinking crowd-pleasing wines, delivering a balance of fruit – acid – tannin without overpowering or issues. Liked all of them. Get them thru the winery by calling at this time. Possibly watch for them coming to Ohio.
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