All,
I was having this discussion with a visiting wino at CouchConf on Friday; apparently people weren't aware of California's wine troubles over the last 3 years. So I thought I'd warn people before you buy a bottle you regret.
- 2009 was the year of fires. Huge forest fires in the Siskyous, Sierras and Santa Cruz blanketed some 70% of the state's wine-growing areas in smoke. Smoked wine is not a nice flavor, and neither is wine which where the smoke flavor has been chemically removed.
- In 2010 we had very late rains and a late cold snap, so vintners planted late. This meant that most pushed past the normal harvest time of early October ... to run right into an early rainstorm in Napa/Sonoma/etc. in late October, mildew and rot.
- 2011 has been exceptionally cool all summer so far. It's quite possible that some wineries may not get a harvest at all.
The result is that we've had three bad wine years in a row in California. This means that even normally trustworthy labels will have lowered their standards and accepted poor-quality grapes or allowed substandard products to go out. Beware of any California vintage 2009 or later, especially if it's on sale; don't buy more than one bottle of anything you haven't tasted first. Also look for 2008 CA wines to rise steeply in price as the remaining bottles get hoarded.
For 2009, wines from northern Sonoma, the Anderson Valley and Mendocino are probably your best bet as those were relatively smoke-free. Central Coast, Sierra and Paso Robles are right out.
Once 2010 wines hit the market, colder-weather varietals like Cabernet Franc, Grenache, Pinot Gris and Reisling are safer bets than valley big fruit wines.