Unti Vineyards: Natural Wines from Dry Creek

It's Natural Wine Week in San Francisco, and while natural wine may have a slightly blurry definition it should not stop you from seeking out some great natural wines for your drinking this week. I recently became aware of a small winery in Dry Creek Valley that does everything in their power to let Mother Nature do the work in their winemaking, staying away from commercial yeasts, acid enhancement, and fining. They certainly employ control over the fermentation process and keep an eye on extraction but do so with careful consideration in punch down and skin contact rather than through the addition of outside chemicals. They also use blending to correct wines deficiencies and are quite minimalistic in their application of oak.

So what does this produce? In my experience this produced very food friendly, and expressive wines. I thank that many sommeliers must agree because I am seeing their wines on more and more lists throughout the City.

On a recent trip to visit Unti I had the chance to taste through their lineup. Pouring in a fairly non-descript room off of Dry Creek Road, the tasting room is by appointment only (although same day appointments are usually availalble). The tasting room staff was very knowledgeable, laid back, and obviously excited about their company producing all estate wines in the most natural method that they can. A couple of highlights from the tasting include:

The 2009 Rose - 77% mourvedre and 23% grenache winemaker Sebastian Pochon is quite adamant about making this wine from grapes grown specifically for this wine. Many domestic roses are made by draining juice off of the grapes early when they are picked for their regular red wine which can mean the grapes were picked at too high of brix for a perfectly acidic, dry, complex rose. This is a VERY popular bottle of wine, and is nearly sold out after being released for only 2.5 months. Bone dry, and expressively floral and minerally this is a true Provencial style rose.

The 2008 Segromigno - 92% sangiovese with a influencing splash of 8% montepulciano I took one drink of this wine and thought it might be the perfect domestic Italian dinner wine. It has enough of a New World style that it comes across as fruity and playful, is not overwhelmingly complicated, and gets a nice deep kick from the montepulciano. This is a very approachable wine now, and I wouldn't say it is one to cellar, but it is a nice domestic sangiovese for the $24 price tag.

The 2007 Zinfandel seems to be getting a lot of attention lately (media, scores, etc.) It is Unti's most fruit forward of the lineup, and is possibly starting to sit back a bit now. This allows the wine to display its rather intense concentration, but also some great acidity from a splash of Barbera that was added for this very purpose. Tasted after a some stops in Dry Creek Valley for a callibration to the classics zinfandels of the area, this one joins right in and yet maintains the structured stamp of an Unti wine.

I have mentioned the 2005 Syrah Benchlands before, and it continued to be one of my favorites. In general Unti was a great place to be further exposed to those that are trying to make their wines naturally (not that other wine is thusly 'unnatural'). It displayed a sense of elegance, restraint, and true expression of the terroir throughout the lineup. I highly encourage you to seek a couple of these wines out, plan on drinking them with food, and understand what a light touch and thoughtful blending can do.