2016 Casino Mine Ranch Vermentino Shenandoah Valley California 750 ml

Zesty, Fleshy, and Mineral-Rich California Sipper

We’ll just come out and say it: We are living in a Golden Age of California white wine. Never before have we seen so many big-name, sought-after winemakers producing white wines of such diversity and originality—and at a fraction of the price of the reds that made them famous. The 2016 Casino Mine Ranch Vermentino Shenandoah Valley California—authored by 100-point legend Andy Erickson, formerly of Screaming Eagle, along with Jessica Tarpy Shaheen—joins the class of rave-worthy Super California whites that includes Dan Petroski’s Massican and Steve Mathiasson’s eponymous white wine. Casino Mine Ranch is composed of 100% crisp and aromatic Italian Vermentino, which thrives in the mineral-rich soils of the Sierra Foothills. Whole-cluster pressed and aged on the lees for seven months, at $24.99 per bottle, this zesty, fleshy, and mineral-rich white is perfect with any grilled seafood, fried food, or as an aperitif—one of our current favorite California sippers. Shipping included on 6.

Knowledgeable fans of Italian whites need no introduction to Vermentino, the flagship white grape of Sardinia that also thrives on the French isle of Corsica, as well as in Provence and the south of France under the name Rolle. In Sardinia, Vermentino is often picked early to maximize acidity, which can yield lean wines. In other places in Italy and abroad, creative winemakers are experimenting with fuller expressions of the grape.

It’s no surprise that Vermentino has found a home in California’s Sierra Foothills, the undersung AVA that spans more than 100 miles along the western slope of the Sierras and boasts some of the state’s most historic, and often unexpected, plantings. Casino Mine Ranch, which belongs to fourth-generation Californians Jim and Rich Merryman, is a century-old site that was once mined for gold. Now, those mineral-rich soils, which contain iron, shale, and decomposed granite, make a hospitable home for white grapes, imbuing them with racy minerality.

The Shenandoah Valley AVA is located in the northwest of the Sierra Foothills. Its elevation is relatively low, which allows the Vermentino to achieve beautiful fleshiness to match its acid and aromatics. In the expert hands of A-list winemaker Andy Erickson, Casino Mine Ranch has a unique California gem on its hands: a fleshy, complex, unoaked white that proves that, for the California white wine lover, there truly is no time like the present.