Septentrio Winery is an off-the-beaten-path find right here at home in Tinytown (Arcata, CA). We first noticed this wine at one of our go-to local restaurants.  They had this Septentrio Napa Chardonnay on tap. We tried it once and have been hooked ever since. This Chardonnay has light notes of melon, tropical fruit, butter, vanilla/baked goods with a silky mouth feel. We found it bottled at the Arcata Co-op.

This is the special Reserve. We found out later they also have an unoaked Chardonnay, all stainless with a little malolactic action that exhibits some melon and tropical fruit characteristics.

Another wine that I want to feature here is their 2016 Viognier.  This to me is an incredible wine with a big fruity nose and flavors of floral and fruit that we don’t usually see in this varietal. I really love this wine – and I think it really shows off the winemaker’s abilities and goals of bringing out the aromatics and unique qualities of the grapes without adding a lot of outside ingredients to make it work.

We had the opportunity to pay a visit to their winery recently and had a fantastic time with the winemaker, Jared Sandifer, and his nephew, Mason Bell. They had just picked up some Pinot Noir Grapes from the Benbow area and were working on de-stemming when we showed up.

        Click for video of the Destemmer in action

Jared is a quick study, has a real affinity for his craft and access to some really good resources both for knowledge and for grapes. He has been working this venture for about 5 years and come up with some really good wines.  Mason wanted to learn all he could about winemaking, jumped in head first and has become an invaluable part of this operation.

Jared’s partner in this venture is his wife, Tynel Jael. She showed up while we were there but didn’t get in any of the pictures.

There were several bins of fermenting grapes on the skins around that needed to be punched down. Quite a pretty operation.  Jared can be heard giving us a little information about the process in this video.

Punch Down – Click for video.

The grapes are sourced from a variety of places in Northern California.  They have their own Pinot Vineyard in Fruitland Ridge here in Humboldt. We’ve seen the Pinot from Benbow, also in Humboldt, and other grapes are sourced from anywhere from Napa, Alexander Valley, Dry Creek to Anderson Valley and probably some in between. With a wide variety of grapes to start with Jared has a lot going on, from blends to estate wines that show off the characteristics of single vineyard fruit. We tasted 15 wines while we were there.  Here is a picture of their award winners from this year’s Humboldt County Fair.

We started with Pinot Gris which I found had some unexpected characteristics. It was big with a rich fruit, even a little buttery. Looking back, this was foreshadowing what we experienced with the Viognier a couple wines later.

Second up was the unoaked 2015 Chardonnay I’ve described above.

And again the Viognier I’ve described above – but let me just reiterate here that this is a really good wine!

2014 Rose of Pinot – but not the one I read about on their Facebook page where it sounded like it would be one of those big Pinots with lots of skin and bold flavor. This one was an accident. It had some caramel flavors and tangy fruit but was not the big Pinot Rose I was hoping for. I think that will be coming in the 2015 vintage.

We tried a 2016 Rose of Cabernet. This one had grapefruit on the nose. Nothing else really stuck with me.

2014 Sonoma Pinot. This one had a great nose – the kind where you get rubber and plastic and leather and roses and cherry all at once. But it was just a warm up for…….

Single Vineyard Pinot from Petaluma Gap. All that nose above plus black cherry flavors and a great  mouth feel. This was a nice wine and I’ll have to find out more about what the label says so we can find it again.

We moved on to a couple things I didn’t care for as much. A Tempranillo with a lot of acid and somewhat sour fruit – and a Pinotage that was big and bold with a lot of tannins.  This one may be good in a couple years, it has a lot of potential.

Syrah.  Beautiful nose, fruity with a soft mouth feel. We drank this one recently with a Prime Rib dinner and it was heavenly.

Of course by now the tongue is getting a bit numb and the observations a little foggy but the best is still coming up.  All this time we have taken breaks to finish the de-stemming, punching down some grapes and have some snacks our generous hosts provided.

Time to bring out the Cabs. First up was a 2014 Cabernet from Amador.  For us it was too tannic and not what we like at all. This might be a wine to lay down for a long time.

2013 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. A dark, rich wine with a beautiful nose and a lingering cherry on the palate. We took this one home and it stood up well there.

By this time it is more than the tongue that is getting fuzzy. Wine tasting can be so challenging!

We tried a 2015 Cab – from where I don’t know – and I just wrote down ‘Very Nice.’ So there you have it. Very nice.

At this point we went into the cellar.  Less notes, more pictures. We tried a couple things that are not ready yet. The most striking was a Petit Verdot, usually used for blending but he has something going with this one. Hopefully there will be a few bottles as a stand alone varietal because I think he brought something good out of those grapes.

They have a couple wines on tap in local establishments, using Nitrogen as a propellant. Some of these kegs are specifically for that purpose. Others are reserve wine for topping off the barrels as they evaporate.

This was a great experience and this will be a winery to watch in the coming years as I expect Jared will continue to grow in his craft and make some interesting wines.

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