Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesThis handsomely oaked wine sprinkles ginger, cinnamon and clove over ripe and vibrant blackcherry flavors that are wrapped in moderate tannins for a grippy mouthfeel. Tempting now for its warm spices and deep fruit, it will be best from 2024.
Kevin and Kathy Skinner are young, outdoorsy people and were heading home to Santa Cruz from Lake Tahoe. Kathy is a teacher and has a thing for maps. On an old dog-eared road atlas, she saw something – a spot on the map called Skinners, CA in the low foothills next to a town called Rescue.
They detoured to Rescue, stopped at a small shopping center, and asked folks in stores about the name. Many people knew the history: A Scottish miner named James Skinner had done well during the Gold Rush, bought land, planted vineyards, and started a winery and distillery at that very spot.
They pointed Kevin and Kathy to ground with markers on a knoll looking over the area. The plot was a century-old cemetery called Skinner Ranch Cemetery. Kevin called his dad, Mike, sent pictures, and asked, “Are we related?”
Mike had no idea, but was instantly drawn to the mystery. He contacted the Pioneer Cemetery Commission, and it turns out that they did! They sent him a family tree:
It started with James Skinner, then came his first son, James Jr. The second James also had a first son named James. The third James named his first son Frank Edward Skinner. Mike knew that name. Frank Edward Skinner was Mike’s grandfather. The original James who settled the lush spot and planted one of California’s first commercial vineyards was Mike’s great, great, great grandfather.
“I suddenly had a big family history and a huge legacy to live up to….I was the first son of the first son of the first son of the first son of the first son of the first son!” Mike says. “I still get goosebumps when I tell the story.”
Passion doesn’t begin to describe Mike’s excitement about the history and the land. By the end of 2006, Mike and his wife, Carey, had bought property in “Skinners” and started planting their own vineyards. In 2007, they acquired more vineyards and land also in El Dorado County on a ridge top on the steep green hills around Fair Play. They began building the latest stage of the family legacy: the now acclaimed Skinner Vineyards & Winery.
As home to California’s highest altitude vineyards, El Dorado is also one of its oldest wine growing regions. When gold miners settled here in the late 1800s, many also planted vineyards and made wine to quench its local demand.
By 1870, El Dorado County, as part of the greater Sierra Foothills growing area, was among the largest wine producers in the state, behind only Los Angeles and Sonoma counties. The local wine industry enjoyed great success until just after the turn of the century when fortune-seekers moved elsewhere and its population diminished. With Prohibition, winemaking and grape growing was totally abandoned. But some of these vines still exist today and are the treasure chest of the Sierra Foothills as we know them.
El Dorado has a diverse terrain with elevations ranging from 1,200 to 3,500 feet, creating countless mesoclimates for its vineyards. This diversity allows success with a wide range of grapes including whites like Gewurztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as for reds, Grenache, Syrah, Tempranillo, Barbera and especially, Zinfandel.
Soils tend to be fine-grained volcanic rock, shale and decomposed granite. Summer days are hot but nights are cool and the area typically gets ample precipitation in the form or rain or snow in the winter.
Full of ripe fruit, and robust, earthy goodness, Mourvèdre is actually of Spanish provenance, where it still goes by the name Monastrell or Mataro. It is better associated however, with the Red Blends of the Rhône, namely Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Mourvèdre shines on its own in Bandol and is popular both as a single varietal wine in blends in the New World regions of Australia, California and Washington. Somm Secret—While Mourvèdre has been in California for many years, it didn’t gain momentum until the 1980s when a group of California winemakers inspired by the wines of the Rhône Valley finally began to renew a focus on it.