Finally, Placerville’s quaint Main Street shopping district has a lovely new tasting room, Batia Vineyards, with fun friendly staff and delicious wines.

Just a few doors down from these historic buildings, Batia pours several winners.

The first is their best seller, a wonderfully balanced Marsanne flows like honey with the tart crispness of a green banana. Then, a Dos Blanco appeared to be the answer to sauvignon blanc because its blend of roussanne and viognier gave it tart lip smacking crispness without the overpowering harsh grapefruit profile.

A rose proved a nice palate cleanser with a full body and slight sweetness of strawberry and watermelon. But the reds won our hearts.
They began with a balanced grenache that had cherry and vanilla well integrated. A long finish kept us reminiscing on it. Then an interesting merlot had lots going on. Finally, an old vine zin was positively see through lean but had big bold flavors of berry that came from its 113 year old vines!

More appellation adventures from my time in this region.