Everyone knows about Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley when it comes to wine. But there's one up-and-coming region which caught our winemaker's attention - Lake County, California.
Lake County has recently garnered tons of praise. But why? It’s really quite simple. It boils down to the air, land, sun, and water.
Lake County has the purest air in California.
It's among one of the highest elevations with most vineyards planted above 1,500’ with some as high as 3,000’ in elevation.
Lake County is known for its abundant sun which has up to 10% more UV light compared to regions at or near sea level. This helps promote thicker skins and a higher concentration of phenolics (phenolics are the flavor components in wine).
Colder winters and low humidity, create the optimal conditions for vines to thrive while producing exceptionally complex flavors.
And of course, the people. Lake County winegrape growers combine the latest technologies along with traditional old-world viticultural practices that emphasize long-term sustainability for the environment and the region.
Lake County gets its name from Clear Lake, which, unlike many of the "man-made" lakes in California, is a natural lake which has been shown to be 480,000 years old! It’s an active ancient lake next to an ancient volcano called Mount Konocti. The region surrounding the lake was once a hotspot hangout for celebrities in the late 1800s.
The area lost it's fame for some years until more recently where investments have led to vast improvements in the region including the addition of wine tourist spots that are worth checking out!
Lake County Wine
So, what are some of the top wines out of Lake County? Due to the volcanic soils, low humidity, and high elevation vineyards, bolder wine varieties tend to do very well like:
Cabernet Sauvignon
Merlot
Petit Verdot
Malbec
Cabernet Franc
Syrah
Tempranillo
Petite Sirah
At Vino Bambino, the majority of our grapes are sourced from Lake County. The rest we have been sourcing from Sierra Foothills and we're continually researching, testing, and tasting grapes from other regions with the goal of creating the very best wines.
Check out our grape varietals with vineyard info and current wine lists below (Updated as of April 2021)
The Vino Bambino Story My parents were immigrants from Italy and for many immigrants like my parents, they would blend a few grape varietals together. However, this was always out of necessity since the grapes weren't very high quality. So, in order to have a palatable and tasty wine, they HAD to blend it. My family would tweak the blend every year, typically using a mix of 3 grapes. One day, I thought to myself, "If blending is a necessity for poor quality grapes in order to make it taste good, what happens when you blend only the finest quality grapes together?" So, does blending make better wine? After investing a lot of time and money, I decided to setup a winery so I could make my own hand-crafted wines to research this further and search for the answers myself.
Over the years, I've had the pleasure of hosting wine tastings and wine blendings for thousands of people from all over the world - and I can now answer that question with an emphatic YES.
- John Giacomucci, Founder & Winemaker at Vino Bambino
Vino Bambino Winery has since been on a mission to produce the best tasting hand-crafted wines based on YOUR tastes and we continue to run many blind taste tests to improve our special blends. In fact, in our blind taste tests when comparing a single varietal wine like Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon to our Vino Bambino blends - in 100% of our tastings, the wine enthusiasts preferred our blend every time. Through all of our experience and that of many other wine enthusiasts, we now know that blending is the secret sauce to amazing wine. Blending helps add more complexity and characteristics to a wine.
The entire team at Vino Bambino are wine enthusiasts and we look forward to providing you with the finest hand-crafted wine blends and a new experience to treasure.
Wine Blending Classes
But enough about us - we invite YOU to join us and blend your own wine at one of our Wine Blending Classes where you can come on this amazing wine journey with us!
Our wine blending classes are perfect for wine lovers of all levels to take part in a hands-on wine experience where our practiced wine stewards and educators teach you how to create your very own blends. The entire experience from tasting to bottling and corking generally is up to 2.5 hours.
What's Included:
2 flights comprised of 3 glasses of wine (1st flight has 3 blends based on a combination of 2 varietals in each blend. 2nd flight has 3 blends based on a combo of 1st flight + an additional 3rd varietal)
Instructions on blending techniques, strategies, and tips & tricks
Ranking & rating the wines to choose your group's favorite blend - the winning blend gets bottled and corked by your group
A bottle of your custom blend to take home - complete with your own custom label!
FREE locker storage of your wine bottles in our climate-controlled facility for up to 1 year (we generally recommend allowing at least 6 months for the wine to age properly in the bottle)
Wine education on a ton of ever-changing wine information (winemaking, grapes and viticulture, & much more!)
Reservations are required to attend this class. You can view a calendar of our class schedule and book your blending here. Groups of 10 or more may reserve a private blending class but must email us to make your reservation. Minimum of 4 people per session.
Pricing is $65 per person + tax and a gratuity for your wine educator is always appreciated!