Eaglepoint Ranch Winery

Casey Hartlip, who continues to farm Eaglepoint Ranch for its new owners, kept the winery label with original partner John Scharffenberger and has been a major Coro proponent from the beginning. In fact, he has a tattoo of Mendocino County on one bicep, and tattoos in the year of each vintage as it is released. And while Eaglepoint Ranch is one of Mendocino’s biggest (and highest) vineyards with an abundance of the varieties Coro was created to showcase, Hartlip still horse-trades barrels of wine with other Coro winemakers – at least partly to spread his own abundance around but also in a restless quest to extend his winemaking chops.

Eaglepoint’s 2003 Coro is mostly from the ranch, including all the Syrah, Petite Sirah and Grenache. Half the wine is Zinfandel, and most of that came from off the ranch. The wine is the fruitiest of the 2003 Coro class – yet also the most Rhone-like due to the Grenache, which, with only 5% of the blend, still imparts a strong sense of place and personality (Eaglepoint produces Grenache fruit like nowhere else). Rather than raisiny red Zin flavors, Hartlip went for the dark sweet berry side with plenty of texture, bright acid, and fruit, fruit, fruit. A wine to take hunting in the fall.

Reviewed July 4, 2006 by Thom Elkjer.