2016 Kendric Vineyards Sangiovese, Shenandoah Valley
92 points, View from the Cellar 88 points, Wine Spectator
Tasting Notes
"A lovely wine that retains that beautiful transparency that the varietal can offer if not allowed to ripen up too much in the generous sunshine of California. The wine still comes in at 13.7 percent octane, but is nicely light in color and offers up a vibrant bouquet of cherries, strawberries, gentle herb tones, a fine base of soil, orange peel, wood smoke, and a bit of clove in the upper register. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused, and soil-driven, with a nice touch of sappy red fruit at the core, fine balance and grip, ripe tannins and a long, tangy and complex finish. This is first-class sangiovese in the making, and though it is approachable today, there are really some backend tannins here that could do with resolving and I would opt to tuck it away in the cellar for at least four or five years and let it soften up more completely. Fine juice.” – View from the Cellar
"Mouthwatering cherry, cranberry, and blood orange flavors are juicy and sleek, with pretty accents of black tea, baking spices and dried rose petal lingering on the finish.” – Wine Spectator, 88 points
Lamb and pork are perfect pairings with sangiovese’s cherry fruit. If you can work in some mushrooms or rosemary to pick up the earthier and more herbal elements, so much the better!
Winemaking
Sangiovese is the main constituent of Chianti and the only grape of Brunello. Using those Old World reference points, I feel like each vintage inches a little farther from Chianti. I’m still somewhere in the middle ground with the 2016, but I’m slowly creeping up on Brunello, with a little more structure and stuffing in each successive vintage. Still, this is very far from a super-ripe or super-extracted rendition. It’s a pinot producer’s take on sangiovese.
The 2016 was fermented with 100% whole clusters, meaning that the stems were included. The hope with stem inclusion is to produce aromatic complexity. The nose also benefitted from the inclusion of some pressed viognier skins co-fermented with the sangiovese. Skin contact in the fermenter was very extended – about 40 days – with an eye toward building length on a variety that can often be rather short on the palate. That extended maceration also lends a bit of earthy grip to the palate.
This sangio comes from my Mom’s vineyard, Reward Ranch, in the Shenandoah Valley of the Sierra Foothills. This was the first vineyard I planted, on breaks from school, in the early '90s. I had to move crazy amounts of granite just to get the vines in the ground, and I hope this wine expresses that rocky aspect of the vineyard.
Specs
Vintage: 2016
Varietal: Sangiovese
Appellation: Shenandoah Valley of California
Alcohol: 13.7%
What’s Included
4-bottles:
4x 2016 Kendric Vineyards Sangiovese, Shenandoah Valley Case:
12x 2016 Kendric Vineyards Sangiovese, Shenandoah Valley
Stewart Johnson farms the Kendric Johnson Vineyard on leased land at the boundary of the Marin County and Sonoma Coast appellations 8 miles west of the Pacific Coast. Stewart graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, obtained a doctorate in political science from Yale, and graduated with a law degree from Hastings. While interning at the Environmental Protection Agency, he was drawn to winegrowing and winemaking rather than being confined to an office practicing law. With his wife, who is a Marin native, he discovered the pastoral beauty of Marin County and ended up growing grapes there.
Kendric Vineyards is a small vigneron’s operation.
My name is Stewart Johnson and I handle all aspects of production – from planting and farming the vineyards to making the wine, to now pitching it to you. When I say “handle,” I don’t mean the photo-op level of participation common to the industry. Every vine and every barrel has my hand prints all over it.
Kendric Johnson was my Dad and is the person for whom this enterprise was named. He died in 2001 just as we were getting started. Naming the company after him is meant to both honor his memory and to impose his high personal standards upon the undertaking.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, LA, ME, MD, MA, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations).
2016 Kendric Vineyards Sangiovese - $40 = 22.21%
I still have some of the 2017 Kendric Vineyards Syrah Petaluma Gap, which was purchased here on CM. If it is any indication of a “typical” Kendric wine, then this should be an auto-buy at this price!
In for 12 on this one: towering-offensive-wafer. Bought this in July 2021 for $10/case more. It’s an unusual Pinot-style Sangiovese that I think will have aged fine assuming proper storage. Really liked this wine last time around.
@winedan As a fan, how would you characterize the aroma & flavor on what you’ve had from what you bought a couple years ago? I’ve had some wines reserved on both that I’ve enjoyed, but this was not one for me.
@worbx Not sure I understand your question. I found the Kendric Sangiovese to be a lighter style wine than the Italian Sangioveses I’ve also enjoyed. The aromatics and mouthfeel are Pinot-like. It’s a good wine for a lighter summer evening meal served alfresco.
@ctmariner@danandlisa Sorry, I don’t have any bottles left from the prior offer, so don’t know. I assume this vintage is nearing the end of its prime years and note that one of the lab rats suggests we drink now. My new case will be gone by the end of this summer. I assume it’s still drinking well and if not, well it wasn’t all that expensive. I’ve never had a wine from Casemates that wasn’t drinkable.
Hello, hello, 'mates! Your Friday offer is here, and I’ll be one of your lab rats tonight. And tomorrow (it’s not yet midnight here). I was delivered this week a bottle of Kendric Vineyards 2016 Reward Ranch, Shenandoah Valley Sangiovese.
The first thing I notice when I pour a glass is the light translucent color: this is not a dark wine. Now I lack experience with Barolo (I’ve had maybe two or three in my life), but I think that is made with less extraction, right? Perhaps the intent was to make it in this style, further from a Chianti or Brunello style.
There’s a little bit of bright fruit in the aroma, and a little heat from the alcohol. My nose is underwhelmed. I take a sip, and perhaps not surprisingly, tannins are not strong, what is there is smooth. Honestly, overall, the flavor, like the aroma, seems underwhelming. There’s again just a touch of red fruit, a bit of spice, and the acidity is there, but doesn’t feel, er, lively. I’d say it tastes a little… flat. Not flat in the not-effervescent sense, but flat in the boring sense.
By the second night the bottle is open, the aroma is almost completely gone for me. The flavor is still there, but definitely still not very big.
I confess that without a bold element to the aroma or flavor, I find this doesn’t really go well with food, either. Pairing is something I’m not particularly good at, however, so there are probably better choices than my salad and lentil stew tonight.
I’d like to find a positive note, but this wine is not for me. It’s really too bad; I’ve bought Pinot Noir from Kendric and been pleased. So I was excited to open this, but alas, it disappoints. It occurred to me this may be a flawed bottle, so I’m interested to see what other rats have to say. My experience certainly doesn’t jive with the reports on the 2021 offer of this wine (which notes the winemaker was moving towards Brunello style, hmm). But, I’ve opened bottles before where there’s a musty, or just “off” flavor that suggests “flawed” to me. Here, though, there isn’t anything on that theme I detect; it’s just… flat.
So it definitely could be that my palate just cannot appreciate this. As you can read above, I do not have a sophisticated palate for wine, I just know what I like.
I hope you find this informative, and hit me with any questions this raises!
My profound apologies for the late submission! I had this report done, sitting in a Word document, waiting till midnight (EDT) to submit, and then the lights went out (mine, not the electrical).
I received the coveted email from Alice, alerting me to a bottle in transit. Lucky me! Always up for a good selection, and to share with my fellow wine aficionados. It arrived on Tuesday afternoon, plenty of time to plan a menu to hopefully pair with the selection.
The enclosed bottle presented me with a couple of new things, the varietal not being one of them. I had not heard of Kendric, and also of a Shenandoah Valley that is not one hour from my house, but in California. My first experience of Sangiovese was indeed in California, my first trip to Napa, and too long ago to remember the year, but it was at Steltzner Vineyards, and I was immediately hooked on this grape. Fast forward to a trip to Italy: Tuscany, Chianti (several tiers of quality and refinement), Montalcino, where this varietal is king, and the breadth of variety and style is evident. Chianti is more light, acidic, but dry, almost demanding food to accompany it – in the Italian way (Nothing wrong with that!), where in Montalcino (Barolo!) it’s a cultured, big, heavyweight, magnificent offering commanding 3-digit price tags. This background is indeed pertinent to the review.
So…. Seeing a California specimen, and being closer to the Lodi/Amador County area (which I love), I gravitated to my earlier expectations, and we planned a dinner of pasta and the DW’s fantastic homemade marinara and meatballs (recipes are a secret!) and as the main course. On to the review….
Pop and pour: nice natural cork, no foil. About 30% intrusion of wine stain up the cork was evident, but not enough to compromise the contents. Poured about an inch in the glass (thank you for my new Casemate glass!) and was surprised at the light color. My pictures here
show the wine at about an inch in the glass, where it is darker, yet transparent, and a little bricking on the edge – I was not expecting this from a 7-year-old Sangiovese. We decided to decant to let it open for approximately 2 hours before dinner.
On the nose: pleasant aromas, not heavy or overly fragrant, cherry and slight floral scents present themselves.
Initial taste (before decanting) – light, smooth, not a whole lot of fruit, but cherry was the predominant taste on the tongue, with some lighter spice (maybe clove, light herb like thyme? Closer to a Pinot Noir than the Sangiovese I’m fond of. So, in the spectrum of the above experiences, I would put this in the Chianti realm - This led to the decanting decision and started the 2-hour clock.
Pairing – we were a bit apprehensive as to the menu selection now – the DW’s marinara and meatballs are not bland by any means, and thought that it would overpower the wine. Happily, we were not disappointed. It held up well, just enough acidity to pair with the tomato, and fat in the meat. It was smooth, approachable, easy to drink, and could sneak up on you with its lower-than-average AbV.
Day 2: It held up extremely well – fruit flavors now more concentrated, and a better stand-alone beverage.
In full disclosure, I would not let it cellar much longer. It is a great drink-now wine, big group occasion, as it will appeal to a broad range of tastes and preferences.
I believe my first internet wine purchase - the pre-wine.woot woot - was Suzy and Jim Gullett’s Vino Noceto Sangiovese. It is been a great ride with WineDavid in the driver’s seat. No love for MI on this offer - sounds tasty
@hscottk winemaker said it was hitting is stride during the previous offer (July 2021) - I bought a case then and really enjoyed it but it is long gone! Agree it would be good if winemaker (Stewart) or someone who has consumed a bottle recently could chime in about how it is shaping up now.
I like the wine at this stage. I don’t find it oxidised or tired. The caveat to that assessment is that I’m seldom very interested in the primary fruit characteristics of most wines, and I know that’s not everybody’s take. The general path for this wine is to evolve from more primary cherry to more earthy herbal notes. It’s mostly whole cluster fermented and the resulting herbal components are more clearly revealed as the primary fruit recedes. I still get cherry (more in liqueur form) and iron on the nose, but the tang on the palate now strikes me more akin to green olive than it did in its youth. The blacker, firmer, tar-like note that I like as a contra-fruit counterpoint in younger sangiovese has pulled back also, and I think the balance remains fine. There is still a little back-end grip that brings granite to mind for me, but that’s probably mostly because I have that soil in my mind’s eye when I’m tasting. In all, the “pinot-like” descriptor for the texture seems pretty apt. If you’re an earth/spice/mineral sort of taster, this wine is in a fine place. If you’re more attuned to exuberant cherry fruit, this won’t be the wine for you.
Post-Delivery Comment; This is my second case of this vintage of this wine. Overall, I’m impressed with the Pinot-like quality of this wine, but feel it is nearing the end of its shelf life. It’s still very pleasing, but its freshness is fading, and I think in a couple more years will be gone. I thought the case I bought a year or more ago was more food friendly. It’s now drinking better as a stand-alone starter wine, or perhaps as a pairing for white fish.if you have this wine in your cellar, I suggest you drink it this summer.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with the modest lab rat reports but was very impressed with this wine. Felt as true to italian expression of sangiovese as any new world one I’ve had.
Nose has the delightful vino nobile de montalpuciano - dried prunes and restrained fruit. Color is a nice light garnet without bricking. Alcohol and fruit in balance.
Confused by the comparisons to nebbiolo above but think this is ready to pop. Curious about how long it spent in oak.
The joy of a pizza wine with the a touch of the depth of a more refined sangiovese. At this price could be close to a daily drinker. Think it could lay down for some more time but can drink now without feelinglike a cradle robber.
2016 Kendric Vineyards Sangiovese, Shenandoah Valley
92 points, View from the Cellar
88 points, Wine Spectator
Tasting Notes
Winemaking
Specs
What’s Included
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not for sale online, $264.00/case MSRP
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, LA, ME, MD, MA, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, May 8 - Tuesday, May 9
2016 Kendric Vineyards Sangiovese
4 bottles for $59.99 $15/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $139.99 $11.67/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations).
2016 Kendric Vineyards Sangiovese - $40 = 22.21%
Previous offer discussion and Lab Rat Reports here from 20210728. Better pricing on the case this time.
I still have some of the 2017 Kendric Vineyards Syrah Petaluma Gap, which was purchased here on CM. If it is any indication of a “typical” Kendric wine, then this should be an auto-buy at this price!
In for 12 on this one: towering-offensive-wafer. Bought this in July 2021 for $10/case more. It’s an unusual Pinot-style Sangiovese that I think will have aged fine assuming proper storage. Really liked this wine last time around.
@winedan I agree. I also ordered a case.
@winedan As a fan, how would you characterize the aroma & flavor on what you’ve had from what you bought a couple years ago? I’ve had some wines reserved on both that I’ve enjoyed, but this was not one for me.
@worbx Not sure I understand your question. I found the Kendric Sangiovese to be a lighter style wine than the Italian Sangioveses I’ve also enjoyed. The aromatics and mouthfeel are Pinot-like. It’s a good wine for a lighter summer evening meal served alfresco.
@winedan Just trying to get a picture of how people who appreciate the wine find it.
Thanks for the answer!
@danandlisa @winedan Do you know if this is still drinking well? My case from the last offer was very enjoyable but long gone!
@ctmariner @danandlisa Sorry, I don’t have any bottles left from the prior offer, so don’t know. I assume this vintage is nearing the end of its prime years and note that one of the lab rats suggests we drink now. My new case will be gone by the end of this summer. I assume it’s still drinking well and if not, well it wasn’t all that expensive. I’ve never had a wine from Casemates that wasn’t drinkable.
Hello, hello, 'mates! Your Friday offer is here, and I’ll be one of your lab rats tonight. And tomorrow (it’s not yet midnight here). I was delivered this week a bottle of Kendric Vineyards 2016 Reward Ranch, Shenandoah Valley Sangiovese.
The first thing I notice when I pour a glass is the light translucent color: this is not a dark wine. Now I lack experience with Barolo (I’ve had maybe two or three in my life), but I think that is made with less extraction, right? Perhaps the intent was to make it in this style, further from a Chianti or Brunello style.
There’s a little bit of bright fruit in the aroma, and a little heat from the alcohol. My nose is underwhelmed. I take a sip, and perhaps not surprisingly, tannins are not strong, what is there is smooth. Honestly, overall, the flavor, like the aroma, seems underwhelming. There’s again just a touch of red fruit, a bit of spice, and the acidity is there, but doesn’t feel, er, lively. I’d say it tastes a little… flat. Not flat in the not-effervescent sense, but flat in the boring sense.
By the second night the bottle is open, the aroma is almost completely gone for me. The flavor is still there, but definitely still not very big.
I confess that without a bold element to the aroma or flavor, I find this doesn’t really go well with food, either. Pairing is something I’m not particularly good at, however, so there are probably better choices than my salad and lentil stew tonight.
I’d like to find a positive note, but this wine is not for me. It’s really too bad; I’ve bought Pinot Noir from Kendric and been pleased. So I was excited to open this, but alas, it disappoints. It occurred to me this may be a flawed bottle, so I’m interested to see what other rats have to say. My experience certainly doesn’t jive with the reports on the 2021 offer of this wine (which notes the winemaker was moving towards Brunello style, hmm). But, I’ve opened bottles before where there’s a musty, or just “off” flavor that suggests “flawed” to me. Here, though, there isn’t anything on that theme I detect; it’s just… flat.
So it definitely could be that my palate just cannot appreciate this. As you can read above, I do not have a sophisticated palate for wine, I just know what I like.
I hope you find this informative, and hit me with any questions this raises!
2016 Kendric Vineyards Sangiovese
My profound apologies for the late submission! I had this report done, sitting in a Word document, waiting till midnight (EDT) to submit, and then the lights went out (mine, not the electrical).
I received the coveted email from Alice, alerting me to a bottle in transit. Lucky me! Always up for a good selection, and to share with my fellow wine aficionados. It arrived on Tuesday afternoon, plenty of time to plan a menu to hopefully pair with the selection.
The enclosed bottle presented me with a couple of new things, the varietal not being one of them. I had not heard of Kendric, and also of a Shenandoah Valley that is not one hour from my house, but in California. My first experience of Sangiovese was indeed in California, my first trip to Napa, and too long ago to remember the year, but it was at Steltzner Vineyards, and I was immediately hooked on this grape. Fast forward to a trip to Italy: Tuscany, Chianti (several tiers of quality and refinement), Montalcino, where this varietal is king, and the breadth of variety and style is evident. Chianti is more light, acidic, but dry, almost demanding food to accompany it – in the Italian way (Nothing wrong with that!), where in Montalcino (Barolo!) it’s a cultured, big, heavyweight, magnificent offering commanding 3-digit price tags. This background is indeed pertinent to the review.
So…. Seeing a California specimen, and being closer to the Lodi/Amador County area (which I love), I gravitated to my earlier expectations, and we planned a dinner of pasta and the DW’s fantastic homemade marinara and meatballs (recipes are a secret!) and as the main course. On to the review….
Pop and pour: nice natural cork, no foil. About 30% intrusion of wine stain up the cork was evident, but not enough to compromise the contents. Poured about an inch in the glass (thank you for my new Casemate glass!) and was surprised at the light color. My pictures here
show the wine at about an inch in the glass, where it is darker, yet transparent, and a little bricking on the edge – I was not expecting this from a 7-year-old Sangiovese. We decided to decant to let it open for approximately 2 hours before dinner.
On the nose: pleasant aromas, not heavy or overly fragrant, cherry and slight floral scents present themselves.
Initial taste (before decanting) – light, smooth, not a whole lot of fruit, but cherry was the predominant taste on the tongue, with some lighter spice (maybe clove, light herb like thyme? Closer to a Pinot Noir than the Sangiovese I’m fond of. So, in the spectrum of the above experiences, I would put this in the Chianti realm - This led to the decanting decision and started the 2-hour clock.
Pairing – we were a bit apprehensive as to the menu selection now – the DW’s marinara and meatballs are not bland by any means, and thought that it would overpower the wine. Happily, we were not disappointed. It held up well, just enough acidity to pair with the tomato, and fat in the meat. It was smooth, approachable, easy to drink, and could sneak up on you with its lower-than-average AbV.
Day 2: It held up extremely well – fruit flavors now more concentrated, and a better stand-alone beverage.
In full disclosure, I would not let it cellar much longer. It is a great drink-now wine, big group occasion, as it will appeal to a broad range of tastes and preferences.
Cheers! And enjoy!!
/giphy ruthless-olden-heron
going to split this with my mom again. I think our early summer needs are covered now.
I believe my first internet wine purchase - the pre-wine.woot woot - was Suzy and Jim Gullett’s Vino Noceto Sangiovese. It is been a great ride with WineDavid in the driver’s seat. No love for MI on this offer - sounds tasty
@woopdedoo I still have one (or two) of the Vino Nocetto
@ttboy23 @woopdedoo I do too! I think I still have a bottle of ‘Nuts!’
@fgfljsb @ttboy23 I still have some too - not sure they are from the original offer though.
@woopdedoo Vino Nocetto! Those were some great wines!
@mrn1 @woopdedoo I am a Vino Noceto wine club member thanks to my purchases here!
@dawnlac @mrn1 @woopdedoo I would be a club member if they shipped to my state.
Curious about drinking window on this. Hoping for some winery participation.
@hscottk winemaker said it was hitting is stride during the previous offer (July 2021) - I bought a case then and really enjoyed it but it is long gone! Agree it would be good if winemaker (Stewart) or someone who has consumed a bottle recently could chime in about how it is shaping up now.
I like the wine at this stage. I don’t find it oxidised or tired. The caveat to that assessment is that I’m seldom very interested in the primary fruit characteristics of most wines, and I know that’s not everybody’s take. The general path for this wine is to evolve from more primary cherry to more earthy herbal notes. It’s mostly whole cluster fermented and the resulting herbal components are more clearly revealed as the primary fruit recedes. I still get cherry (more in liqueur form) and iron on the nose, but the tang on the palate now strikes me more akin to green olive than it did in its youth. The blacker, firmer, tar-like note that I like as a contra-fruit counterpoint in younger sangiovese has pulled back also, and I think the balance remains fine. There is still a little back-end grip that brings granite to mind for me, but that’s probably mostly because I have that soil in my mind’s eye when I’m tasting. In all, the “pinot-like” descriptor for the texture seems pretty apt. If you’re an earth/spice/mineral sort of taster, this wine is in a fine place. If you’re more attuned to exuberant cherry fruit, this won’t be the wine for you.
Is anybody in SoCal picking any up? I’d like to try but can’t buy with my current overflow situation.
@klezman I’m sitting on three, so I’m out for any additional…
/giphy thin-heated-grasshopper
/giphy ongoing-patriotic-engineer
Post-Delivery Comment; This is my second case of this vintage of this wine. Overall, I’m impressed with the Pinot-like quality of this wine, but feel it is nearing the end of its shelf life. It’s still very pleasing, but its freshness is fading, and I think in a couple more years will be gone. I thought the case I bought a year or more ago was more food friendly. It’s now drinking better as a stand-alone starter wine, or perhaps as a pairing for white fish.if you have this wine in your cellar, I suggest you drink it this summer.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with the modest lab rat reports but was very impressed with this wine. Felt as true to italian expression of sangiovese as any new world one I’ve had.
Nose has the delightful vino nobile de montalpuciano - dried prunes and restrained fruit. Color is a nice light garnet without bricking. Alcohol and fruit in balance.
Confused by the comparisons to nebbiolo above but think this is ready to pop. Curious about how long it spent in oak.
The joy of a pizza wine with the a touch of the depth of a more refined sangiovese. At this price could be close to a daily drinker. Think it could lay down for some more time but can drink now without feelinglike a cradle robber.