Local tasting rooms have hit the speed limit.
Carmel Valley's latest wine tasting room, its 23rd, is open, pouring and anticipating its Jan. 31 grand opening party at the end of the month, bringing the total number of local tasting rooms to a whopping and wonderful 55.
Coastview Vineyard (277-7283) may not enjoy the most inspired name, but it is accurate, thanks to vistas 2,400 feet up in the Gabilan Mountains' limestone soils.
More importantly, the wines are good and the labels are beautiful.
Take a peek at the images at right for an understanding of its unique steampunk aesthetic, which plays with the walls, in the wine racks and on the bottle.
The tasting ($10, waived with a bottle purchase) includes five wines.
On my visit yesterday, the wines in rotation were:
1) An atypical Chardonnay, a Terraces 2009 ($20/bottle), with leaner body and a good amount of minerality complexifying pleasant stone fruit flavors.
2) A rounder Terraces 2011 Chard ($22), with a bigger buttery pear power to it.
3) A 2009 Xu Fu blend ($38) of Cabernet Sauvignon (75) and Cab Franc (25) with bright fruit qualities. The name hails from a famous Chinese explorer, teasing out the air balloon/adventure motif on the labels. Coastview's wine club, as it happens, is named the Explorer Club.
4) Another explorer blend, the SA Andre 2009 ($38), with a Bourdeaux combo of Cab, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec with a correspondingly lush body.
5) A Syrah ($24) that enjoys a lighter body and enjoyable acidity. I left with one of these and the 2009 Chardonnay.
The tasting room is open 11am-5pm daily.
While they're new, Coastview has been in SLH since 1999, selling to other wineries from Humboldt to Paso Robles, like Parsonage, Odonata, Thatcher and Chateau Lattau, and reliably running out of fruit due to demand.
For more on the various tasting areas that call Monterey County home, click through to the Carmel Valley, Carmel and River Road maps and guides.
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