Corralitos Wine Company

If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don’t accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend — Saint Augustine
We accept requests here at Sidney S. reviews and recently the young and fetching Jane L. of West Covina (the town I was born in two Jane L.‘s ago) wrote: «I love that schtick you do with The Winery That Shall Not Be Named. Can you do another winery review because it always makes me laugh.
Well, of course we can do another winery review because there is always a winery to visit! During a recent day trip in the Aptos area, I saw a sign for wine tasting on my way to lunch and like Pavlov’s Dog hearing the bell ring, I started salivating. Corralitos is perfectly located next to Sid’s Smokehouse (no affiliation) so it is a perfect BBQ chaser after you’ve had your fill of lovely smoked meats.
Corralitos is an increasingly common story, home winemakers turned professional. They secure grapes from vineyards in the Sonoma, Napa, Monterey (misspelled on their website with the Mexican City’s name), Livermore and Santa Cruz wine growing areas. They have the usual suspects as wines: Pinot, Merlot, Chardonnay, Syrah and an interesting Rhone Blanc blend of Grenache Blanc and Roussane.
I tasted with Jerry Starr, Certified Sommelier and Founder/​Director Sales & Marketing for the winery. He was knowledgeable and passionate about his wines and had to deal with some older couples before I tasted who clearly were a disagreeable lot. And they were bogarting the small tasting area! Jeez people, its not rocket science, when sharing a tasting space, back off so others can access the wines.
The winery’s tasting room is located in a storage facility of all places, but while not having the pretension and fake grandeur of The Winery That Shall Not Be Named (Clos LaChance for you Miss Jane), Jerry’s obvious love of what he is doing shows through and while the reds are not my style (I thought they were too pandering and obvious but your mileage may vary) I did enjoy the Rhone Blanc blend and bought two bottles. Furthermore, I think with more time and experience, if they maintain superior grape sources the reds may become balanced in the future and this could really be a small winery to follow.
Price points are a bit high with $ 56 for the La Tache clone Pinot and $ 38 for a Livermore Merlot (Yikes!). The track record is not there yet for that pricing with the current quality, although again, I suspect the quality will take a big jump in the future (And again, you may have a different opinion. Wine is subjective and I have wine friends who told me this winery is very highly regarded as a newcomer).
Definitely recommended for the passion and to see how this winery project fares in the future!

Stopped in for some of their Pinot Noir. Had the ’08 Dijon and the ’08 LaTache clone which were excellent! They were also pouring Merlot, Syrah and Chardonnay. There was no charge for the tasting fee.