February 14, 2025 – With an expanded patio for outdoor picnics and first-class relaxation, Odonata welcomes visitors to chill out and breathe in the rustic charm of River Road. They’ve even added a covered bandstand for live music, or perhaps a staging of Midsummer Night’s Dream.
When a throng of Wild Wine Women descended on Odonata for a tasting on a sunny and blissful Monday earlier this week, we were greeted by a bevy of new wines poured by tasting room manager Rebecca Carranza, who had her capable hands full in the absence of Denis Hoey—in bed with the flu. It’s a bad one this year, as any physician will tell you.
Odonata has a good selection of bubbles on rotation, and the Odonata Bubbles Club is going strong. We began with the 2020 Blanc de Blanc, a delightfully breezy and uplifted sparkler with crisp Meyer lemon notes. Made of 100% Chardonnay from the Escolle Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands (SLH), it was stainless steel fermented and spent 38 months on the lees.
Then it was on to the 2021 Sparkling Grenache, a red fruited, fun and gregarious beverage from Hook Vineyard, also in the Santa Lucia Highlands. This wine wants a party and will automatically start one upon opening.
If there’s any doubt about the provenance of the late John Boekenoogen’s vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands, the 2023 Odonata Chardonnay from Boekenoogen Vineyard wine will dispel all. With its creamy, inviting texture and warm flavors of peach cobbler and poached pear with lemon curd, this wine is a winner all around. Hoey has done this vineyard proud. The extraordinary 333-acre parcel that contains this stunning 90-acre Chardonnay vineyard, planted in 1997, is for sale for a mere $9 million.
We were then treated to a tasting of the three wines in the February Odonata wine club release. Hard to choose a favorite here, but the 2022 SLH Pinot Noir, a smooth yet explosive cranberry and pomegranate-laced combo of Pommard and 777 from Escolle Vineyard and KW Ranch, both in the SLH, hit the right notes for me.
Most of the posse had never heard of Aglianico, let alone tried it, and the 2022 Odonata Aglianico from Barr Vineyard in Paso Robles was a fine introduction. Known for its robust tannins, this Italian noble red is often considered in a class with Nebbiolo, and the color of this one was quite close. Lovely aromatics of orange spice and leather lead to a surprisingly crisp and peppery palate, tinged with raspberry tea and tobacco leaf.
The 2022 Petite-Sangio blend hails from Machado Creek in Santa Clara Valley and blends the chocolatey lushness of Petite Sirah with the youthful tease of red cherry soda from the Sangiovese, to create a pop rocks sensation in the mouth. Kind of like a truffle filled with a tangy, boozy red cherry filling. The 2020 Odonata Malbec from the Pedregal Vineyard in San Benito County was by far the most popular red we tasted, with its bold tannins and flavors of blueberry and ollalieberry pie. The baking spice from the Hungarian oak added a nice touch.
Hoey is also distilling these days and offers a Papa Hoey Fresh Lemon Brandy for $42 and a VSOP Central Coast Brandy for $55. From bubbles to brandy, this guy does it all.
After indulging in a plethora of desserts brought by the various bakers in our group, we headed down River Road to visit Chad Silacci at Rustiqué Wines. They’ve been busy constructing a righteous parking area, with steps down to the patio outside their charming barn, where they are holding more and more events, organized by Chad’s sister, Sara. That sweeping view to the south and east never gets old: neither does the one of the green hillsides flanking the western hills that shield the property like a giant moat.
Silacci is getting more and more confident in his winemaking, and it really shows in his flawless execution of the 2023 Rosé of Pinot Noir, its delicate strawberry and Fuji apple fruit flavors taken to another level by exuberant acidity. My table was filled with lovers of acid-driven wine, and this one got two thumbs up for its undeniably racy acidity.
If wines with a rapier-like focus are your jam, you’ll resonate with the 2023 Rustiqué Stainless Steel Chardonnay, from the nearby Gularte Vineyard, which saw no oak at all. This is a kissing cousin to Chablis, with no malo and a surprisingly tropical bent, considering it was an early pick.
Grapes for the 2023 Gularte Vineyard Oaked Chardonnay were picked a few weeks later, and done in 28% new French oak for 10 months with a non-diacetyl yeast that avoids the buttery aromas and flavors in most typical California Chardonnay. It went through partial malo to preserve the juicy peach, apple and crisp pear flavors. Great side-by-side show and tell for a book club session.
Perhaps the most compelling wine was the 2023 Rustiqué Riesling from the Tondré Grapefields vineyard in the SLH, done in a Kabinett style with 8.7gms/liter of RS and a TA of 9.8. Plus it has a pH of 3: yikes! With aromas that cause olfactory whiplash and flavors that run the gamut from melon to green apple and just picked apricot, this is a head-turner, and another crowning achievement for Silacci.
But he wasn’t done impressing us. He poured two excellent Pinot Noirs, very demonstrative of their terroir, with the 2023 KW Ranch SLH Pinot Noir going head-to-head with the 2023 Estate Pinot Noir. Both were done with less than 10% whole cluster inclusion and both saw around 40% new French oak, kept as a background element, given the front and center intensity of the fruit. The KW is spicier, loftier, and racier, with crisp cranberry and cherry, amped up by coriander, white pepper and even a bit of juniper and green chile. This wine does somersaults on the palate.
In contrast, the Estate Pinot Noir comes across as deeper, rounder and richer, with lovely black cherry, a touch of pleasing earth, a nice herbal streak of rosemary and lavendar and a satisfying grippiness. This one definitely gets the nod from lovers of a bigger, fleshier style.
Not to be upstaged by mere Pinot Noir, however, the 2022 Tondré Vineyard Syrah, done with 3% Viognier as a co-ferment, proved the Paul Bunyan of the lineup. With massive aromas of plum, earth, bay leaf and cured meat, this is Syrah done in the classic Northern Rhone style. Aged in 50% new French oak for 16 months, it lavishes the palate with its silky texture and beautiful blueberry fruit, deftly accented by black pepper. Silacci says he finds a nice streak of yellow fruit down the centerline of the wine from the Viognier. If you’re looking for a rip-snorting Syrah that’s drinking great right now, give this a swirl.
Considering that Rustiqué—named after Chad and Sara’s mom Rusti Lee, an elementary school teacher who passed away in 2019—has only been open since May 2021, the wine lineup is most impressive. The brand has grown from 450 cases to 2,400 as of vintage 2024. Rusti, who smiles at visitors from a family photo taken near the barn, would be enormously proud of the brand her family has built in her honor.
Sante Arcangeli Makes Changes in Pescadero
John Benedetti took a break from dreaming about shredding the slopes with all that fresh powder, to tell us the Sante Arcangeli Pescadero Tasting Experience has moved to “Hay Loft” dining area above the Cheese Shop at Harley Farms, while the barn where his tastings have been held, undergoes renovations.
It’s baby goat time, so this is a wonderful excuse to head up the coast, and maybe you’ll spot some neat surf, due to the recent storm, along the way. There are lovely gardens in which to enjoy tasting, perhaps accompanied by Harley Farms goat cheese or sandwiches and snacks from Arcangeli Grocery Company, which is owned by John’s brother.
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
