4 Organic CA Cab Sauvignon

As summer yields to autumn, we transition to fall flavors, yet it can still be quite warm. What wine to drink and food to pair? Since it is California Wine Month, we decided to focus on iconic Cabernet Sauvignon grown organically or biodynamically. but from two lesser known regions, Mendocino and El Dorado, paired with a hearty apple blue cheese salad and a cabernet poached apple crumble for a savory dessert. 

While Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa may be California’s most famous, the grape is grown throughout the state, so give a new appellations a try! All four of these wines come from forested areas with some elevation, but other than that, the regions are quite different.

El Dorado is located off of Highway 50 on the way from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. The celebrated “gold country” has diverse complex soils from tectonic activity and lots of volcanic rocks. At an elevation around 3000′ the ecosystem is also quite diverse with towering pine trees, oaks, madrone, and a complex substory of shrubs and wildflowers. Mendocino, located along the northern coast of California, is also is graced with tall trees — but instead of yellow pines, the region has redwoods. Both areas have plenty of Douglas fir, and in the sunnier, more exposed spots, California chaparral (the so-called “elfin forest”) species thrive. The Pacific has more impact on cooling Mendocino, while raging rivers perfect for rafting flow through El Dorado County. 

As El Dorado is famous for its Apple Hill agricultural area, and especially in the fall for its apple and harvest festivals, we thought it would be fun to feature this fall favorite paired with Cabernet Sauvignon. The salad is hearty enough on its own or pair with your favorite protein. Sue was optimistic the dessert would work with the Cabernet Sauvignon also. Read on for more! 

4 Organic Cab Sauvignon + autumn menu

Autumn Menu 

• Apple Walnut Salad with blue cheese 
  apples, spiced walnuts, St Augur blue cheese, spring greens 
• Cabernet Poached Apple Crumble with walnuts and St Augur

Four Organic Cabernet Sauvignon Wines 

• 2020 Bonterra Cabernet Sauvignon McNab Ranch Vineyard, Mendocino AVA
• 2019 Ettore Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendocino AVA
• 2018 Estate Madrona Cabernet Sauvignon, El Dorado AVA  
• 2018 Chateau Davell “Green Man” Cabernet Sauvignon, El Dorado AVA

2020 Bonterra Cabernet Sauvignon McNab Ranch Vineyard, Mendocino AVA

2020 Bonterra McNab Ranch Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendocino AVA

ABV: 14.2%
SRP: $60
Grapes: Biodynamic Cabernet Sauvignon 80%, Petit Sirah 20%
sample for my review

Appearance:  Very dense, ruby to plum, ruby rim — thanks to the Petit Sirah

Aroma: Very heady, cherry cola, cigar box, cloves, chapparel, potpourri, very meditative, earth

Palate: Bright tart cherry, black current tea, pure, very alive and refreshing, cocoa nibs, dark chocolate

Pairing: The wine works beautifully with the salad– the spices in the mixed nuts and the rich blue cheese match the intensity of the wine. The walnuts have a meaty quality and the blue cheese is rich and intense which works with the wine. All in all a beautiful pairing. This salad could also work with a sandwich– just place it between two slices of sourdough bread! While Sue had some trepidations, the dessert does work with this wine as the dessert is not too sweet and the spice elements are those in the wine, however what it likes the best is the walnuts in the dessert. 

2019 Ettore Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendocino AVA with salad

2019 Ettore Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendocino AVA

ABV: 14%
SRP: $52
Grapes: organic Cabernet Sauvignon
sample for my review

One does not always think of red wines as refreshing, however this wine has a refreshing quality to it. 

Appearance:  Very dark and dense, plum, maroon, fuschia rim, 

Aroma: Church incense, cedar, potpourri, cherry jubilee, leather, tobacco,  cinnamon sugar, ponderosa pine, ripe Santa Rosa plum, for Kathy the nose was surprising when compared to the color, menthol, the nose is very rich and intense, very layered in essence, so pleasant and enjoyable

Palate: The palate is very light and elevated, elegant and lighthearted, very contrasting to the heady essence. This is not a heavy handed or manipulated wine. The fruit is able to shine. Grasses on the finish, oxalis, Earl Gray tea, 

Pairing: This wine also works quite well with the salad, the wine becomes fruit forward and the salty components of the meal are highlighted bringing out the best in both. While all of the wines worked quite nicely with the salad, this wine was by far our favorite for pairing the two. This wine and the dessert also work quite well together. The bitterness of the walnut skins as well as the salt in the crumble top and the baking spices in the spiced wine are amazing with the wine. 

2018 Madrona Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, El Dorado AVA

2018 Madrona Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, El Dorado AVA

ABV: 13.5%
SRP: $32
Grapes: organic Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot and Cab Franc 
sample for my review

Sue and I visited Madrona in 2021 and fell in love with the wide range of wines, the location, and the tasting experience in the trees, and so we happily wrote about Madrona for the 2022 and the 2023 editions of Slow Wine Guide.  We’ve also written about their wines several other times, specifically Nebbiolo (read more here), Barbera (here), Cabernet Franc,  and Zinfandel. They also do Grenache, Syrah, Zinfandel, Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Gewurztraminer, and more. 

Located at 3000’ elevation in the Sierra foothills above Placerville, Madroña Vineyards is in the heart of Gold Country where the 2021 vintage was disrupted by the Caldor fire, and the 2022 vintage by frost. From the original 32 acres, Madrona added 250 in 1993, with 35 in vine, and the rest woodland, with 10 more acres of vines in 2001. 

Madrona was started by Dick Bush who worked as a metallurgical engineer and his wife who taught school. In 1973, the family planted own-rooted vines on 32 acres surrounded by a diverse ecosystem including madrones, and they built a winery in 1979. Paul Bush took over from his dad, and with his wife Maggie, they grow fish friendly, organic grapes, make wine, and maintain the family values of environment, community, and education. 

Madrona’s Cabernet Sauvignon is a striking example of what a high mountain vineyard can produce. The grapes are very small-berried resulting in a wine of deep color, intense fruit, and full bodied texture. Traditionally blended with Cabernet Franc for aromatic complexity and Merlot for tannin structure, we age this wine in the finest French and American oak. Our customers constantly search out older vintages of our Cabernet Sauvignon as it is known to age quite gracefully.

Madrona’s Cabernet Sauvignon is a striking example of what a high mountain vineyard can produce. The grapes are very small-berried resulting in a wine of deep color, intense fruit, and full bodied texture. Traditionally blended with Cabernet Franc for aromatic complexity and Merlot for tannin structure, we age this wine in the finest French and American oak. Our customers constantly search out older vintages of our Cabernet Sauvignon as it is known to age quite gracefully.

Appearance:  Ruby, garnet rim, dense and dark

Aroma: Evergreens, baking spice, cinnamon toast, smells like the holidays, cranberries, cherries, Earth

Palate: Bold tannins, black current tea, pine forrest, cranberry, tart bright cherry, cherry tobacco, gingerbread, walnut skin, 

Pairing: It is not that Sue did not like the salad with this wine, it was just that it did not work as outstandingly with the wine as the previous two did. It did work better with the nutty sourdough and the salad. I wanted the salad in a sandwich again thinking the bread would ground the salad and bring the two together. While Kathy liked the other wines with the dessert, she felt that these two together were perfect. The Sierra spice in the wine enhances the spice in the wine. The tannins in the wine are completely removed by the dessert. Sometimes there is too much contrast between the dessert and the wine. there is not that with these two wines they meld together in perfect harmony which is completely unexpected. 

2018 Chateau Davell “Green Man” Cabernet Sauvignon, El Dorado AVA with dessert

2018 Chateau Davell “Green Man” Cabernet Sauvignon, El Dorado AVA

ABV: 14.3%
SRP: $48
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon
sample for my review

When I interviewed owner and winemaker Eric Hayes for the new edition of the Slow Wine Guide, he said, “We take that philosophy of organic throughout our business– lables on recycled paper, solar powered, locally sourced glass. We just built a new cellar in Camino in February. It will make my jobs so much easier and the wines better. It’s been an interesting few years with COVID and fires we’ve had to diversity,” explaining that they’ve been doing a lot of business with weddings. 

“Visit us! we’re open every day 11-5pm. We have a park for kids, and we’re family and dog friendly. We’re welcoming,” said Eric– and it’s all true. They are located just off Highway 50, so very easy to visit.

They are a very small winery with limited production of each vintage and each wine. Only two barrels were made of this wine. 

Appearance:  Very dark and dense, like a black orchid, ruby on the black side, garnet rim, 

Aroma: Brandied cherries, chocolate covered cherries, sweet dark chocolate and cherries, mushroom, loamy soil, stewed fruit as opposed to fresh fruit, grape stems, boysenberry, 

Palate: Stewed cherries, velvety across the palate, coats the palate like a cherry liquor without the sugar, 

Pairing: Wow! This wine is so alive and brings this beautiful wine to life, the wine and the salad are perfect together, while this wine is not a dessert wine, it has the richness and has such ripe fruit on the palate that it feels like the decadence of a dessert wine. At times this wine could feel like it was a bit oxidized, however, open it, drink it, pair it with this amazing dessert right away. 

Get schooled on more wines, regions, and pairings from these writers:

• 4 Organic CA Cab Sauvignon from Unusual Places + Unusual Pairings: Mendocino and El Dorado with Apple Salad and Dessert by Wine Predator … Gwendolyn Alley
• Have Wine, Will Travel by Side Hustle Wino
• Snacks, Wine, and Game Night by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Take Us to School: Learning About Missouri Wines and Defiance Ridge Winery by Our Good Life
• Wine from North Carolina? You Betcha! A Hand-Carried Bottle and Some North Carolina Eats by Culinary Cam