Updated March 2021
Welcome to the Madera Wine Trail
Even a savvy California wine fan may not be aware of the Madera region, tucked away in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Funny enough, this trail is one of California’s oldest AVA’s, established back in 1984.
Why isn’t Madera recognized as a quality appellation? For one, it’s dominated by bulk, low quality producers. It’s also a challenging region to grow quality fruit due to the high heat and relatively flat farm land.
After spending a few days exploring the area, we were unsurprisingly unimpressed with the quality of wines. Some producers brought in grapes from more popular regions (making it hard to really taste the local terroir). Others focused on sweet, fortified wine and others were simply.. not good.
Disappointed that we couldn’t find any spots to recommend to our readers, we then stumbled upon a hidden gem.
Enter: Toca Madera
Young winemaker Shayne Vetter greets us on a slow weekday and we enter the spacious tasting room overlooking a sloping backyard vineyard. We always appreciate tastings with knowledgable staff, so that we can ask all of our nerdy questions; even better when the winemaker themselves are pouring.
After exchanging pleasantries, the wines for tasting are assembled. We can see just from the look of the juice that this winemaker is a bit unorthodox.
Breaking the rules
Shayne studied winemaking at Fresno State University but is quick to point out that he doesn’t make wine by-the-book, university-taught methods. When he told his classmates he would start making wine near his home town in Madera, his friends didn’t believe him.
“They thought I was crazy”, Vetter remarks, “people think that just because the climate is hot that you can’t make good wine”.
The Wines of Toca Madera
We begin with a 2018 “Conmigo” — a Rhone white blend which had vibrant fruit aromas, but also great mouth feel and wet stone mineral notes, all resulting in an impressive taste out of the gate.
Next up is a very interesting take on a Muscat; unfiltered and unfined with low alcohol. This zippy skin-contact white wine leaned into sour beer territory and was a wild ride for the senses. Finding unfined and unfiltered whites are rare and we absolutely loved this bottle
After a brief intermission with a rose, we move to a Zinfandel. Putting a Zin so early in the lineup is surprising since Zins are typically very full bodied, high in alcohol and would normally be tasted further down the line. However, Shayne points out this bottle was made in an old-world, Croatian style (the origin of Zins).
Normally, we wouldn’t look twice at a California Zin, but this one made our heads turn. Lightweight, bursting with black cherry and raspberry aromas, bright high acidity that makes you wonder how on earth the grape was grown here.
“Zin just grows naturally well here..” said Shayne, who also manages the vineyard, “I barely have to irrigate”.
Rounding out the reds was a delicious unfined, unfiltered Grenache, a GSM and a few age-worthy Tempranillos. Naturally, the unfiltered wines offered the best aromas and flavors of the bunch.
A COVID counter
In addition to making some delicious wine in a challenging climate, Vetter is on top of his brand marketing and social media presence. During COVID, he was fast to start virtual tastings with the wine community.
Every Thursday and Friday at 6p PST, Shayne hosts a live virtual wine tasting on Facebook and Instagram Live. Toca Madera also offers free doorstep delivery to locals and as of July 20, 2020, outdoor tastings by appointment.
Drawing parallels
Hearing Shayne’s story and vision reminds us of another winemaker in an overlooked region: Benjamin Calais from CALAIS Winery in Fredericksburg, Texas.
We appreciate winemakers who challenge the status quo by using non-traditional techniques and methods and can still produce quality juice when the odds are stacked against them. We’ll keep a lookout for other standout producers in this hot-climate AVA, but for now, be sure to check out Toca Madera.
