Winemaker

In Arrowcreek

Recently, Mark Aston, ACHOA President and a fellow lover of wine and I met with Dan Carrick at his home on Featherstone Circle to discuss his love of wine and his unique wine cellar. After initial conversations, Dan took us down eight feet to his 1500 bottle capacity wine cellar. It was a substantial size room with a wine table in the center and many award ribbons from various State and County fairs. He currently has five hundred bottles on the racks and the cellar temperature stays around 65-68 degrees year-round without any air conditioning.

Mark and I were delighted when Dan offered to open a splendid 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon (14 percent being Merlot) made by Dan to share.

Winemaker Carrick has been making wine for over 25 years and he has been growing grapes using regenerative techniques for over twenty years in Penn Valley, CA, just off Highway 20 near Grass Valley. Growing about 160 plants and five varietals on his 1/4th acre of land–Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Sangiovese, Albariño and Viognier can be a challenge. On average there are about one hundred grapes per cluster, and it takes about 4,000 grapes to make ten bottles of wine, or four hundred grapes to make one bottle. According to Dan, it is a lot of work especially in the spring when all the weeds start to grow.

Some of his education on grape growing came from various UC Davis weekend courses when he started in the business. However, most of his wine knowledge came from books on winemaking, grape growing and discussion with fellow members of the Sierra Wine and Grape Growers Association. Dan’s first homemade wine was a 1994 Chardonnay, and the bottle is still in his cellar.

Dan’s passion in his winemaking career started with a gift of a wine making kit and he jokingly says it went downhill from there. His knowledge of winemaking and the history behind it was truly an experience to enjoy. As we were leaving the wine cellar, we noticed a small sign tacked on one of the wine racks. It said, “Wine a little bit, you’ll feel better.”