Wines

We originally created the 2008 version of this wine to celebrate our 10^th anniversary as a winery in 2010.  With the exotic complexity and food friendliness of a white Rhone-style blend, it is a “red-drinker’s white,” a complex alternative to the more one-dimensional white varietal wines like Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc. It is the perfect complement to its namesake shellfish, as well as chicken or pork dishes with buttery-creamy sauces.  *Coquille is pronounced “ko-keel” and it is French for shellfish or scallop, like the scallop shells on the Shelton family coat of arms.

A rendezvous with friends is all the more delicious a pleasure over a bottle of luscious chilled dry rosé, hence the name of our “Rendezvous Rosé.”  Created by bleeding half of the “pink” juice off of red Carignane grapes a full three days after crushing them, it is fermented cold like a white wine to retain every delicious drop of crisp strawberry fruitiness.  

Carol's Christmas Menagerie is a 6 pack meant for a Holiday party! Discover the versatility and elegance of Carol's winemaking style with this collection of a white Rhone blend, Pinot Noir, Old Vine Zin, a bold and juicy red blend, Cabernet Sauvignon & Petite Sirah. 

Enjoy a bottle each of the following:

2015 Coquille Blanc, 91 Pts – Wine Spectator & California Grapevine

2014 Pinot Noir, 89 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

2014 Wild Thing Old Vine Zin, 89 Points - Wine Spectator

2014 Karma Reserve Zin Blend, 91 Points - Wine Spectator Magazine

2012 King Ridge Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, 2 GOLD Medals

2013 Florence Petite Sirah, 92 Pts - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The wines in this three pack have more than Carol Shelton in common - they are all made from Old Vines! Selected for the serious wine lover in your life this bunch includes:

2014 Wild Thing Old Vine Zinfandel

The heart of this wine is the wild-looking head-trained old vines located in Mendocino County's legendary Cox Vineyard.

89 Points - Wine Spectator

10 GOLD Medals

2014 Old Vine Carignane, Oat Valley Vineyard - $28

Planted in 1961 - these beautiful dry farmed and head-trained Carignane vines have just started to achieve maturity at 52 years old. 

4 Best of Class, 2 Double GOLD Medals, 5 GOLD Medals, & a PLATINUM Medal

2013 Old Vine Zinfandel, Mancini Vineyard

This wine is a true Field Blend from the Mancini Family Vineyard in the Russian River Valley. Seductive and complex, this blend of old vines was planted in 1922 to mostly Zin, with random vines dappled throughout the vineyard of Alicante Bouschet, Petite Sirah, Grand Noir, Mataro, Palamino and many others. 

92 Points - Wine Spectator

90 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

This 3 Pack is for the perfect gift for the Wild Thing in your life! A bottle each of mouth-watering Viognier and sophisticated Chardonnay are joined by Carol's most popular Old Vine Zinfandel, the original Wild Thing. 

2016 Wild Thing Chardonnay

2016 Viognier

Old Vine Mendocino Zinfandel is a treasure. Grown on the benchlands and slopes of mountainsides — this 60 plus year old vine Zinfandel was named for these wild- looking vines and also for the uninoculated, or “wild,” yeast ferment that was used to create it.  It takes a lot of effort to tame this wild fruit, but it is worth all the trouble. Wild Thing is dangerously good!   Remember – you are what you drink….

Old Vine Mendocino Zinfandel is a treasure. Grown on the benchlands and slopes of mountainsides — this wild-looking old vine Zinfandel offers fruit that winemaker Carol Shelton, with her 35+ years of experience and creativity, has transformed into a wine that is concentrated yet soft, creamy and full of flavor.  Our Wild Thing Zinfandel was named for these wild- looking vines and also for the uninoculated, or wild, yeast ferment that was used to create it.  It takes a lot of effort to tame this wild fruit, but it is worth all the trouble.

____LIMITED AVAILABILITY____

Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of 2014, #89

90 Points - Wine Spectator, May 31, 2014 & 2 GOLD Medals

Every once in a while, a twist of fate can deal a quirky hand, and with a stroke of magic it can become an enchanting experience.  Black Magic™ Late Harvest Zinfandel conjures up a charming finale for a delicious meal—lusciously jammy and sweet, it complements many foods from savory cheese plates to decadent chocolate desserts.  Abracadabra!     <Extremely Limited Production>

September is Good Karma month at Carol Shelton Wines. For every bottle of 2014 Karma Reserve purchased this month Carol will donate a dollar to one of her favorite charities. 

It’s Karma:  if you do good things, something good will happen. Our Karma Reserve red blend is a complex wine that is both bold and fruity, brimming with dark fruit flavors and deep toasted oak. We pass along this good Karma to you ….now pay it forward!

92 Points - California Grapevine, August, 2017

91 Points - Wine Spectator, December 15, 2016

90 Points - Connoisseurs' Guide to CA, September, 2016

The name for our reserve wine, Rocky Reserve^®, comes from the deep red, rocky soils

of the Florence Vineyard, 1400 feet above Lake Sonoma and Dry Creek Valley. 

This is a more elegant and restrained Zin, worthy of five or more years of cellaring,

though it is packed with fragrant black and blue berry fruits.

The name of the PeaceLand Vineyard comes from the translation of its owners’ German last name—Friedland.  The unique “tall-head” trained vines are planted in a wild fantasia of settings—steep hillsides, amidst groves of bay and live-oak, most with stunning vistas of the city of Santa Rosa far below.  It was the three separate clones Zinfandel that drew us to try them out…and we are hooked!

Mancini Vineyard was planted in 1922 in the old world method of mixed planting. There are vines of  Zinfandel, Carignane, Alicante Bouschet, Petite Sirah, Grand Noir, Valdiguié, Abouriou, and other unidentified varieties in this amazing old vineyard. A true field blend, Mancini Zin is as interesting and complex to taste as the vineyard itself!

Our Cuvée Jacqueline is elegant, pretty and complex, much like our friend Jacqueline herself. Sustainably farmed vines and the wild yeast that grow upon their grapes have created this wonderfully rich and creamy Zinfandel. 

Our legendary Rockpile grower, Jack Florence Sr., also farms this creekside vineyard in the northern tip of Dry Creek Valley. Our Florence Petite is brighter in acidity with riper berry flavors than its more elegant Rockpile counterpart.

Larson Vineyard, in the Sonoma side of Carneros, is owned by our friend and fellow home brewer, Ken Larson. In our Pinot Noir we blended two Dijon clones: 60% clone 115 and 40% clone 667, both hailing from the Dijon region of Burgundy originally.  We really like the complex flavors, rich fruit and spicy firm tannin structure that this wine delivers…truly a classic “iron fist in a velvet glove!”

The Petite Sirah is farmed by legendary Rockpile grower Jack Florence on a well-draining, rocky riverbed vineyard. Located on the northern tip of Dry Creek Valley, this Petite Sirah is brighter and jammier than its Rockpile counterpart.

The high elevation of this vineyard (2000 feet in “coastal” west Sonoma County) gives it an elegant flavor profile, a bit similar to our wines from the Rockpile AVA.  The vineyard faces several sheer granite rock outcroppings called The Devil’s Ribs, which absorb all the sun’s heat all day long and radiate it back slowly all night, allowing the fruit to get more evenly ripe earlier in the harvest season.  It is graciously styled with black cherry-cassis fruit and a nice hint of tobacco and cedar-spice, with a long smooth finish.

The high elevation of this vineyard (2000 feet in “coastal” west Sonoma County) gives it an elegant flavor profile, a bit similar to our wines from the Rockpile AVA.  The vineyard faces several sheer granite rock outcroppings called The Devil’s Ribs, which absorb all the sun’s heat all day long and radiate it back slowly all night, allowing the fruit to get more evenly ripe earlier in the harvest season.  It is graciously styled with black cherry-cassis fruit and a nice hint of tobacco and cedar-spice, with a long smooth finish.

Our Rockpile Reserve®  titles designate a series of elegant red wines from the Rockpile AVA, 1000-2000 feet above Lake Sonoma and the Dry Creek Valley in NW Sonoma County.  This Cabernet Sauvignon is the second varietal of the series to be released, and it is comes from the Rockpile Vineyard of Rod and Cathy Park at 2000 foot elevation.  It is graciously styled with black cherry-cassis fruit and a nice hint of tobacco and cedar-spice, with the long smooth creamy finish that is so characteristic of Rockpile reds.

Our Rockpile Reserve®  titles designate a series of elegant red wines from the Rockpile AVA, 1000-2000 feet above Lake Sonoma and the Dry Creek Valley in NW Sonoma County.  This Cabernet Sauvignon is the second varietal of the series to be released, and it is comes from the Rockpile Vineyard of Rod and Cathy Park at 2000 foot elevation.  It is graciously styled with black cherry-cassis fruit and a nice hint of tobacco and cedar-spice, with the long smooth creamy finish that is so characteristic of Rockpile reds.

Our Rockpile Reserve®  titles designate a series of elegant red wines from the Rockpile AVA, 1000-2000 feet above Lake Sonoma and the Dry Creek Valley in NW Sonoma County.  The Petite Sirah is the from the Parks’ Rockpile Vineyard, one of the first vineyards to be planted in the AVA, back in 1988.  It is not a “rip your face off” Petite, but graciously styled while still full bodied, and packed with black pepper and sweet oak.