Wines

Carol’s 2016 Chardonnay is our golden-haired wild child, an exuberant and delectable mouthful of joy. Sourced from her estate vineyard in Dry Creek Valley, this vivacious white wine is a classic California Chardonnay with a delicate balance of richness and acidity to please all the Wild Things out there… Remember, you are what you drink! 

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.

High up in the Sierra Nevada, the California Gold Country town of Auburn. lies this gem of a vineyard of Viognier, planted and managed by the father and son team of John and Joe Damiano.  When picked just a bit less ripe than many CA Viogniers, the fruit expresses lively citrus and gentle white flower aromatics, while barrel fermentation in mostly older French oak barrels leads to a wine of perfect structure and creamy-crispy balance.  

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.  

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.

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Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of 2014, #89

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

We chose to honor Charlie Piazza’s half century of growing in Lodi by making an anagram of his name to christen this classic old-style Zin.  These gnarly head-trained vines deliver brilliant wild cherry jam on a milk chocolate-marshmallow background.  S’more, please!

We christened the Monga Zin® as we stumbled while saying its appellation too many times, probably after having too much of this HUMONGOUS mouthful of fruit and rich milk chocolate.

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 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 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.

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.