'97 Ironstone Reserve Cab Sierra Foothills

[thewoodman]

Was this really a Sierra Foothills appelation wine? Ironstone, at least up until a year ago (the last time I was at the winery), had a habit of putting "Sierra Foothills" (where the winery is located) prominently on their bottles, while "California", the appelation, was down below. The winery in Amador (maybe Tuolumne) County is very impressive and really plays to tourists, but there are very few vineyards, most of their grapes are trucked up from the Central Valley. The wines are not bad, but it always smacked of deception to me. The last time I was at the winery, they had hang tags on the bottles that the BATF made them put on to describe reality.