Nine Forty Three
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Fall/Winter 2011 Sonoma County Preferred Wine Country DAY TRIPS TRIPS A publication of NINE WINE TASTING from Sonoma to Geyserville FORTYNTHREE9 www.WineCountryThisWeek.com TASTING ROOM REVIEWS1 43 Eastside Bunch Rockpile R U S S I D A Alexander U N T C R H E IV Valley Lake R E C R R E E SonomaSBRAGIA FAMILY K FERRARI-CARANO 101 DUTCHER CROSSING STEWART’S PO INT RD CANYON Dry Creek RD. DRY CREEK RD. FORCHINI TRUETT HURST PETERSON FAMILY Valley KOKOMO WINERY Downtown Healdsburg Pages 51-59 Dry DRY CREEK VNYD DRY CREEK RD. W & Alexander Valley . Creek D 128 R Y C TTO S R LY N SPG E E Pages 44-50 ALEXANDER K R D . SIMI VALLEY MEDLOCK AMES Northern JCB TASTING ROOM & WINE BAR FERRARI-CARANO’S Knights Sonoma SEASONS OF THE VINEYARD KENDALL-JACKSON Valley STEPHEN & WALKER CHRISTOPHER DE LA MONTANYA CREEK ARMIDA . RODNEY STRONG D R RD. E R ID E S IV T R S E Eastside W 116 HOP KILN WESTS CHALK HILL Bunch Westside RoadID E R D RussianPages 40-43. Pages 36-39 River Chalk SONOMA-CUTRER Hill B R 1 IV O ER H RD E . SLUSSER M I A N . Green AR D H M K R WE S I DUTTON ESTATE S G G MARTIN T S RIN H P W Valley RAY A OLIVET Y GUERNEVILLE HOOK & LADDER LAGUNA RD. GRATON RD. DE LOACH PINER Russian River OCCIDENTAL RD. OCCIDENTAL RD. /Olivet FREESTONE FULTON RD. VINEYARDS BALLETTO Pages 27-31 BODEGA H IGHW VINEYARDS AY Kenwood VA LL EY FO Sebastopol R D C U Hwy. 12 T O F LEDSON F Pages 32-35 101 ST. FRANCIS Pages 22-26 Sonoma 116 GRANGE Coast CHATEAU ST. JEAN VJB VINEYARDS & CELLARS BENNETTMATANZAS VALLEY RD. CREEK PETALUMA HILL ROAD ROBLAR RD. ERIC ROSS ARROWOOD Glen Ellen MOONDANCE B.R. 9 Wine Tasting Trips Pages 15-21 COHN BODEGA Sonoma/CarnerosTomales HWY 7-14 MOUNTAIN 12 TERRACES GlenBay Ellen 15-21 WASHINGTON VINEYARDS Kenwood/Highway 12 22-26 FRATES CHARLES STAGE GULCH CREEK Russian River/Olivet 27-31 HAYWOOD 116 116 Sebastopol 32-35 SCHUG Sonoma/ 101 12 121 Eastside Bunch 36-39 LAKEVILLE RD. 121 Carneros Los MEADOWCROFT Pages 7-14 Westside Road 40-43 CLINE Carneros CELLARS JACUZZI FAMILY Region Downtown Healdsburg VIANSA TO TO 37 TO NAPA & Alexander ValleySAN FRANCISCO 44-50 SAN FRANCISCO Dry Creek Valley 51-59 TO VALLEJO San Pablo Bay Photo by Eric Luse/Eric Ross Winery. Copyrighted 2011. In the glass: Eric Ross Pinot Noir, Saralee's Vineyard. Fall/Winter 2011 Sonoma Country Preferred Wine Country DAYNotes on Wine Tasting TRIPS4 Index 60-61 Heading to the Tasting Room 5 Varietals Poured 60-61 Destiny Wine Tours 6 Sonoma County Wineries Map 62-63 43 TASTING ROOM REVIEWS Armida Winery 42 DeLoach Vineyards 29 Arrowood Winery 18 Dry Creek Vineyards 52 B.R. Cohn Winery 17 Dutcher Crossing Winery 57 Balletto Vineyards 34 Dutton Estate Winery 35 Chalk Hill Estate 37 Eric Ross Winery 19 Charles Creek Vineyard 14 Ferrari-Carano Vineyards & Winery 58 Chateau St. Jean 24 Forchini 56 Christopher Creek Winery 39 Freestone Vineyards 33 Cline Cellars 10 Haywood Winery 13 De La Montanya Estate 43 Hook & Ladder 28 Hop Kiln (HKG) 41 A Publication of JCB Tasting Room & Wine Bar 47 Jacuzzi Family Vineyards 9 Kendall-Jackson Tasting Room 48 Kokomo Winery 54 Ledson Winery & Vineyards 26 Martin Ray Winery 30 www.WineCountryThisWeek.com Matanzas Creek Winery 21 Meadowcroft Wines 11 669 Broadway, Suite B • Sonoma, CA 95476 P.O. Box 92 • El Verano, CA 95433 Medlock Ames Winery 50 707-938-3494 Fax 707-938-3674 Moondance Cellars 20 PUBLISHER Mike Giangreco Mountain Terraces Vineyard 16 Direct (707) 938-3734 [email protected] Peterson Winery 53 SALES REPRESENTATIVE Margaret Villarreal, 707-338-2894 [email protected] Rodney Strong Vineyards 38 MANAGING EDITOR Chandra Grant St. Francis Winery & Vineyards 25 Phone 707-938-1783 • Fax 707-938-3674 [email protected] Schug Carneros Estate 12 OFFICE MANAGER Cathy Gore Sbragia Family Vineyards 59 Phone 707-938-3494 • Fax 707-938-3674 Email [email protected] Simi Winery 49 EDITORIAL Introductions by Abigail Zimmerman Sonoma-Cutrer 31 CONTRIBUTORS Michelle J. Baker James Marshall Berry Stephen & Walker Winery 46 Brendan Conroy Truett Hurst Winery 55 Ronda Giangreco Charles Neave VJB Vineyards & Cellars 23 Sue Straight, The Wine Wench Viansa Winery 8 www.WineCountryThisWeek.com 3 Notes on Wine Tasting It’s a good idea to plan to visit several wineries as every wine-tasting experience offered is different. With so many distinctive viticultural areas, one can easily taste many of the world’s best varietials and winemaking styles without learning the region. Listed below are five basic types of tasting experiences. The experience will vary in style from winery to winery. Wine Bar Tasting The most common tasting experience is a Wine Bar Tasting. You step up to the bar where typically a list of wines being poured is displayed. Expect to pay a tasting fee between $10-$40. Some tasting bars will offer you the option to taste a library or reserve wine. Exercising this option increases the fee, but will allow you to taste very unique, old or rare wines. Sit Down Tasting A Sit Down Tasting usually requires an appointment and there may be a slightly higher fee than a wine bar fee. Seated in an elegant room, you are poured several wines by your winery host. Expect your host to describe the unique characteristics of each wine and how it was made. Table Service Tasting A Table Service Tasting, popular at sparkling wine fa- cilities, is a tasting experience where you are seated at a ery to pour the first round. Then you move to another table and the tastings are brought to you. place within the winery to sample the next wine. This ex- Walk Around Tasting perience continues until all the wines are tasted. A Walk Around Tasting is a combination of a tour and Barrel Tasting a tasting. Your host brings along several bottles of wine on Another popular tasting experience that can be part your tour, and may take you to a garden area of the win- of a tour or a Walk Around is a Barrel Tasting. Your guide takes a “wine thief,” a special siphon placed into a hole in the top of a barrel to extract tasting samples of a matur- ing wine. The sample allows you to taste what the wine is like in the middle of developing its full potential. Why make an appointment? Some wineries are so small that they need to know when you are coming so someone will be there to greet you. Other wineries have permit restrictions that limit the number of guests that can visit each day. Others have sit-down tastings that start and end at specific times. It’s always a good idea to schedule your appointments well in advance of your visit because some of the more popular wineries fill up their appointments weeks in advance. WWW.LEGENDARYNAPAVALLEY.COM 4 www.WineCountryThisWeek.com Heading to the Tasting Room Do not be intimidated for any car or on a plane, buy a card- reason. That is rule number one board box with Styrofoam wine (and there are very few real rules inserts. Fill it during the day and after that). For the most part, this keeps wine from rolling going wine tasting is about the around in the trunk. easiest thing in the world, espe- Check out the smaller winer- cially here in Northern California ies. It is a revelation. where wineries and tasting Take notes on the wines you rooms abound. You can find most enjoyed. wineries specializing in red Take advantage of tours wines of all types, those that are Twomey Cellars when the winery offers them, but famous for their white wines and keep in mind that they take any- others who pour sparkling wine. It is a matter of doing a where from 20 minutes to well over an hour, so one a day little research and planning your day. is plenty. Most tasting rooms open around 10 a.m. and close be- Buy wines that you can only find at the winery. These tween 4:30 and 6 p.m. As a rule sparkling wine houses are often include smaller (375 ml) bottles of limited produc- opened the latest. Before you start off pack a few essen- tion Ports or dessert wines. Don’t buy a wine you can get tials: Water (plenty of water) and something to snack on at a supermarket back home. You’ll pay more, and besides, – crackers or a baguette. Many wineries have picnic areas what’s the point? and there are plenty of delis and bakeries that can make up Look for tasting rooms in towns. Many of these are co- a lunch for you, or make your own. Which brings us to operative tasting rooms, where in one place you might find eating and drinking, the kind that doesn’t directly involve wines from a dozen or more small-to-medium premium wine. producers. They are scattered throughout the area and Be sure to nibble during the day and make sure you more are opening all the time. make time for lunch. Two tips: drink at least twice as much Don’t give too much thought to ratings and vintages. water as you do wine, and remember that you don’t have It’s like art: if you like it, it’s a good wine.