So this past weekend I got my butt out of bed relatively early both Saturday and Sunday for good reason: the
30th annual Russian River Valley Wine Road Barrel Tasting and the
Artisan Cheese Festival in Petaluma.
With a little advance planning, we were able to hit 10 wineries on Saturday between 11am - 4pm, with nary a casualty (please note ** below - we only sort of made this one)! For $20 per person per weekend (though we only made it one day, still a fantastic value), you got a wristband and a commemorative glass. Although this event is primarily about the wines, we did take into consideration the food situation at each winery in our planning to ensure we had a good consistent base; there are 180 participating locations after all - it's pretty easy to balance excellent wine choices w/ advertised munchies to come up with a very strong list. Between the nibbles and being very selective about which wines we tasted at each place (the average seemed to be 6-8 wines, with some pouring as many as a dozen - no way to make more than 2 or 3 places if you tasted everything!), we were able to stay relatively sober and get to the end of the day satisfied and not wined-out. A comprehensive review falls below the map:
View Larger Map1)
Rodney Strong
- A new winery for us and a strong start to the day. They invested in a great big tent for this event divided into front and back sections by some tables to help the flow. Current releases and a library wine were set up at a bar near the front with a table of Girl & the Fig goodies to sample on the way through to the back half, where there were meatballs on baguette slices and a selection of cheeses to nibble as well as 2 barrel samples: the '06 reserve Cab (yummy) and the '07 reserve Pinot (good, but seemed to be missing a little something. They will bottle this as 100% Pinot; perhaps it will develop more complexity by then.) We were happily surprised to see that chilled Calistoga water in individual bottles was readily available at this and all the wineries.
2)
Ridge Lytton Springs - A staple for us; we hit Ridge pretty much every time we're in the area. The hot tip is to buy magnums here, especially the Geyserville - great value, difficult to find at retail, and AWESOME party wines. The grounds & their new building (well, not so new anymore, but still worth checking out the story behind its green construction) are nothing to poke a stick at, either. Although food was not advertised, they had a nice cheese table available. Current releases were sampled in their usual tasting room, including the Old School (f.k.a. something-else School, which we liked) and the 2006 Mikulaco Chardonnay which we nabbed a bottle of. But the real reason for the visit was the barrel tasting back in the cellar area - after being shepherded through the ceiling-high maze of barrels (
see photo) to a space in the back, one could get a sneak peak of some 2007 Zin (which I skipped) and the
2007 Monte Bello, which has long been recognized as one of the finest wines in the world but which I'd never had the opportunity to taste before. The complexity and nuanced flavours even at this stage (about 3 or 4 years away from hitting the shelf) was incredible. Although at release this wine retails in the neighborhood of $130, I have to say I was impressed enough to justify the price. To quote Ferris Bueller, "If you have the means, I HIGHLY recommend picking one up." We're leaning strongly towards joining the Collector's Program for Monte Bello futures ourselves - it's looking like a pretty good investment!
3)
Mazzocco
- Just a few doors down from Ridge right next to the little Healdsburg Airport, the first thing you hit was a giant grill where the chef was cranking out tasty skirt steak chunks on baguette slices, with plenty of outdoor seating areas to relax for a moment in the sun. Inside their spacious tasting room (which had all its doors & windows open to make inside-outside flow even easier), they were pouring their current releases at the bar, and offering 4 barrel samples from 3 single vineyard 2007 Zins (Maple, Pony & Stone), all of which I skipped, plus the 2006 Reserve Cab which was good, but nowhere near as good as the 2003 finished bottling which they were pouring at another table, which was excellent and a decent value at $50.
4)
Unti - Although not on our original plan, we made a quick stop at Unti since it's right near Bella & Coffaro and we do like their Italian-styled wines. Although they weren't pouring their lovely rose which is still a few weeks hence, there were some good current releases including the 2006 Segromigno which is primarily Sangiovese, and a couple of barrel samples - I tried the 2006 Winery Block Syrah which shows a lot of promise. Nearly an 1/8 of their tasting room was consumed by 2 enormous barrels with spigots on the fronts & what looked like professional coffee bean feeders sitting on top with varying amounts of wine in them; we learned that temperature affects this volume more than regular-sized barrels, and the valves on top were there to help maintain the amount of wine in the barrel as it expands & contracts, to keep it consistently topped-up & therefore wet, but also to provide a release for that excess wine when necessary.
5)
Bella** - Bella sports these asterisks because although we made the effort, parked and went up there, glasses in hand (so I still count it among the 10 wineries we hit - sue me), we ended up bailing due to the ridiculous crowd with long lines for EVERYTHING. The good news was that they had attendants to help direct traffic to the various parking areas; the bad news was the demographic (much younger than everywhere else we'd hit and, um, "greek") and as previously mentioned, the ginormous number of people. To be fair, we probably should have anticipated both the size & quality of the crowd based on their promotion of the event, which plugged a "footstompin' hoedown underground" with "wines streaming straight from the spigot", "hearty fare with all the fixens'" plus a live band with a "racket of tunes". On a non-event weekend, Bella is fun since they have a cave where they do tastings as well as their barn, and their rose is pretty good.
6)
David Coffaro - Another favorite of ours, known for small & incredibly varied production, Coffaro offered 10 barrel samples in a format which our friend Kevin affectionately dubbed the "barrel-go-round", which worked GREAT for keeping the flow of traffic moving properly, even with a pretty sizeable crowd (though obviously not as insane as at Bella - in fact right at the door a couple of people were debating whether to head over there and we steered them clear). True to their promotion, they had "music on the big screen" which is permanently installed at one end of their barn/ tasting room - we LMAO'd when we realized it was Toto in concert - and not old Toto either. Classic. The barrel-go-round worked very well - again, I was selective out of self-preservation and tasted about 4 of them, of which the best were the Terre Melange & Aca Modot, both red blends and both topped the list of futures purchases from the weekend prior. Their 2007 Block 4 Field Blend also gets an honorable mention - and "
field blend" seems to be the next big (old) thing, this being about the 3rd time we'd heard it mentioned that day! Basically the varietals are planted in approximate percentages in the field and harvested all in one big lump to be processed AS a blend, rather than harvesting individual varietals and then blending them in the lab to taste. It's a very traditional old-world technique for creating blends - and frankly, it seems like Mother Nature could do a pretty good job of it! They also had a handful current releases bringing the total to over a dozen wines available here, as well as hearty and tasty tomato soup with hunks of bread and blondies from Costeaux Bakery. Coffaro came closest to doing us in with the sheer volume of wines.
7)
Murphy-Goode - Yet another giant tent set up in front of their regular tasting room, with lots of tall tables & stools, a bar down one side for current releases, and a couple of barrel tasting areas and food station on the other (serving hearty shredded steak and peppers over rice & beans). I tasted the 2007 Ellis Ranch Cabernet (good) and the 2006 Malbec (VERY good). With reasonable prices to boot, we think Murphy-Goode is an underrated winery.
8)
Alexander Valley - Another highlight of the trip, this was our first time visiting Alexander Valley Vineyards. In addition to a sampling of current releases including a Viognier (a little too sweet/ lingering finish for what I expect out of this varietal) and a Rose (tasty), out on their deck thy offered a barrel sampling of their 2006 Alexander School Reserve Cab (VERY good) paired with hand-crafted little mini-cheeseburgers and potato salad. Yes, it was as good as it sounds. The key was really the toasted buns... and the dab of Thousand Island dressing. And the Cab. Great show!
9)
Hanna - Another new winery for us, Hanna started us off with a Sauvignon Blanc just inside the door (really very nice, but a touch pricey at about $18 a bottle, which is about the same as the Grgich Hills Fume Blanc), and offered a nice cheese table with craisins. Both barrel tastings - the 2007 Elias Pinot and the 2005 Alexander Valley Cab - were very good. At the counter I asked for an off-the-menu taste of their Rose which was on special by the case, which they were happy to provide, and I was happy to discover was excellent, on par with the best Tavel - I ended up buying a bottle at the non-sale-yet-still-a-good-value of $14. Taking a breather to hang out on their wrap-around deck overlooking the entrance road & vineyards was pretty awesome too.
10)
Hawkes - Our last stop and another not on our original plan, this was probably one of our happiest discoveries in a long time. These guys are a long-time grape farming family who've just recently begun to commercialize their wine (like, November 2007 recent), a story very similar to the Wights who make Lewelling Cabs up in Napa and I've been a fan of for a long time. For these guys the process really starts in the vineyard - it's about
growing great wines more than
creating them. They started us off with 3 single-vineyard barrel tastings of 2005 Cabs, to demonstrate the differences in terroir even among vineyards that are within about 25 miles: Red Winery Road, Stone Vineyard and Pyramid Vineyard, every one of which was excellent. They offer extremely small production of these single vineyards (100-150 cases each), with the majority going into their blended Alexander Valley Cab which is their more "commercial" wine retailing at $40 (DEFINITELY worth the price), but still has limited distribution outside the winery and select restaurants. Hawkes is one to watch (no bad puns, please), and a fantastic way to end our 2008 RRWR tour.
(one of my favorites, actually! liquid cholesterol... yum.)
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