CAVEAT: I have a YES/NO response to most wines, with a palate decidedly on the sweet side of the gauge. I buy ports and late harvest wines for me to drink, and an occasional bottle of red wine to take along to a family dinner. I love to taste good wines, though, for their own sake, so I'm very lucky to live in Sonoma County, California, where wine-tasting can be a regular pastime.
STRANGE ATTRACTORS: We try not to miss the Russian River Barrel-Tasting event each year, in part because my spouse collects wine glasses, and many smaller wineries are only open during these events. Imagine our surprise to start talking with a gentleman (C.S. Miner) with whom my spouse had shared some local cycling club events, and discover that he collects wine glasses, has a blogspot of his own, and has even posted to some of the same wine and review sites as I have (notably BlogCritics.org.) We arranged to meet tomorrow for some more mutual tasting.
The season and weather usually conspire to make this a local event, but today was beautifully warm and inviting, and we kept meeting the same people as we progressed from one winery to another. One family was four generations in two vehicles. Grandma seemed partial to the Cabernets, while her muscular grandsons were drinking Syrahs. Their wives, both toting infants, were sticking with Zins or Chardonnay. A tall woman in sunglasses and a black sleeveless dress joked that we were "stalking her" as we met for the seventh time at the end of the afternoon. She was squiring some out-of-county visitors around in search of chocolates and bold reds.
MOST COMPLEX: We started at the south end of Healdsburg, looking for a missing glass for my ever-loving's collection. Camellia Cellars on Front Street let us both score: a brand new logo glass for the collection, and an amazingly complex 2004 Sangiovese that will be in the barrel for at least another year. This wine has a profound difference in nose between the first whiff out of the barrel, and the glass after only five to ten seconds of breathing. Its initial acrid tang disappears completely, leaving a beautiful fruit compote sense. On the tongue, it already has a rich complexity and a great berry finish.
Next door is the Holdredge barn where the Sapphire Hill Winery barrels were available for tasting. Their 2004 Winberrie Zinfandel (from 96-year-old vines) has only slightly less complexity—we have enjoyed wine from this vineyard in its bottled, finished version for three years now.
If I had the money to buy futures for us to drink or gift, I would divide between these two wines (based on this Saturday tasting only.)
Article comments
1 - Carolyn
Wow..I am sorry you missed us on your visit. We are the first collective tasting room in California and pour the wines of 7 small artisan producers without tasting rooms of their own. Make sure you come taste the Locals next visit.
2 - DrPat
We are very familiar with the Local tasting room in Geyserville - the only problem with barrel-tasting in Sonoma is that 2 1/2 days is never long enough to get to every tasting venue.
That's why the caveat at the beginning of both posts!
I plan to do a late-harvest only post later this spring (maybe the passport weekend, last weekend in April), and a Zin-only post in the summer, so I'm sure we will be coming by several of the collective tasting rooms then.
3 - Scott
Although I am now a part of the barrel tasting work force, I enjoy the reviews of critics who truely enjoy this event from the 'outside'. I am still coming down from the exhileration of sampling for so many people our food and wine at our new location. You seemed to hit the highlights and I appreciate your passion of the quest.
Just one question - how could we more qualify for friendliest people? I am still working to rest my smile and relax my enthusiam from this sun-soaked weekend.
Cheers!
Scott Lindstrom-Dake
owner/winemaker
thumbprint cellars
4 - Eric Olsen
very nice job on this DrPat, you are quite the sophisticate (although I find sweet wines cloying for the most part), and I must add you have been a tremendous addition to Blogcritics.
5 - Sam
I was very impressed with the Zins at Harvest Moon on Olivet Road. Our first visit there on Barrel Tasting Weekend, they were pouring some Zins from barrel that were so fruity that we were quite surprised. We also liked the wines at Pelligrini Winery. Olivet Road wineries are producing some very excellent wines.