BEST FOOD: Suncé Winery wins this hands-down. First, they cater the food, so that variety and supplies are generous: tender tri-tip slices marinated in peppered grape leaves, toasted cheese-bread, a variety of cheese slices and crackers, a pasta-heavy minestrone, red and green grapes and richly moist chocolate brownies. This year they had to wave traffic on down the road each time their parking lot filled—the word is definitely out about this excellent (and free!) buffet.
Thumbprint Cellars had a strong second place for best food, with smoked cheese polenta, miniature mushroom "burgers," and a rich olive tapenade with crackers on the event buffet. (As I mentioned above, they also had wonderful little chocolate truffles inside the tasting room.)
Tri-tip marinated in wine was on the menu at Wilson Winery on Dry Creek Road west of Healdsburg. Wilson's barrels are exclusively Zinfandel, and this year they also had a visitor ballot to rate the barrels between three vineyards. I found the Tori Vineyard wine unpleasantly peppery, and the Stewart Vineyard wine, unusual for a Zinfandel, almost lacking in fruit tones. Not surprisingly, the Carl's Vineyard barrel had 10 votes for every one that went to the Tori.
FRIENDLIEST PEOPLE: A lady clerk at Pellegrini Family Vineyards gets my vote for the friendliest single person we met today. This is a hard decision to make, because people on the wine road are friendly, and it's an easy in to meet the actual local winemakers. Randy at Harvest Moon was the most accessible winemaker. All three people we spoke with at Christie's Winery were very pleasant to talk to.
So tomorrow is another day to taste the wonderful wines of Sonoma County. If the Russian River vintners will "sell no wine before it's bottled," as the old joke goes, at least we can taste them and get an idea of what's in store for us next year.
Camellia Cellars
57 Front Street
Healdsburg, CA 95448
707-433-1290
Harvest Moon Estate & Winery
2192 Olivet Road
Santa Rosa, California 95401
707-573-8711
Holdredge Winery
51 Front Street
Healdsburg, CA 95448
707-431-1424
Manzanita Creek
1441 B, Grove Street
Healdsburg, CA 95448
707-433-4052
Pellegrini Family Vineyards
4055 West Olivet Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
707-575-8463
Russian Hill Estate Winery
4525 Slusser Rd.
Windsor, Ca 95492
707-575-9428
Sapphire Hill Vineyards & Winery
51 Front Street
Healdsburg, CA 95448
707-431-1888
Suncé Winery
1839 Olivet Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
707-526-9463
Thumbprint Cellars
36 North Street
Healdsburg, CA 95448
707-433-2393
Wilson Winery
1960 Dry Creek Rd.
Healdsburg, CA 95448
707-433-4355
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.