The Terroirists Show: Old World Winery tasting part 2

Sonoma Spring Break: Part 3 – Scribe

Overlooking the Vineyard

Not often in a young man’s life does one have the opportunity to accidentally eat a caterpillar. This happened to me at Scribe, and I loved every minute of it. Scribe is a new Sonoma winery which was featured in this month’s Food and Wine magazine. My experience at Scribe is something that wine bloggers and politicians alike could only conceive under the most powerful of hallucinogenics.

The experience started out well with greens freshly picked from the organic garden to accompany amazing olive oil and Cow Girl Creamery triple cream cheese with bread from Petaluma. This lunch was great on its own, but combined with the view of the vineyard and surrounding mountains it took on stellar proportions.

Chardonnay and Salad

This land is believed to be the first in the United States to be planted to Riesling back in 1858 – and in recognition of this the Scribe crew have planted Riesling and Sylvaner as a homage to Alsace. Currently 40 acres are planted and being farmed organically, and at sometime between 1858 and now the land was host to large chicken coupes. (or maybe turkey – I forget)

The rest of the land is planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but the first crop is still over a year in the future. These guys might be young, but winemaker Andrew Mariani knows what he is doing. Not only is his Chard top notch, but his Pinot could win Eric over. The Syrah isn’t too shabby either, and their Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is exactly what a California cab should be – herbaceous, fruity, and full of goodness.

The Hacienda

After tasting through the wines and saving the life of a caterpillar, Andrew showed me the grounds. There exists a 100 year old house which is pretty much completely empty, but would be and is currently a killer location for awesome wine parties. I now realize that my next Sonoma trip will have to coincide with a Scribe party, and if anyone gives them a visit they would likely say the same thing. I can live with a caterpillar in my salad, but I can’t live without Scribe.

The Terroirists show: Old World Winery tasting part 1

Sonoma Spring Break: Part 2

After a quick lunch in Healdsburg, my trip continued at Donelan Family Wines. (Pax became Donelan Family starting with the 2008 vintage after a falling out between owner Joe Donelan and winemaker Pax Mahle.) I had the pleasure of tasting the full line-up of 2008 Donelan wines as well as the 2007 Pax Cuvee Christine. All of the wines were stunning, and the Pax could easily be likened to a Cayuse of Sonoma. Starting in 2008 all of the wines were made by Tyler Thomas. Despite only trying one Pax wine there seemed to be a slight difference in style between the two, which would be expected.

Maybe it was just the difference between the 2007 and 2008 vintages, but the Donelan wines seemed to me to be less over the top. The Venus – 93% Roussanne and 7% Viognier – is my new benchmark wine for American Rhone-style whites. The other stand outs were the Kobler Family Vineyard Syrah and the Obsidian Vineyard Syrah. These wines have caused me to rethink the idea that Washington makes the best Syrahs in the new world – I’m not ready to give that up yet, but we have some serious competition.

Knights Valley Sunset

Leaving Donelan, I had to drive straight to Chalk Hill Winery for an interview. Of course I asked to taste the wines at the end, and I must admit that I was quite impressed. Perhaps because the grounds are so beautiful I didn’t have huge expectations for the wines, but their Sauvignon Blanc made me happy, and so did their Cabernet Sauvignon.

With some time left I made the quick jaunt to Healdsburg, which is a really cool little town. The only tasting room I could find that was still open was Rosenblum. As usual, when the tasting room girl found out I was from Walla Walla I became an instant celebrity. It is the place so nice they named it twice, after all. She asked for a good Washington Syrah that she could find in the area. I responded by saying that we don’t send our good wines to California because we keep them all to ourselves.

Stunned, she continued the torrent of zinfandel, and I found great pleasure in the 2007 Richard Sauret from Paso Robles, so I took a bottle with me. It was a fun way to end a day of sipping and spitting, and I would definitely visit them again even though they are corporate. I’ve given up on avoiding corporate wines – it’s just too hard these days.

Sonoma Spring Break: Part 1

Some college peeps lean towards classy locales such as Daytona or Lake Havasu for spring break, but not the Terroirists. While Mike was chilling in SoCal and Eric was hanging in Prosser and Walla Walla, I had the unfortunate task of driving to Sonoma County. The drive between wine regions is about 13 hours, and there isn’t a lot to see on the way.

Upon arrival on Monday night, I checked in, ate some pizza, and opened a 2005 Longboard Vineyards Russian River Valley Syrah. It was a nice start to an awesome couple days of Syrah and Zinfandel, with some Pinot and Chard thrown in as well.

Darek Multitasking

The first stop of the trip was Old World Winery. Winemaker Darek Trowbridge was right on time and the sun was shining. We started off with a taste of his 2008 Sauvignon Blanc. If anyone has been searching for a wine that smells like a creamsicle, look no further. The aroma literally jumps out of the glass and into one’s nose.

From there we tasted through the entire lineup and walked around the small facility. Darek is truly making some old world style wines. His philosophy could be described as minimal intervention, but I think it’s more properly described as selective intervention. The Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay both receive about 24 hours of skin contact before pressing to barrel – at which point everything hopefully works itself out, and it seems to have judging by his finished product. (Expect to see more reviews on these wines over the next few months)

The next stop was Donelan formerly known as Pax in Santa Rosa. The next stop for me, however, is bed. After 13 hours of driving through three forms of precipitation and nearly destroying what was either a huge raccoon or a small bear in Umatilla, I’m literally pooped.