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.