Kendall Jackson- en route to Healdsburg. This was our first official wine tasting stop on our drive up to Healdsburg from San Francisco and my best notes to date on what we liked and disliked. We also made some purchases and got a couple bottles to enjoy at the hotel. One that we all agreed on was the 2007 Vintners Reserve Sauvignon Blanc. We liked it so much, Bethany ordered a few cases for her wedding. Not that they had to sell us on it since they were already swiping the credit card, but they said in a blind taste test with 5 others of their Sauvignon Blancs, this particular one wins every time and just goes to show that the price of the bottle is not always a good way to gauge a wines value in taste. This one is $11 a bottle and with 20% off, a good deal indeed.

 

 

 

It’s a great crisp and refreshing white with hints of lime, Anjou pears and melon and even grapefruit. The other wine we got was a 2004 Grand Reserve Red Meritage. We enjoyed this one over lunch at Bouchon. It was about $35 for the bottle which I bet would have set us back about $80+ at a restaurant. It’s a Bordeaux blend, based on Cabernet. This one had hints of ripe cherry, blackberry, and coffee. Did I mention how smooth it was?

 

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J wine- The very generous tasting pours here may have attributed to the festive mood of the rest of our day. We started out lightest to darkest and after 5 of these were feeling a bit giddy. The most notable one we tried for me was the J brut rose ($40 a bottle). That and the 2005 J pinot noir, Robert Thomas Vineyard ($65 a bottle), were really good. We later found out that J is part of the Jordan winery family. We had planned to eat here for the oyster tasting or the cheese and charcuterie pairing on the terrace because no reservations are required for small groups. No one was hungry yet, so we passed on food and we had smuggled some scones from breakfast onto our road trip.

 

 

 

 

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Mauritson- a boutique family run winery that only distributes via their wine club, which I joined not merely for their exclusivity (haha) but also so we could all have an excuse to get together and taste wines when back at home. They also distribute to restaurants, mainly Charlie Palmer’s restaurants. We all fell in love with the so called port.

 

 

Technically, they can’t call it port since port is from Portugal. So they called it a 2006 Independence Red WIne (port). Jack’s Cabin was a memorable zinfandel. Carl, our pourer was a complete foodie and wine lover. He commutes up there on the weekends from South San Francisco as part of his love and passion for wine and the good life and was partaking in every tasting with us. He started out as a wine club member rand moved on from there. That sounds like a good job to me. He even told us about the steak dinner he made with lamb’s quarter, a savory green of a grain that he cooked up to sip his Independence wine with and proved to us that port is not always just a desert wine and can be savored with the right meal.  

 

Oh and I almost forgot to mention the Visa Signature card, Sonoma CountyVintners special. I never heard of this but happened to have 2 visas with this in my wallet, so the tasting fee was waived for 2 of us. There are several wineries that participate in this. We ended up joining the wine club so all of our tasting fee was waived that day anyways, even for the reserves.  

 

 

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Jordan wine-  This was a majestic, ivy covered estate, with much French inspiration from the southwest of France in both their wine making and the architecture of the estate and grounds. It is perched atop a hill side overlooking the Alexander valley. This was the highlight of the tastings. We were a tad late after chatting things up at Mauritson. We entered through a secret wall panel that turned and led us into a private library tasting room. Having to be quiet in a library seemed to make us all a bit nervous.    These were the only reservations we had for the day. Stumbling in about 10 minutes late did not help, 25 mintues if you count the time they actually tell you to arrive for the scheduled tasting for 3 flights, cheese pairing, and an olive oil tasting - $20 per person.

 

  

The entire tasting group was the 4 of us, 2 other young ladies from Orange County, and 2 couples traveling together from Pittsburgh, celebrating their respective wedding anniversaries; 15 and 25 years! Our tasting room host, Sean, was already quite flushed and looked like he had been partaking in the tastings prior to ours. He was informative and extremely tolerant as our tasting group broke the ice and got more and more boisterous. 

 

 

Jordan Winery, currently, only produces cabernets and chardonnays. Their cabernets are heavily influenced by the Bordeaux blend which takes 4 varietals of grapes, then they market it as a cabernet. Over our tasting of a 2004 cabernet, a 2005 cabernet, and a 2000 cabernet. We also had a chardonnay in there somewhere and a pleasant surprise addition of an ‘83 sauterne. The sauterne was delicious and I wished I had some cold foie gras to enjoy with it. He showed us the 3 years of Sauterne production next to each other and you could visibly see the difference in color, from light yellow to amber. Sauterne is a sweet wine from the Bordeaux region and typically served with dessert, foie gras or a occasionally,a nice fruits de mer platter (cold seafood platter).

 

 

Another thing we learned about was the value of decanting and a wine aerator. When using the aerator, about 1 minute of pouring equals 3 hours of oxygenating. For something like the 2000 cabernet we tried, it has been aging for 6 years and really needed to be decanted or oxygenated using the special pourer, in order to really taste all the different subtleties. It was silmiar to a sangiovese with its herbaceous aroma of fresh picked thyme, leather, cedar, and tobacco.

 

 

We all compared notes with the others on restaurants and places to go to while in Sonoma, and they even gave words of wisdom to Bethany about marriage, especially year one. One of our new friends was dying to have the buttermilk fried chicken at Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller’s affordable prix fixe venue just down the street from French Laundry and Bouchon in Yountville. He even emailed them to see if it was being served for the night they had reservations. Birds of a feather flock together. The menu changes there daily, but apparently, later on the trip, a pastry guy at Bouchon bakery told me that the fried chicken is on the menu every other Monday night and that he “gorges on it every chance” he can! Good to know. I think they were also headed to French Laundry for a meal that they both traded off calling for reservations on the exact day they could. Ah, someday.

 

It was a lively crew and perhaps the liveliest tasting our host has held. I actually heard him saying that as we were leaving. Ironically, the next day, we read in the Frommer’s guide book that if you wanted to avoid a stuffy, boring snoozefest of a tasting, to avoid Jordan Winery. Goes to show, everything is what you make of it and we had a fantastic time here.

 

 

The cheese pairing was so nice and came at a much needed time during our day’s wine adventure. We sampled a local Cowgirl Creamery, Mt.Tamalpais, cave aged Dante sheeps’ milk cheese which was like pecorino, and a Kirkham Lancashire Family cheese, which is the largest producing cheese maker in England. These cheeses were all familiar to me but the nice thing was how they interacted with the different sines we had and also the amazing nut and fruit loaf crisp that was served with it. It looked like a fruitcake, the nasty kind people have at the holidays. It looked like something I wouldn’t like to eat, but it was so good I wanted to know what it was. It is now my next food quest. It’s the fruit and nut crostini from a bakery in Washington State called Anjou Bakery, like the pear. I hear they have it at Whole Foods. It truly was the perfect vehicle to deliver cheese while tasting wine. 

 

At the end, we tasted the olive oil, which I found to be very unusual with its strong hints of green grass and lemon. We were told this was a Tuscan style of olive oil. At Jordan, the olives are pressed within 24 hours of the harvest and all hand. cold-pressed.

 

This was one of our favorite stops of the day. 

  

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Ridge-  Getting a little fuzzy here. We did pull up and scare them in our giant limo. They thought that 20 people were gonna come pouring out of our car, but it was just the four of us, pouring out. Though I have had their wines and always liked them, they were a bit of a disappointment. And we definitely wanted to squeeze one more place in and took the suggestion from our friendly taste pourer by going to Bella. This winery was also recommended by the sommelier at Farmhouse, one of her 5 picks in the Sonoma region. We were on a roll and doing the best of Sonoma, food and wine.

 

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Bella-  We got lucky and the caves were open, and this is only something they do a few times a year.  There was a small food pairing of pulled pork and polenta and the gift shop stocked with many special items from Roost and Laguiole, is not to be missed. I picked up a cool pair of Laguiole gardening shears for my future herb garden endeavors. 

 

 

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Some tasting rooms in the town of Healdsburg that we went to:

 

La Crema-  When at Kendall Jackson, they told us this was an outpost of theirs.  Tasting is complimentary with the option to try reserves for five bucks.

 

 

Rosenblum-  This is a wine I have had at the holidays. My sister and brother in law love one of the zinfandels and brought over a couple bottles. They have a small tasting room right next to Oakville Grocery, an adorable foodie haven of gourmet treats, sandwiches and cheeses and sweets and their own line of items adorned with their cute bunny logo.  Here I tried a few zinfandels and ended on the their best seller dessert wine, Desireé. This was a port, but much different from the one we had all bought at Mauritson.  This was much heavier and had strong tones of coconut and chocolate. Something I will save for a special holiday dinner, even though it was easy on the pocket book, $20 the bottle.  I would have gotten more but since I had to put it in my suitcase with bubble wrap I didn’t want to risk it.

 

 

One thing I loved was their special, Côte de Bone Roan (Rhone) wine that is named, Château La Paws, because they donate proceeds of every bottle sold to help animals in need. Last year they donated $45k. That warms the heart that much more than an 11am Monday morning tasting.

 

A lot of wines are unavailable once you leave the tasting rooms. What a great sales pitch. Some are only available at restaurants or perhaps online.  But many are available in such small quantities that being part of a wine club is potentially the only way to try them.

 

After reflecting on all the places we went to in one weekend, the varied landscape and architecture in the photos, appears as if we traveled through wine making regions of Italy and France, from Bordeaux to Tuscany. 

 

Wallflour Wine Tasting tips:

 

- I’m no pro so I go to learn more. Let the experts talk but also ask questions.

 

- Eat before you go and throughout the day

 

- Don’t appear “drunk” or they will not serve you. it’s the law…

 

- Ask local conneisseurs where to go while staying in the area

 

- Joining a wine club can be fun and let you know about futures (future releases) and special events. It shouldn’t cost anything to join on the entry level and you will receive a certain amount of shipments a year. Tasting fees are also waived.

 

- Wear dark colored clothing. You don’t want to worry about spots or spillage, though most places have club soda handy.

 

- Hiring a driver has its ups and downs. I heard some places, especially in Napa, turn their nose up at limos especially, since they really don’t make money off of tastings and people in groups just come to booze it up. Guilty as charged. Well, in our defense, we did not want anyone to have to be the designated driver for the day, so for us it was a must, plus it was great not having to worry about reading a map.

 

- Definitely buy as you go. Many places will offer to put your tasting fee ($5-10) towards a bottle. Also, on larger quantities, shipping should be nominal and you can get anywhere from 10-20% off your purchase.