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+--- Thread: honeymoon wine excursion (/thread-13525.html)
- VouvrayHead - 07-19-2008
Hi friends! We're back from California...
It went very well, was lots of fun, saw some whales, etc...
I didn't take a single TN the whole trip-- it just felt better not taking them. I have mild regrets about that now, but I can live with it.
Instead I have my general impressions, a couple of stories, and a couple of revelations. We went Sonoma up to Healdsburg and on another day went to a few Amador wineries.
First, here's what I brought home in no particular order:
2005 Schug Carneros Heritage Reserve Pinot Noir
C.G. di Arie 2005 Southern Exposure Syrah
2 bottles of Sean Thackrey's XVI Pleiades
2003 Terre Rouge High Slopes Syrah
B.R. Cohn 2005 North Coast Petite Sirah
B.R. Cohn unfiltered olive oil
Cline 2006 Ancient Vines Mourvedre (Contra Costa)
Cline 2006 Live Oak Zinfandel (Contra Costa)
Noceto 2005 Sangiovese
Noceto Zinfandel grappa
Harvest Moon 2005 RRV Zinfandel
Harvest Moon 2005 RRV Pinot Noir
1/2 case Story Vineyards 2007 Picnic Hill Zinfandel on futures (tasted from barrel)
I also joined Harvest Moon and Easton/T.R.'s wine clubs.
General impressions: I really enjoyed
both areas and met some great people.
It was terrific seeing these places and wineries I had read about and taseted from... Amador was great because the wineries were often very down-to-earth... Sonoma was gorgeous. I loved the smaller wineries and Cline was good to visit also.
We also went to Gloria Ferrer and tried their Brut Rose (only available at winery). It was good, fruity bubbly, but a bit one-noted...
Story Vineyards was great.. They were doing a barrel tasting and had music on the patio. Incredibly laid-back... I felt like I was their neighbor. My dad worked with Gene Story (who died in an auto-accident in '82), so it was great seeing the winery.
My 2 favorite wineries by far were Easton/Terre Rouge, where EVERY SINGLE WINE was a hit, and Harvest Moon, which is doing really exciting things.
I talked to the winemaker at H.M. for a while, a really passionate and experimental guy named Randy. Thanks for the rec here, Dan, it was terrific.
I think you all remember Dan's notes for the '05 Pinot. I walked in and told them how excited I was to try it and the counter-manager said they were almost out and not pouring. After tasting a few others (NEAT Zin's! All really ELEGANT and somewhat acidic, meant to be aged 15+ years... we shall see), Randy came out from back. The counter guy told him I was bummed about the pinot, so he went and pulled some of the '06, not yet bottled, for me. It was incredibly elegant and complex.
Exciting stuff.
However, my single favorite wine out there came not from Easton or Harvest Moon. In fact, it was not even from a winery I visited. Sean Thackrey lives in Bolinas, just around the corner from Stinson beach, where I was staying. The little corner shop had 3 of his wines. I bought the Pleiades XVI, an NV field blend red, and drank it there with the exquisite meal of tater-tots, frozen peas, and roasted garbonzo beans. HOLY COW. I am in love with this wine. I wish I could have tried the other wines they had there, but they were out of my price range. I did buy 2 more Pleiades, though.
It's as if a feminine Burgundy and a Vacqueyras had a beautiful mutant love-child on a trip to Calfornia. This wine was somehow both seriously rustic and seriously elegant with some great fruit up front and some great spice in back.
I've read a bit about Thackrey. Seems like a really interesting guy... His wines are hard to find, but I cannot recommend them enough.
Others I nearly flipped over are the Cline '06 Live Oak Zin (not sure if it's available outside winery) which had just incredible fruit and the di Arie Syrah which was lightly smoky and gorgeously put together.
And, of course, Easton was terrific.
- Innkeeper - 07-19-2008
Congrats, and your trip report sounds great. Welcome to the Easton/Terre Rouge club.
- winoweenie - 07-20-2008
Sounds like a reaally fun and exciting trip. Lookas like this ole' codger wont be going to Napa or Sonoma any time soon but it's neat to make the trip vicariously. Used to make the trip 6 -8 times a year for pickups. Now with all of my favorites shipping here I can just sit on my duff and pull corks.WW
- TheEngineer - 07-20-2008
Glad to hear that you had a GREAT TIME!! Congrats again!
- dananne - 07-20-2008
Glad you enjoyed yourself out there! Am camping in MO this week, so only have 'Net access sporadically. Glad you had a chance to talk to Randy. Really interesting guy who is very much going against the stylistic grain.
I'm going to have to try that Pleiades. Great notes!
- wondersofwine - 07-21-2008
Glad all went well for you. Sean Thackrey wines are esteemed by some on the WLDG forum. I have never had the chance to try one.
- VouvrayHead - 07-27-2008
Thank you all, was indeed a great time...
I haven't been to that wine board, but I gotta say they have good taste if they like that Thackrey! [img]http://wines.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]