Saturday, June 16th
Counting yesterday's Napa Valley experience as "just OK", we were all looking forward to a great last-day in Sonoma County.
Leaving little to chance, Gael and I had thoroughly vetted three of the four wineries today; the fourth was unknown to us.
The first winery was Thomas George Estates.
We first learned of Thomas George from our son-in-law Matt who emailed us from a wine cruise and strongly suggested that we visit. Gael was able to do so last year and cemented a place for them on this year's tour.
When we arrived we learned that our tasting would be in the cave; excellent!
The lovely Adrienne...
...met us at the entrance to the cave and escorted us through this magnificent structure to the Library where she'd set up our tasting. The cool environment and personal attention from Adrienne made this experience a hit. We tasted seven varietals, all very nice. My favorite was the 09 Baker Ridge Pinot Noir though Gael purchased her favorite, the 09 Timberline Syrah.
Next we drove to another favorite, John Tyler Wines.
Gael and I had visited with the Bacigalupi family several years ago before the tasting room was built. We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon around their kitchen table back then.
Today the wonderful Katey Bacigalupi...
...took us under her wing for a vertical flight of their wonderful Pinot Noirs. I liked the 03 but was overruled by Gael who loved their 05; all the Pinots were good. Katey gave each of us a glass of that person's favorite and we retired to their picnic area to have our lunch, again elegantly provided by Gael and Safeway.
These are old (very old) Zinfandel vines that had finished their production life and are now just ornamental in the John Tyler picnic area:
The first winery after lunch is always a challenge but at Benovia Winery, Roger...
...was equal to it. We had a private tasting upstairs with a great view of the vineyards while Roger took us through nearly the complete catalog of Benovia wines, nine of 'em.
My favorite was the 09 La Pommeraie Russian River Pinot Noir, with the 09 Bella Una Russian River Pinot Noir a close second. Nearly everyone bought wine from Roger.
On to the last winery of HOB 2012...
Backstory: A year or so ago, Gael and I attended a fund-raiser for the Yulupa School (where grandsons Spencer and Hayden were students). Yulupa is a public school. We're all aware of the financial woes of California schools; the fund-raiser was to create funding to restore as much of the arts and athletic programs as possible.
Part of the fund-raiser was the ubiquitous "silent auction". We bid on a tasting for six along with a signed magnum of Westerhold Syrah and we won.
We thought that since the tasting was "paid for" we'd take a chance and drop Westerhold in as the eighteenth and final winery of HOB 2012. I checked their website and found it VERY basic; but I corresponded with the owner John Westerhold and he graciously agreed to hold the tasting at the winery on Saturday afternoon.
As we shared the list of wineries we'd be visiting with other winery hosts during the tour, they nodded at most of the winery names but none had ever heard of Westerhold. This is NOT a good sign...
Westerhold Family Vineyards is located in an industrial park much in the same way as August West in San Francisco. We had the address, but the name on the door was:
John met us at the door and escorted us through the winery to the tasting room (really a break-room).
John explained that the winery was a shared facilty for small-production winemakers. This technique limits the capital investment to create wines. Makes sense.
He told us his story about coming to Sonoma County and buying a home with a vineyard. He told us about meeting a winemaker named Russell Bevan and starting a great friendship.
He poured his 07 Bennett Valley Syrah and we all took a taste. Newsom said, from his position at the end of the table, that all eight of us lit up at that first taste; he'd never seen that before!
John went on to explain that his 07 Syrah was part of a blind tasting in San Francisco of all invited Syrah producers -- and it won! His first experience as a vintner was rewarded with a First Place. And the next year he returned with his 08 Syrah -- and won again!
After that, they discontinued the competition; no kidding.
He poured the 08 Syrah and it was even better (in my opinion) than the 07. We'd stumbled across an unadvertised gem!
We tasted the 08 Reserve and also barrel-tasted the 09.
These are great wines!
Then the buying frenzy ensued:
John wasn't really prepared for the immediate demand from the HOB gang. Newsom wanted ALL of the 08 that was available. I thought the men were going to strip to the waist and wrestle for the wine but things calmed down and we were able to configure a group order.
Unfortunately, John didn't have access (today) to all the wine we wanted (it's stored off-site). And he doesn't have a shipping department, shipping boxes -- nuttin'. And he was five bottles short of the immediate demand.
He called home and his wife was able to find five bottles stored at the house. Get this: We took with us all he had and he offered to bring the five bottles to the restaurant where we were having our final dinner.
If you've read earlier HOB blogs you know about The Bottle Barn. Bottle Barn is a retail wine operation here in Santa Rosa with terrific prices and selection of (mostly) California wines. We knew that they offered wine shippers for sale so we came up with this plan: The women would go straight to the restaurant and the men would go to Bottle Barn, buy three shippers, fill'em up with wine bottles in the parking lot and then hit the restaurant. The plan was to check the three shippers through as checked baggage as we made our way home in the morning. And so we did.
But we didn't seal them up just yet.
We drove to our final restaurant Petite Syrah in downtown Santa Rosa.
Halfway through the meal, John arrived bearing the promised five bottles of wine. Food was very good and desserts were fantastic. We all agreed this was a top-tier restaurant.
Tuckered out, we headed to the Flamingo with a 7:15am scheduled departure in the morning. What a great day!
Dale went to CVS for sealing tape; we'd close up the wine shippers in the morning.
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