Chuck Meeker’s tasting room is in little Geyserville in California’s Alexander Valley. Geyserville is one of our favorite wine country hangouts but avoid the place at night if you want action. In the evening it is a place for quiet conversations with the local winery folks at the restaurants and that is about it.

However, during the day the little agriculture town is booming with several quality restaurants, four tasting rooms, and now art galleries. One of those tasting rooms is in an old bank building and that be Meeker.

Meeker doesn’t make soft wines with taste that disappears when you swallow. His Syrah is a fine example. It doesn’t burn going down but it is robust, fruity, lots of nose, and a delight to drink if you really want to taste wine. We found it much more interesting than most of the Syrah we drink.

Now back to the tasting room. They retained the bank’s caged off interior and vault. Of course they still have the vault. They would have to blow up Geyserville to remove it. Anyway, Meeker’s “hand painted” bottles are a treat in vintner art and decorate the tiny tasting area. The tasting room is also one of the few “party” T/R’s in California.

The tasting room staff is a joyous bunch and it gets infectious. By afternoon the place is packed with tasters and no one is in a hurry to leave. During region events it is packed all day and tasters are having FUN! If Chuck Meeker is pouring then the decibels are ramped up a bit.

While all the other tasting rooms in the beautiful Alexander Valley are wonderful to visit, go to Meekers for a more social experience, and you’ll leave with good wine at a good price.

- jim

Tags: Geyserville, Meeker, Syrah

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Alexander Valley, California, Road trips, Wines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.