The Opatz family harvests their grapes from their vineyard in the Yorkville Highlands on Route 128 north of the Alexander Valley.  As we have seen a lot of recently they are growers who turned to wine making and eventually opened their own tasting room.  Their tiny Route 128 Winery tasting room is located off the main street through Geyserville, Route 128 also, and is always a delight to visit.  This is a vintner-pours tasting experience and a mom and pop operation.  The tasting room has seating and the hospitality begs you to hang around a while.

We love all their wines.  They are typical of that area – big flavors, medium acidity, and a lot for the taster to explore.  In this post I want to point out their Viognier.  The grapes come from their Yorkville Highlands vineyard which is at a much higher elevation than nearby Alexander and Dry Creek Valleys.  It has the bigger Viognier flavors with little grassiness.  We served it on our patio with shrimp on a warm summer afternoon and tasted the wine blossom during and after the snack.  We tend to drink whites a bit warm for the bouquet.

We believe that terroir matters and the Yorkville area wines are a real treat.  The combination of the soils plus the shifting cool and hot weather gives the wines a different experience than their lowland cousins.

- Jim