Husch is a small family owned winery in Mendocino’s Anderson Valley.  The winery was founded in 1971 and is the oldest in the Anderson Valley.  The setting is one of our favorites with a tiny rustic tasting room in an old farmstead and a lawn with picnic tables on the mowed grass or on the deck.  It is calmly romantic and the staff is always delightful.  They produce a couple dozen wines with their estate Mendocino grapes so there is plenty to taste.

While Anderson Valley is well known for Pinot Noir there are many varieties produced in the valley and nearby AVA’s.

We purchased a half dozen bottles of wine and enjoyed each with various foods.  The 2010 Sauv Blanc was big for peaches and aromatics.  Really a delight.  The 2007 Cab Sauv was aged 14 months in French and American oak and is a big Cab but with soft tannins and a nice long enjoyable finish.  We did a comparison tasting of their 2008 Special Reserve Mendocino Chard and the 2009 Vine One Anderson Valley Chard. Both are French Oak aged and are big tasty Chardonnays with great aromas and finish but distinctively different.

Husch is a great place to enjoy a wine picnic on a warm sunny Anderson Valley afternoon.

- Jim

Roth Estate doesn’t have a tasting room of their own and such wineries are usually outside of our scope.  However, this family owned winery is related to Lancaster Estate on Chalk Hill Road so when wine distributor Wilson Daniels offered to let us try some of their wines we agreed.

I’ll start with their 2009 Sonoma Coast (basically west Russian River Valley) Pinot Noir.  It opened for us with a BIG raspberry nose and a medium body with gentle fruit and a mild finish.  We prefer the more intense, well, intense for Pinot, Santa Cruz Mountains Pinots but a big raspberry nose is a hit with us.  Unfortunately the nose died down quite a bit on the second and third days but the flavors stayed fresh.  We pumped the air out and used argon to remove the oxygen to store it overnight.

The wine was aged in French oak for 18 months but the oak is in the background.  It is 100% Pinot as most Pinots are although we tasted a Lake County Pinot last night that seemed to be blended with Syrah of all things.  The price point is $27 which is probably about right but we would prefer bigger flavors for that price.  A LOT of people prefer the mellow Pinots and this wine should appeal to them.

The Roth 2010 Alexander Valley Sauvignon Blanc is a medium body wine with a very light color, big nose full of flowers and citrus, and that New Zealand type of grassiness that we enjoy.  Recall that the 2010 harvest was late due to cool weather but had that grape killer hot spell in August.  In spite of the challenges this batch of Sauv Blanc did very well with the longer hang time.  There is no oak here, just the fruit, and the acidity is comfortable for the varietal.  Suggested retail is $16 which is reasonable but a bit on the high side.  We sampled this wine with friends over a chicken dinner and the reaction was favorable.  The finish was decent but longer would be nice.

We tried the Roth 2008 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon for desert with friends after dinner.  It is a medium body Cab with plum aroma and soft tannins and a light oak backdrop. The finish lasts a while which for us is critical in all wines but especially for the big reds.  I expected a bit more oak since the wine is aged in French and American Oak for 18 months.  Maybe there is more there than met my palate after dinner.

I love big oaky Alexander Valley Cabs.  This wine is not that robust and should appeal to a much larger market.  It is softened with 17% Cab Franc and Merlot.  The suggested retail price of $28 is spot on. It doesn’t have the complexity of other AV Cabs but it is drinkable right now and smooth enough to pair with most dishes such as red meats and pastas and good conversation.   Good wine and I consider it a buy.

- Jim

Lancaster Estate winery is rather newly open to the public and is located at the southern end of Alexander Valley on Chalk Hill Road.  Normally I only blog about wineries that we’ve visited but in this case we’ve only visited the driveway entrance.  The winery is by appointment only and we often don’t have time for appointments.  The entrance is impressive though and the rare photos of the winery on their Website are intriguing.  We intend to visit sometime this winter.

Lancaster’s wine distributor, Wilson Daniels, sent me their 2010 Sauvignon Blanc to try.  We paired it with a Trader Joes chicken salad nested in grilled endives for an appetizer and for dinner Katya grilled turkey and ham kabobs.  The setting was our patio on a warm summer evening with hummingbirds watching us carefully as they drank their “estate bottled” sugar water from our feeder. 

Recall that 2010 was a tough year in the vineyards.  Although mostly an unusually cool summer there were a few surprise days of high heat that burned a lot of grapes all over California.  Lancaster’s grapes survived because the canopy wasn’t trimmed back to expose them to more sun, a common strategy at the time with the prevailing weather so cool.

This is a big fruity full nose wine, pleasant oak in the background that reflects being aged in new and used French oak for only 20% of the 7 month aging process.  Yes, it is bright and crisp without the grassiness of some Sauv Blancs.  Alexander Valley wines are almost always on the upper end of a scale from soft to robust and this one is no exception.  As a full fruit wine there is a complex assortment of citrus, pear, and our favorite, fresh flower aromas.  The supplied tasting notes mentioned peaches and lemons.  They may be there but we didn’t notice.  We taste with food and conversation, like most people drink wine, and unless a flavor is outstanding we don’t bother to hunt for it.  This blog is for regular wine travelers, not the small niche who has to discern every nuance.

At a suggested retail price of $28 this Sauv Blanc is a buy.  Not a steal at the price but worth trying. We loved it!

- Jim

Alexander Valley is a quiet and laid back part of Sonoma County.  For decades there have been only a few wineries in this famous Cabernet growing valley but lately we are seeing new wineries.  Trione built a beautiful winery next to US 101 just south of Geyserville a few years ago.  They have very nice landscaping, landscape art, and are gracious tasting room hosts.

Jessie, the tasting room manager, really wanted us to try their 2007 Russian River Pinot Noir and 2008 RRV Sauvignon Blanc.  The Sauv Blanc was excellent as expected. Full bodied, full flavor, but not as much as a big New Zealand Sauv Blanc.  Same with the Pinot.  For those who like light delicate Pinots there are other wineries in RRV for that.  In the Alexander Valley they make wine you can taste and explore.  Trione’s Pinot changes nicely as it gets air and never flattens out in the glass.  This is a medium bodied Pinot which of course is still light compared to Cab or Zin.

Wonder how a new winery can have great wines?  The Trione family have been growers for decades and wine making for many years.  When they opened this winery they were already on a roll with great local wines.

- Jim

The Creekview Vineyards winery is located near tiny San Martin between Gilroy and Morgan Hill south of San Jose. While the winery is occasionally open a good bet is to head into the heart of downtown San Jose and drop in on Tim in the Sherman Cellars tasting room. The only wine available in Sherman is Creekview.

Inside the little Sherman Cellars - Creekview Vineyards tasting room.

The tasting room is cozy and intimate. Tim is a wonderful conversationalist and really knows wines. He used to work in Napa and Sonoma tasting rooms. On a recent rainy Saturday the tasting room was moderately busy with both local and out of state tourists. Tim brought everyone in on the conversations and added extra interest to the tastings.

I enjoyed all the wines very much. They are the trademark Gilroy wines that are medium to robust with big nose and long finish – my thing. I came home with their 2007 Santa Clara Valley Cabernet and the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc with the grapes sourced from the wonderful Arroyo Seco area of Monterey County. These wines are full of flavor and a delight to explore. Their prices in the $20′s are reasonable for the quality.

- jim

There are a lot of wineries to explore and discover in the Russian River Valley. It is tempting to only hit the biggies. However, there are little quiet sleepers throughout the valley. One of these is the River Road working winery on the west side of the valley near Graton.  This is a little family owned by appointment only winery so call before visiting.  They want visitors so don’t be shy.

The River Road Vineyards winery.

We visited during the recent Wine Road Barrel Tasting event and of course River Road had several barrels open for us. They also poured their finished wines.  We enjoyed their whole collection but came home with their 07 Cabernet Sauvignon, 09 Sauvignon Blanc, and 08 Hopkins Chardonnay.   Nice to find some special whites.  The Cab seemed more robust in the winery than at home but the soft nose is full of fruit, the medium body should work for almost everyone, and the light refined finish did linger around for a while. Not big wines but not wimps either.

A big draw are the wine prices. Here you find very nice wines in the teens and twenties. Tasters walk away with cases.  Combine that with no tasting fee and this is one of the better wineries to stock up for the long haul.

The tasting room is TINY so don’t bring a crowd unless they want to hang around outside. Tasting at River Road is a wonderful experience with the family pouring their wines for you.

- jim

The name Wairau River probably indicates to most readers that this is not California wine. OK, the next hint is that Wairau is Maori for “many waters”. By now you geography geniuses are getting it. Terlato Wines International sent me their New Zealand Wairau River Wines brand 08 Sauvignon Blanc and 06 Pinot Noir to try. I decided to take them sailing in San Francisco Bay with a little crowd of 9 aboard Gil McCoy’s 30 foot Catalina.

I believe that wines should be tasted in the real world, not a sterile tasting lab or judge’s tent at a county fair. The real test for wine is how much ordinary people enjoy it. A sailing trip would be a decent test.

A couple of our crew got seasick early into the sail and didn’t taste the wines but that left plenty of hearty sailors as our lab rats. Besides being out in the Bay we paired the wines with an assortment of munchies including meat loaf on focaccia bread, shrimp, and pasta salads.

Dean and Ed salivate over empty Wairau River bottles, South Beach Harbor, San Francisco.

We used real wine glasses, not plastic, and because we are mostly going with the wind we were able to get full nose. Both bottles emptied all too fast but I did get about a 4 oz pour. I found the wines to be excellent and robust enough that even in salty sea air I could enjoy a full aroma and taste adventure. Everyone (except the sickos) loved the wine. This group had very diverse wine experience so it was a good test.

One sailor mentioned that the Pinot had the body of a Northern California Pinot but seemed to taste a little different. So we opened a bottle of a favorite wine, San Jose’s Coterie Cellars 07 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir for comparison. That bottle didn’t last long either but we came to the consensus that the Kiwi Pinot was every bit as excellent but did taste different.

Wairau River Wines is a family owned winery and recently was awarded CarbonZero certification by the NZ government. Of course that benefit is reduced when it travels to the US.  Terlato distributes their wines.

I’ve long respected New Zealand Sauv Blancs and Pinot Noirs. They are on top of those varietals as well as Oregon and California. For a delightful taste adventure I would recommend these.

- jim