I was driving along the backroads of El Dorado County’s Fairplay area and found the delightful little Mellowood Vineyard winery and woman winemaker Linda Neal. The tasting room opened in July 2011 in the small wood barn style working winery. Linda explained that she was making wine in Napa Valley but now doing her own thing in the Sierra Foothills.  What I love about the site is it is well off the main road and up a hill in an oak and pine forest.  Really a romantic location.  

Linda is an interesting and informative winemaker to engage with so I shot a video interview with her for our Discover El Dorado County Wine Region video.

I had little time for tasting but later tried Linda’s 2006 Sierra Foothills Zinfandel.  It has big flavors and aromas with a medium weight wine and no alcohol burn.  The oak was noticeable, which we like, and reflected the winemaker’s Napa roots (not the Zinfandel’s roots).

I strongly recommend a visit to Mellowood and hopefully you’ll catch Linda in the tasting room.

- Jim

I heard about Carol Shelton’s wines for years before I had time to catchup with her recently at a wine trade event for the Rockpile AVA.  I was blown away with the wine she brought to this tiny event at Rockwall Winery on Alameda Island in San Francisco Bay.  Zinfandels from Rockpile are some of my favorite and I was excited to try Carol’s.  The big surprise was that she brought 8 sequential years of her Rockpile Zin to this tasting!  Unbelievable that she still has these laying around and stunning that we were able to taste from a single vineyard that many years of the elusive Rockpile Zin.

Video of Carol explaining a bit about her Zins.  Requires the Quicktime player.

Video: Carol Shelton and her Rockpile Zinfandel family

More recently we stopped by her winery in a light industrial park in Santa Rosa.  Nothing special to say about the winery, industrial bays rarely make for great ambiance, but her staff is warm, friendly, and highly informed.  Our tight budget being what it is we left with only two of her interesting wines; 2007 Wild Thing Mendocino old vine Zinfandel and, well, you guested it, 2007 Rocky Reserve Florence Vineyard Rockpile Zin!  While both are interesting to explore we preferred the Rockpile Zin for the dry earthy terroir.

The interesting thing about Carol is that she quietly produces some of California’s best Zinfandels and her prices are stuck in the past.  These dry fruity 15% alcohol wines with rich Zin flavors are maybe half the price of comparable wines elsewhere.  Her wines are all vineyard designate and a great opportunity to taste the terroir.  While visiting an industrial park may not be your idea of wine country you’ll find seriously interesting treats at Carol’s winery.

- Jim

Heritage Oak is a small family winery northeast of Lodi. The tasting room is in the working winery and while the architecture or interior ambiance isn’t special the setting and the people make this winery a good destination. They have one of the larger Zin selections in the area so visitors should be able to find the right wine for their taste preferences.

The most striking feature of this winery is their river walk nature trail through the vineyards to a secluded beach on the Mokelumne River. Bring a bottle of their wine to enjoy a picnic on the beach or picnic at the winery.

While we enjoyed all of their wines we came home with their Zinfidelity Zin and Cab blend and their Chardonnay. The Zin is medium bodied and pleasant nose and finish. The Chard is non-oaked with no malo-lactic fermentation with fresh fruity flavors. Both are very good wines and an additional reason to stop by this winery if you are wandering around Lodi.

- Jim

Newsome-Harlow tasting room along the main street in the romantic Gold Rush town of Murphys sits back off the street down a narrow ally. Like many of the tasting rooms in Murphys it is a hidden treasure. The little tasting room is light and airy but on snowy days warm and cozy.

It is also one of the few tasting rooms in town with a decent picnic area – that long narrow ally. Tables with umbrellas are available for picnicking. Buy a bottle of wine and feast.

Their wine selection is limited but the wine is high quality and the prices are reasonable. Tasting room staff are informative and pleasant.

We attended a wonderful Sierra Foothills wine event in the SF East Bay community of Danville recently and as the event was wrapping up we were gifted a bottle of Newsome-Harlow 2008 Calaveras County Zinfandel. Sierra Foothills Zins drive us crazy with desire so the next evening we popped the cork. This wine is a medium nose, body, fruit, and finish delight with a relatively low alcohol of 14.5%. While we often prefer the “bigger” Zins of Amador County and Lodi for casual sipping we found this wine to be perfect with lighter foods.

So expect to see us in their tasting room for the next lively wine event in Calaveras County that we can make time for. We LOVE visiting the wineries in that region with their warm and friendly people and great wines. One of our very favorite wine regions.

- jim

While Pedroncelli wines can be found on store shelves nationally it is still a little family run winery at heart.  The tasting room isn’t huge, the staff is friendly and happy to host you, and the wine selection and quality is excellent.  It has an old-time winery ambiance.  They source much of their fruit from local vineyards that have been in the extended family for generations.

We finished a nice bottle of  Pedroncelli 2007 Mother Clone Zin and after drinking a LOT of Zin at various events recently were surprised that we were surprised how good it is.   This and other Pedroncelli wines prove that boutique wineries are not necessarily better.

The wines tend to be on the higher end of mid-range between soft (1) and robust (10) scale.  We rate their wines from 4 to 7.  Most tasters should find something special for them with no wimpy wines and no big bombs.

Pedroncelli is a relatively old winery, started in 1927, and somehow survived Prohibition by selling grapes to home winemakers.  Now the fourth generation of family is working their way into the business.  Not many California wineries can boost that kind of longevity.

-  Jim

So why is Mill Creek in the lower Dry Creek Valley a favorite of ours?  Well, three reasons. One is the always warm and inviting personality at the tasting bar. The other is that we like their flavorful wines. A third reason is that their picnic area next to the water wheel or up on the hill are some of the best in California.  And the fourth of the three reasons are their favorable prices.

Dry Creek Valley is famous for Zinfandel so let’s discuss Mill Creek’s Zin.   We recently finished off a bottle of Mill Creek’s 2006 DCV Zin.  It is everything you would expect from a DCV Zin but their prices are lower than most of the wineries.  It is of course the deep, dark full bodied Zin of yore with lots of nose and finish to explore.

Their label says “Since 1914″. Really? I thought I only saw prunes and ‘cots when I traveled there around that time.  OK, BS, but that valley wasn’t much into grapes back then.

Picnicking at Mill Creek is a treat. For seclusion and view hike up the hill to the overlook deck. Lots of picnic tables up there and more seclusion.  However, since we are more social  and love being next to water we prefer a small table next to the mill pond.

- Jim

Katya and I recently visited and mapped 7 wineries in the East San Francisco Bay cities of Emeryville, Oakland, and Alameda.  All are in declining industrial areas that offer the advantage of cheap space and proximity to a large population.  While Sonoma or Napa style ambiance is lacking in these wineries, the neighborhoods are no Dry Creek Valley, some of them fixed up their tasting rooms a bit.  All are in working wineries.

We now have almost all of the SF Bay Area urban wineries that are regularly open to the public in our region map for the area.

I’ll share with you some of the wines that we bought and drank.  Urbano Cellars makes a great 2005 Solano County old vine Zin.  Plenty of fruit, medium body, and old vine softness.  Dashe Cellars has a 2007 Petite Sirah from Alexander Valley that is thick, inky dark color, rich, and framed in oak.

While we enjoyed the people and wine in all the tasting rooms we visited we had the best time in the Irish Monkey Cellars tasting room.  We arrived late so the tasters were happier than earlier in the day.  Contributing to that was the personality of the vintner and tasting room staff.   While creating ambiance in an old industrial warehouse is challenging these folks have done a more than decent job.

Irish Monkey has a larger selection of wines than most, see their WineQuesters.com profile or Website, and we found all of the wines to be excellent.  We especially enjoyed their Fume Blanc from the El Dorado County in the Sierra Foothills and a full-body Primitivo from Lovell Valley, Napa.

We have one tasting room remaining to visit and map.  Rock Wall is on the old Alameda Navel Air Station somewhere near Rosenblum.  Actually, it is a Rosenblum family winery.  They recently opened for tastings on the weekends but I didn’t know about it until the day we returned from that mapping trip.  We need a biz excuse to return to that area anyway.

For convenience to major cities and airports you can’t beat the SF Bay Area urban wineries.  The wines are a delight, the staff and vintners excited to see you, and you don’t have to dedicate a big budget and a day for the visits.

- jim

Tom Kruse moved to California and started his winery west of Gilroy in the southern Santa Clara Valley in 1972.  I first tasted his wines in the tasting room in 1974.  Somehow he recruited volunteers for his first harvest and that has been in his business model ever since. This past harvest we were waiting to volunteer for his Cab harvest but he was over-subscribed before we knew the date and we missed the party.

Tom’s winery is now east of Gilroy.  You taste in the working winery and the tasting “bar” is often staffed by volunteers on the weekends. Tom is usually wandering around and often has time for impromptu tours.

This is about as close to a do-it-yourself winery as there is. You can help with harvest, crush, and bottling.  The BYOB event with food and music is always popular.  Bring your own bottles or buy them there and fill a case.

We believe Tom’s full-bodied wines are some of the best we’ve had anywhere. His unoaked Chard is bright and fresh.   His Cabs are robust from the nose to the finish but the tannins won’t burn your throat.  His Zin is consistently full of fruit and dry.  Merlot tends to have a little more body and flavor than most Merlots and we taste lots of them.

Prices for Tom’s wines are some of the lowest in the state.  Case specials as low as $5 a bottle aren’t rare.  The best deals are buying a case or more of course but even the bottle purchases won’t hurt.

For an old-time winery adventure stop by and see Tom.

- jim

I picked up sisters Amber and Britney at SFO early Wednesday AM a couple of weeks ago and headed across the Golden Gate bridge for adventure. I’ve known them since their births in Alaska and now that they are out of college we found the time to do a little two day tour of the Sonoma wine regions. This was their first wine tasting trip and besides the pleasure of showing them the ropes I also wanted to see wine tasting from the perspective of newbies. I learned a thing or two about WineQuesters.com and our Winery Quest iPhone app as they work now.

We drove up Highway 1 and then inland along the Russian River to the Russian River Valley. They wanted Pinot so I took them to Arista and C Donatiello wineries. Next we crossed into Dry Creek valley for Zins and Cabs at Mill Creek and Passalacqua Wineries. Not a bad tour for their first day. We spent the night at the Geyserville Inn, a favorite of mine, and the next day they shopped Healdsburg and we tasted at Alexander Valley Vineyards and Hanna Winery.

I was doing much more thinking than tasting. Selecting a few wineries to visit with such a huge selection available is a real challenge. You can go online or subscribe to magazines and get loads of advice about wines and tasting rooms but who has the time for researching hundreds of wineries.

Our search engine lets you select from over 100 criteria which helps if you know what you are looking for. However, Amber and Brittany had only vague requirements such as dry reds. When I suggested landscaping, architecture, friendly staff, ambiance, etc. it helped to narrow the field a bit more.

Of course I have my preferences based on my experiences but should those be used as the default selection criteria on WineQuesters.com? I don’t think so. I need to find a way for tasters to narrow their selection quickly and get the results they imagine from their wine tasting experience.

I believe what we need in WineQuesters.com is a wizard. The search engine is pretty good and the data is improving almost daily but a wizard will help tasters focus on their own interests with more of a conversational approach. I’ll develop a wizard we’ll see how it works.

- jim

Katya and I drove down to the Salinas Valley on a windy late afternoon a few weeks ago to attend a gourmet dinner at Pessagno Winery on River Road in the Monterey wine region. The west side of the Salinas Valley is called the Santa Lucia Highlands in the wine world. While there is some difference in the dirt it appears that the vineyards don’t want to be associated with their lettuce and row crop neighbors.

Anyway, River Road has about a dozen wineries along it and all produce tasty wines. Pessagno is a small family operation about half way along the trail and they host a Friday evening dinner occasionally and pack their tasting room with gourmet foodies for a great dinner and social event.

OK, so what’s the Zin Surprise?

We arrived a little early and tasted a few of their wines for the first time. While all are very enjoyable their 2006 Idyll Times Vineyard, San Benito County, Zin really got our attention. It had the nose of prunes and the taste of apricots, and neither was subtle.

I’m a former Santa Clara Valley prune and cot picker but Katya certainly isn’t (from the Russian north). I couldn’t believe what the terroir was doing to the wine so we bought a bottle, brought it home, and recently shared it with Jeff, a close friend and wine affectionado from Seattle.

We asked for an honest opinion, which with Jeff has to be a special request. I poured and Jeff did his sniffing. Prunes. He tasted. Apricots. He looked puzzled and confused. Did he understand right, we are tasting a Zin this evening?

This Zin is FUN!

- jim