Wineries
Most reviews by James Knight. Note: Those listings marked ‘WC’ denote wineries with caves. These wineries are usually only open to the public by appointment.
S O N OM A CO U N T Y
drinkers. The tasting room is an environmentally conscious structure. 650 Lytton Springs Road, Healdsburg. Open daily, 11am–4pm. 707.433.7721.
Bartholomew Park Winery A scenic locale for
Ty Caton VineyardsMuscardini Cellars Ty
something that sounds like it belongs in a Henry James novel. Sauvignon Blanc and Cab are kings here. 1000 Vineyard Lane, Sonoma. Open daily, 11am– 4:30pm. 707.935.9511.
Jacuzzi Family Vineyards So Californian? So Italian. Replica Italian villa with tour-bus parking offers rare Italian-varietal wines in well-staffed tasting room, all thanks to a therapeutic water pump that became a household name. Oily goods on offer in the adjacent Olive Press. 24724 Arnold Drive, Sonoma. Open daily 10am to 5:30pm. No fee for most tastings; $1 reserves. 707.931.7575.
Mercury Geyserville No fee, 20 percent discount for Sonoma County residents and 12-pack wooden crates of mini-jug wine; two turntables, an LP record player–put on your winged shoes, it’s time to party in sleepy Geyserville! Also pickled comestibles, jam, peppers–and pretty good Pinot, Cab, Cab Franc, and Merlot. 20120 Geyserville Ave., Geyserville. Open Thursday– Monday, 11am–6pm. No fee. 707.857.9870.
Paradise Ridge Winery A gorgeous, provocative sculpture garden with annually changing exhibits set amid a pygmy forest. Stay for sunset Wednesday evenings April–October. 4545 Thomas Lake Harris Drive, Santa Rosa. Open daily, 11am–5:30pm. 707.528.9463. Paradise also offers its food-friendly wines at an accessible little shack in the heart of Sonoma Valley. Open daily, 10am–5pm. 8860 Sonoma Hwy., Kenwood. 707.282.9020.
Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs (WC) Paul Draper is one of the top five winemakers nationwide. The wines are fabulous and tend to inspire devotion in
Caton is both a hands-in-thedirt winegrower, who planted much of the vineyard himself, and savvy entrepreneur. Michael Muscardini is a neighbor who comes from the building trade and focuses on Italian varietals. 8910 Sonoma Hwy. (in the Kenwood Village Plaza), Kenwood. Open daily, 10am– 6pm. 707.833.0526.
Wilson Winery Friends should never let friends drink shitty wine. Do you have a truck? After all, friends don’t let friends drink alone. 1960 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg. Open daily, 11am– 5pm. 707.433.4355.
N A PA CO U N T Y August Briggs Winery Tasting room is a white barn lit by skylights and often staffed by the owner’s wife or mother. 333 Silverado Trail, Calistoga. Open Thursday– Sunday, 11:30am–4:30pm. 707.942.5854.
Bennett Lane Winery The old trope “beer-drinking NASCAR fans vs. Chardonnaysipping highbrows” runs out of gas at a winery that sponsors an annual NASCAR race and has its own car, emblazoned with grapes. A Roman emperor who appreciated hearty vino as much as a good chariot race inspired Maximus White and Red “feasting wines.” 3340 Hwy. 128, Calistoga. 707.942.6684.
Brown Estate Vineyards (WC) A beautifully restored and converted stone and redwood barn is the winery and tasting room facility at Brown Estate. And the construction of a 6,500-square-foot subterranean wine cave was completed in 2005. Visitors are currently limited to wine club members by appointment only.
3233 Sage Canyon Road, Napa. 707.963.2435.
Domaine Carneros Inspired by Taittinger’s Château de la Marquetterie of Champagne, this house of premium sparkling wine is a hard-to-miss landmark on the Carneros Highway. Enjoy a private Balcony Package for special occasions or taste sparkling and still wines paired with artisan cheese and caviar with the masses. Luxury bubbly Le Rêve offers a bouquet of hoary yeast and crème brûlée that just slips away like a dream. 1240 Duhig Road (at Highway 12/121), Napa. Wine flights $15; also available by the glass or bottle. Open 10am–5:45pm. 800.716.2788.
Far Niente (WC) Far Niente was founded in 1885 by John Benson, a ’49er of the California Gold Rush and uncle of the famous American impressionist painter Winslow Homer. The estate boasts beautiful gardens as well as the first modern-built wine caves in North America. 1350 Acacia Drive, Napa. By appointment. 707.944.2861. Grgich Hills Mike Grgich’s Chardonnays famously beat the competition at the 1976 “Judgment of Paris” and the allestate winery is solar-powered and practices organic and biodynamic. 1829 St. Helena Hwy., Rutherford. Open daily, 9:30am–4:30pm. 707.963.2784. Rubicon Estate Despite the celebrity hype, the wine is award-winning. 1991 St. Helena Hwy., Rutherford. Open daily, 10am–5pm. 800.782.4226.
Truchard Vineyards (WC) No matter how attentive you are to the directions, no matter how much you study the quaint, hand-drawn map found online, you will inevitably miss Truchard Vineyards. What follows is a three-point turn on a blind, two-lane road, with a single thought in your head: “This wine had better be worth the insurance deductible.” But with Cabernet this good, it is. 3234 Old Sonoma Road, Napa. By appointment. 707.253.7153.
Freeman Vineyard & Winery
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undown, neglected and heaped with trash, this little winery had seen better times when the Freemans happened upon it. Built as a hobby by a successful type in the late 1970s, it passed through several hands after the original owner found the vicissitudes of the vintage too much to bear. Eventually, it fell into disrepair, hidden in a grove of redwood and eucalyptus on a narrow lane west of Sebastopol, and along came the Freemans. Ken and Akiko—he, a successful executiveto-be crewing on a yacht; she, the daughter and granddaughter of avid Burgundy collectors in Tokyo— were looking for a weekend retreat, and dove into a new calling. With a bright coat of rust-brown paint, spotless crush pad and flawless lawn, the winery looks brand-new, now accessorized with a horseshoe-shaped cave. And with the help of consulting winemaker Ed Kurtzman and assistant winemaker Eric Buffington, it’s giving back the love. Having owners who appreciate the work that goes into the product is nice, says Buffington, an affable Santa Rosa native. Akiko pitches in every day during the harvest, on the sorting table and in the cellar, asking her employees, “What do you want me to do next?” Since they’ve bounded from 500 cases in the flush early 2000s to 4,000 cases in the changed wine market of today, everyone hits the road to meet with accounts, sometimes bumping into their neighbors in the middle of Texas. The 2008 Russian River Valley Ryo-fu Chardonnay ($40) bears the symbols for “cool breeze” in kanji. Toasty new oak and a highgloss entry signal a big wine; lemon meringue and zesty minerality keep the finish focused. Cedar, forest floor and spice head up the 2008 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($41); the mouthful of fresh red cherry fruit has clean acidity. The 2008 RRV Pinot Noir ($41) has gorgeous, silky cherry fruit, to be sure, but a more herbal aroma of potpourri and tea, with a mandarin orange twist. Most curious, the wines at the end of the list, billed as bigger, I find lighter. The 2008 Keefer Ranch Pinot Noir ($46) is a damp fog of cranberry, cherry, chalk and watermelon candy; the 2008 Akiko’s Cuvée ($52) is light and teasing, with aromas of cherry, vanilla and beeswax, and lean, crisp flavors of cranberry, cherry and raspberry over distinct tannin. Perhaps, like this lucky little winery, it will achieve its best expression in due time. Freeman Vineyard & Winery, 1300 Montgomery Road, Sebastopol. No fee; tastings by appointment only, as time permits. 707.823.6937.—James Knight
19 NORTH BAY BOHEMIAN | AUGUST 3-9, 2011 | BOHEMIAN.COM
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