Category Archives{Wineries}

WindsorOaks_MINIPIC

Windsor Oaks Vineyards 2007 Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon

by jamesknight2 days ago in Wine of the Week.0 Comments

Smack dab in the middle of the county, this vineyard estate is like some kind of equal-opportunity wonderland for grapes: From each according to their abilities—Windsor Oaks sells tons of the mountain-grown grapes to area wineries; and to each according to their needs – Pinot Noir gets the cooler spots in the Russian River Valley corner of the estate; Cabernet {…}

Hawley_Splash-Label

Hawley 2005 Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

by jamesknight2 weeks ago in Wine of the Week.0 Comments

Sonoma County wineries are not special in at least this one detail: Every other tasting room has a “Winery Dogs” book for sale or on display, featuring a big portrait of their faithful pooch in coffee-table style. There’s Wine Dogs (including Robert Parker winery dog rating system), Winery Dogs of Sonoma, and Winery Dogs Gone Wild. Just kidding on that {…}

JackLondon_wine_splash

Jack London Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

by jamesknight1 month ago in Wine of the Week.0 Comments

The Jack London Vineyard is a beautiful property perched on the foot of Sonoma Mountain. It’s easy to imagine the author surveying the rolling green waves of grapevines as he wrote the following salute in 1913, as reproduced on the back label of Jack London Vineyard wines: “I ride over my beautiful ranch. Between my legs is a beautiful horse. {…}

stonestreet-label

Stonestreet Cabernet Offers a Taste of Place

by jamesknight1 month ago in Tasting Rooms.0 Comments

The Alexander Valley is known for Cabernet Sauvignon, and justly so. The grapes ripen easily here, among the hottest of Sonoma County appellations, and the vines sink their roots into ancient gravel beds deposited by the Russian River as it indecisively meandered across the valley throughout the eons. But it’s the mountains that loom above the valley that have lured {…}

tasteroute116

Explore West Sonoma County and Taste Route 116

by careysweet1 month ago in Tasting Rooms.0 Comments

Join Taste Route 116 for New Wine Tasting Events in West County So the holiday season is barely over, and it’s already time to start thinking about the next celebration. That would be Valentine’s Day, which this year falls on a Tuesday. The happy holiday often involves wine, but leave it to the creative group of Sebastopol wineries to figure out {…}

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Ring in the New Year with Sparkling Korbel Champagne

by jamesknight1 month ago in Wine of the Week.0 Comments

Many times I’ve been an advocate for the go-for-broke approach to New Year’s Eve festivities, but after the holiday shopping has been done, many of us find ourselves, well, broke. Fortunately, few people sweat the bubbly, as long as it goes “pop,” and a cheap bottle grabbed on the way to the party usually does the trick. But is there {…}

Gloria_beautypic

Gloria Ferrer Royal Cuvée 2004

by jamesknight2 months ago in Wine of the Week.1 Comment

Pop the Sparkling Wine Before New Year’s Eve You’ll notice that wine scribes everywhere are keen to advocate the wider use of sparkling wine, and perennially decry the narrow notion that it’s only a once-a-year kind of treat. You’ll also notice that at year’s end, they suck it up and churn out the obligatory “sparkling wine for New Year’s Eve!” {…}

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Truett Hurst Winery shows off Biodynamic roots

by jamesknight2 months ago in Tasting Rooms, Wine of the Week.0 Comments

While organic and Biodynamic farming is still perceived by some as a risky endeavor, who would have thought that the challenges would include belligerent sheep? When one of Truett Hurst Winery’s sheep – normally a docile sort – went errant in the parking lot, and decided that a visitor’s Lexus was its blood enemy, it went on the attack. Presumably {…}

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Open a Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Riesling for Thanksgiving

by jamesknight3 months ago in Wine of the Week.0 Comments

You know the holidays have arrived when San Francisco’s public radio station KQED announces that “This hour of news has been sponsored by Martinelli’s sparkling cider (no relation to Sonoma County’s makers of fine wine, Martinelli Winery).” The plug promises all the bubbles of champagne, but without the alcohol. That’s a fine, sweet and refreshing non-alcoholic compliment to the traditional {…}

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Freestone Vineyards 2009 Fogdog Sonoma Coast Chardonnay

by jamesknight3 months ago in Wine of the Week.1 Comment

It’s tempting sometimes to describe a wine more by what it isn’t than what it is, a pitfall that I often stumble into. It might be dismayingly unhelpful to the makers of wine, for one, and it’s a kind of backhanded smear on the other, nameless wines, entirely undeserved. I could say, for instance, that this isn’t a big, butterball {…}