Part 3: The Winery Tour

About a month before the wedding, I got a call from Gary who asked me if I’d be interested in helping out with the wedding by organizing a little wine tour for the wedding guests. Was he kidding? Did he even have to ask? I jumped at the chance. While I’m no expert on Sonoma wine country, I’ve gone wine tasting there enough times to have a pretty good idea of where to take 20 people to taste some great wines. Our group was very mixed in terms of wine experience. There were a few of us who were really into it, a few who were sort of into it, and a few who had never gone wine tasting before. Gary had two limos booked for the Saturday afternoon after the wedding (which was on Friday) and my only instructions were to get us to approximately three wineries in five hours and perhaps have some kind of meat and cheese plate available at one of them so we didn’t starve to death and end up hammered. And, because most of the guests were from out-of-town, Gary wanted to the experience to be well…special. Since we would be loading into the limos from his mother’s house after what would turn out to be a fabulous brunch, I also needed to stick to wineries in that general vicinity which meant the Healdsburg-ish area. Oh and I had to try and keep the cost of the tasting at or under $30.

So with those criteria in mind, I started doing a little research. With 20 people in our tasting party, I knew we couldn’t just show up at any winery unannounced and expect the kind of experience Gary had in mind. In fact, several smaller wineries I called simply told me that they could not handle 20 people at once. After a couple of hours of serious phone time, I had booked visits with three wineries that covered a good spectrum of Sonoma wine country: Dry Creek Vineyards, Rosenblum Cellars’ tasting room in Healdsburg (where we contracted for a meat and cheese plate), and Suncé Winery. Dry Creek and Rosenblum both asked that we book a private tasting for our crowd, which drove the cost up a bit but Matt, tasting room manager at Dry Creek gave us a discount because I’m an amateur wine blogger and “in the industry.” (How cool is that?) And while Rosenblum didn’t give us a discount, the tasting experience there was so outstanding…well more on that in a bit. So without further ado, here’s my rundown on “Gary and Catherine’s Wedding Wine Tour 2010.”

First stop was Dry Creek Vineyard. This postcard-ready, chateau-like winery exudes cool, literally. It would be a great place to bring a picnic lunch and share a bottle of wine in the shade of the huge trees that grace the premises. Our private tasting was hosted by Matt and held in the cavernous barrel room off of the tasting room. In addition to the discount, Matt provided some cheese, crackers, and fruit for us to nibble on. Because this was a private tasting, I was able to select the wines from their website well in advance of the tasting. The wines we tasted were:

2007 Estate Fume Blanc DCV3 $20.00
2007 Taylor’s Vineyard Musque (pronounced, “moose-kay”) $20.00
2007 Somers Ranch Zinfandel $27.20
2006 Beeson Ranch Zinfandel $27.20
2006 The Mariner $32.00

My personal favorites of the bunch were the Taylors Vineyard Musque—100% Sauvignon Blanc with peach, apple, pear, wet rocks and a definite French flair; and The Mariner—a fabulous, award winning Bordeaux blend. Matt did a great job hosting our group, providing information about the wines and answering our questions. After the tasting we hung out under the trees for a while and then it was off to Healdsburg proper for our date with Rosenblum.

The Rosenblum tasting room is located in the center of Healdsburg. It was bright, cheerful and very welcoming. Their private tasting area was large with several tables and chairs. The meat and cheese plate they put together from the grocery next door was amazing. Our hostess and pourer, Joyce, was equally amazing. She poured everyone a little Sauvignon Blanc while she and I went over the tasting menu. Because I paid attention at Dry Creek, I was able to give Joyce a decent idea of what everyone was interested in. For example, when she asked me what we might want in Zins, I told her anything but “hot” and alcoholic. With that information she gave us two very distinctive and different ones to try. When we got to the Petite Sirahs, I told her I wanted one big enough to slam me against the wall and she came through with that as well. She even gave us a little wine education by pulling out a bottle of “corked” wine and letting us smell what that was like. She was informative, accommodating, and patient. She seemed to be having as much fun as we were. She even pulled out a Chocolate Port for us to try as a special treat.

2008 Kathy's Cuvee Viognier, California $18.00
2007 Arpacio Zinfandel, Amador County $25
2007 Rockpile Road Zinfandel, Rockpile $35 (which received 90 pts from Wine Spectator)
2007 Miguel’s Medley $45
2007 Pato Vineyards Petite Sirah, Contra Costa County $25.00
Désirée Chocolate Dessert Wine, California $20.00

To my horror and shame, I lost my notes from Rosenblum so I know I’m missing a delicious Syrah but the above list is pretty comprehensive and all of these wines were knockouts. My personal favorites were the Pato Petite Sirah, the Desiree Chocolate Dessert wine (both of which I purchased), and Miguel’s Medley—a delicious Rhone-style blend, which seemed to be the favorite of the entire group. Alas, Joyce told us that their Healdsburg tasting room was going to close this summer. But you can still enjoy their tasting experience at their Alameda location.

We left Rosenblum extremely happy and enjoyed the 20-minute or so scenic ride over to Suncé Winery and Vineyards. Suncé is the Croatian word for “sun.” In addition to being one of the first and most memorable wineries I ever went to with Danny and Esther, it also reminds me a bit of my great Uncle who was born in Croatia and made wine in his basement. By now the temperature was in the 80s with nary a cloud in the sky. We pulled into this tiny winery’s parking lot and the gals in the tasting room showed us to the back of the building where we were served through the open “drive–thru” style window. Then we dispersed to sit in the shade on the deck or play Bocce ball. Even though the tasting room itself was packed, the gals handled our large group with a wonderful sense of ease. Their tasting list of old world-style wines was extensive and, because we had drivers, we were allowed to taste anything or everything on the list. Here, we were on own as far as tasting went so I’ll list my favorites:


2008 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, Zora’s Estate Vineyard $44 — Full bodied and earthy.
2006 Sangiovese, Sonoma Valley, Alice’s Vineyard $24 — One of the best California Sangioveses I’ve tasted.
2005 Cabernet Franc, Dry Creek Valley, Mazzera Ranch $30 — Only 24 barrels were made of this delicious, true-to-varietal Cab Franc.

Since I couldn’t decide which of these three wonderful wines to take home, I decided to take home two bottles each. (I was totally enabled by our pourer who told me that since I was flying Horizon Airlines out of Santa Rosa, I could check a case of wine at no extra cost.)

This may be one of the longest posts I’ve ever written and I still feel as though I haven’t done these three wineries justice. It was just an awesome experience. I’d also want to say that the people who shared the experience with me were equally awesome. Thank you all.