OUr second day began with provisioning ourselves for a picnic lunch at
the Sonoma Cheese Factory on the Sonoma square. There we got salame,
cheese, bread, tabbouli and fruit salad. So equipped, we then set out
for an afternoon in the Dry Creek Valley.

First stop was Bella Vineyards and Wine Caves at the top of W. Dry Creek
Rd. north of Healdsburg. Bella is open to the public 7 days a week and
the tasting was conducted in their "cave." This was the only tasting
fee we were charged ($5 per head) and was waived when we purchased wines
there.

2006 Dry Rosé (14.5% ABV)
nose: strawberries
palate: med body, lacking in acidity, alcohol

2004 Syrah Sonoma (15% ABV)
n: juicy, blackberry
p: med body, tannins, good acidity, deep berry fruit

2005 Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley
n: typical tart berry fruit, very nice
p: good acidity, berryish fruit, medium body

2005 Zinfandel Lily Hill Vyd
n: pencil lead, berries
p: tannic entry, good acidity, berries, med-full body, long finish

Across the board, the red wines were good here and the rosé suffered
only in having a typical (for CA) high alcohol content. The whole
experience was quite worthwhile, and we ended up eating our picnic lunch
on the grounds, which commands a marvelous view of the upper Dry Creek
Valley. For as remote a location as they have, it's amazing how much
traffic they got on a Monday.

Our next stop was Unti, on Dry Creek Road, where we had made an
appointment for 2 pm. Although they require appointments, it appears
that they get a fairly steady stream of visitors; I wouldn't be
surprised if at least several of the parties we saw had made
appointments not long before arriving there. Unti is a family-run
operation (as were almost all of the wineries we visited) with a focus
on Italian varieties and Syrah. The tasting "room" is a plywood "table"
laid out in their barrel storage facility.

2006 Rosé (14.5% ABV, 65/35 Grenache/Mourvedre)
c: pale salmon
n: alcohol, minerals
p: alcohol, muted fruit

2005 Segromino (89/7/4 Sangiovese/Syrah/Barbera)
n: butter, tart cherry
p: acidity, anonymous cherryish fruit

2004 Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley (80/20 Zin/Petite Sirah, 14.9% ABV)
n: alcohol
p: good acidity, slightly tannic, dark berry fruit, much more impressive
than the nose would indicate

2005 Grenache (84/14/2 Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre)
n: cherries
p: tart cherry, good acidity

2004 Syrah
n: brambly, blackberry
p: good acidity, medium body, slightly tannic, dark berry fruit

This was one of the few mixed bags in our two days of tasting. I liked
the Zin and Syrah very much, I was impressed with the overall winemaking
there, but was left cold by the Segromino and the Grenache (about which
I've heard others rave). I must admit, though, that I rarely am
impressed with the CA renditions of most Italian varieties and my
standards for Grenache-based wines are set in the S. Rhone, so I'm
probably overly hard on them. The people were great and we had a most
stimulating discussion with their French winemaker of whether there was
a standard size for a foudre or not (Unti sported some large barrels
which were nonetheless clearly smaller than the foudre I've seen in CdP)

Our last stop of the day was at Merry Edwards, again made by
appointment. The location was in an industrial complex that also housed
their administrative offices in Windor pending the completion of their
new winery facility in Graton. The tasting was conducted by Ron Hayes,
a longtime Sonoma winery employee who was recruited by Merry Edwards to
head her tasting operation. Ron was friendly, knowledgable and
gracious, a real treat. The eponymous Meredity "Merry" Edwards was one
of the first female winemakers in CA, starting back in '79 (we spoke
with Ron at length about some of the barriers she faced) and we first
became aware of her wines in the mid-'80s when she was the winemaker for
Matanzas Creek in their heyday. More recently, she's been the winemaker
for Laurier and a successful conultant, starting her own winery in 1997.

2005 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast (14.1% ABV)
n: smoke, slightly alcoholic
p: medium body, velvety, classic Pinot Noir fruit

2005 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
n: smoke, deep, dark fruit
p: medium full body, richly fruity, good acidity

2005 Pinot Noir Olivet Lane
n: smoke, minerals
p: good acidity, medium full, deep, dark fruit, long finish

2006 Sauvignon Blanc Russian River Valley
n: minerals, grass
p: crisp entry, tropical fruit, minerals, clean finish

Not a mediocre wine in the bunch! All 3 Pinots were classy, beautiful
expressions of the fruit. Unlike the vast majority of RRV Pinots, her's
never veered off into overripeness or overextraction. The SB brought us
back to our grad school days, as it tasted so much like those memorable
Matanzas Creek Sauvignon Blancs that first opened our eyes to the grape.
Ron explained at length why he put the SB at the end of the tasting, a
trick he'd learned elsewhere. It relies on the SB being slightly
off-dry as this one was and it did in fact work well for us. Merry
Edwards only sells wine through their mailing list and to restaurants
(although their wines get reviewed by WS and the CGCW -- go figger!) so
we signed up. Mirabile dictu, they even ship to IN!

That concluded out winery visits. Had we had more time there, we would
have gone to Ridge's Lytton Springs Rd output and to De La Montanya, but
we weren't at all disappointed with any of our stops. Tops on my list
would probably be Joe Swan and Merry Edwards, but they were all well
worth visiting. What they shared was: small operations, trying to
express terroir through non-interventionist winemaking and generally
owning their own vineyards and using <20% new oak.

That evening, we dined at Cafe La Haye near the Sonoma square with Hoke
Harden (from WLDG and elsewhere) and his wife Roxi. The food was
exceptionally good "bistro" fare ("elegant comfort food" according to
Hoke) and the wine list was interesting and reasonably priced. Jean got
a smoked trout appetizer while I started with a salad of pea shoots,
peas and green onions. We began with a bottle of the 2006 Navarro
Chenin Blanc Mendocino ($20 on the wine list). It was clean, fresh and
had a hint of varietal fruit, but didn't really distinguish itself
beyond being a good partner for our food. Jean and both got a main
course of quail with sourdough stuffing served over a white bean puree
and grilled radicchio. The dish itself was delicious and we got a
bottle of the 2003 Dehlinger "Goldridge" Pinot Noir ($68 on the wine
list) to accompany our mains and Hoke and Roxi's grilled Alaskan char,
the fish of the day. The wine was very nice, a nicely restrained RRV
Pinot, but after our tasting at Merry Edwards, it seemed to lack a bit
of the elegance that made her wines so appealing.

All in all, the two days were wonderful and most relaxing. Hotel,
restaurants and wineries all come highly recommended.

Mark Lipton
--
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