Two Mike's, Two Jenny's, and a Brian

For our second excursion we ventured into Alexander Valley, passed quite a few lovely wineries and stopped right in the middle at Sausal Winery and Vineyards (AV). Sausal is known for their truly old vine zinfandel and their cats Sophie and Gypsy (you are alerted that the cats are on the premises when you walk in). We sighted both cats during our visit and tasted one of the two wines named in their honor. Jenny (history teacher during the week/knowledgeable Sausal tasting room employee on the weekends), was passionate herself about learning about wines and even recommended several classes for us to take. Jenny gave us a brief history of zinfandel vineyards in the area - Sausal boasts vineyards as old as 133 years, surviving Prohibition. The "youngest" zinfandel wine we tasted came from vines around 50 years old. It was a very interesting learning experience and we'd recommend Zinfandel aficionados make the stop at Sausal.

On Jenny's recommendation, we headed to Stryker Sonoma Winery (AV) next. The path leading to the tasting room takes you behind the facility, which looked a bit industrial and not so inviting, but then wraps around to an impressive tasting room and view. As we walked inside we were awed by the striking interior - gorgeous wood all around, stainless steel bar and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking vineyards. We were greeted by Mike (self-titled, "Young Mike"), who introduces us to the other two guys, "Old Mike" and "Middle Mike" (who's name it turns out is actually Brian). Old Mike (who's name is actually Mike) and Young Mike (also an official Mike, verified by us viewing his driver's license - because at this point, as you can imagine, we are not trusting anything Young Mike says), were so fun and helpful that we spent the majority of our tasting time here. The Mikes were as informative as they were entertaining. When Denise divulged that she is from Minneapolis, Old Mike suggested that she must know his roommate from college, who may or may not have been Garrison Keillor (It is possible that Old Mike's roommate works with Garrison Keillor or sounds like Garrison Keillor - the story took a confusing turn when Marissa accidentally insulted Old Mike by erroneously misplacing Garrison Keillor's age in the "80-something" range... when he is in fact a mere whipper-snapper at 68).

In the midst of all of the fun, the Mikes gave us the best tasting lesson we've had so far and got us working on identifying the various "bouquets" and flavors we tasted among their wines. Our favorite wine at Stryker happens to also be our wine of the day, the 2006 Dry Creek Zinfandel (not on their regular tasting menu). Not our words but our sentiment: this wine was "subtle at first, well balanced... [with a] rich, velvety finish". We said it was "yummy".

After our heavy consumption of red wines in the afternoon, we took a sobering (in a good way) lunch break at Jimtown.

Refueled, rehydrated and palates cleansed, we headed to our final destination for the day. The tasting room at Hanna Winery & Vineyards (AV) is a beautiful, oversized casita-esque building on top of a hill, surrounded by Cabernet and Merlot vineyards. At Hanna, we were greeted by our second Jenny of the day. Jenny-number-two offered us the opportunity to taste anything we wanted from their vast selection of open wines and she supplemented our education with tasting room flare - an aerial photo of their Mt. Bismark vineyards and an ACTUAL lava rock ("these grapes have to struggle in the soil against the lava rock" etc.) At this point we were a little overwhelmed by the options so Jenny made some suggestions. The two stand-outs from the selection were the award-winning Sauvignon Blanc (which was a refreshing change from the Zins we'd been drinking all day) and the 2007 Elias Pinot from their Russian River Valley vineyards. Denise and Marissa were both quite pleased with themselves for identifying in the Pinot, distinct lavender and musky aromas ("new leather" according to the description, which we pinky-swear we didn't look at before guessing). Pats on backs for some progress!

Most important lesson of the day: Start with lighter (whiter) wines and move towards heavier (redder).

Wine Experience Ratings

Dear Readers,

Several people have suggested that we introduce a rating system to our blog. We originally thought about rating the wineries but felt it would be presumptuous of us to rate something we are admittedly novice to. But we understand it might be helpful for readers if we had a way of comparing the wineries on a more standard scale in addition to our anecdotal stories. So, we decided we would use a rating systems similar to that of Zagat and rate four different aspects our our experiences - emphasis on the word experiences - we aren't claiming to be experts at anything but being our wine-loving, education-seeking, fun-having selves!

Here are the categories we'll evaluate: (each rated on a x-out-of-5 bottle scale) Ambience - How was the atmosphere & setting? Experience - How much fun did we have? Education - Was it a learning experience? Wine - How did we like the wine overall?

Question of the Week

How can we get the most information out of a taste of wine (which is usually only a few small sips)?

Maiden Voyage into Dry Creek Valley

Today we went on our first "official" wine tasting excursion (prior wine tasting experiences in life are excluded from this project). We started late (around 2pm) and made it to two wineries before getting hungry, calling it quits and hitting up the General Store on Dry Creek Road for sandwiches. Robin, our Biggest Fan was along for the maiden voyage.

Our first stop was the Wilson Winery (DCV):

To our surprise and delight, Wilson is the site of fruition for our until-then-theoretical concept of the legs-wine-pourer (see Blog Glossary).

Legs was pretty and young and totally new at this - but she was also the sweetest tasting room volunteer we'd ever encountered. Devoting her Saturday to helping her mom (the actual, official, presumably knowledgeable pourer) work the tasting room for the day, she was enthusiastic and diligent about getting the answers to our questions (see Quote of the Week). Mom was super busy with a party of 18 (Robin counted 36 knee-high boots) but was available for our edification when we came up with our challenging questions, like "who is Carl" (of the "2007 Zinfandel from Carl's Vineyard"). Carl, we learn, is the father of the winery owner. In fact, all of their vineyards are named after Wilson family members. We like this! The scenery from the tasting room at Wilson was beautiful, the people were kind and the Zins were good*. We have vowed to get back to Wilson after we are a little more seasoned so we can make smart remarks regarding their wines.

*it is important to note here that Marissa doesn't think she likes Zinfandel wine, therefore, this is intended to be a compliment to Wilson.

Next stop: Amista Vineyards (DCV). Amista means "making friends" in Latin. The folks there lived up to the name. After the overipe bachelorette party moved to a special table in the back, we had the tasting bar and Ross to ourselves. Ross is delightful, knowledgeable and could make a 2-buck-chuck sound irresistible. Fortunately for Amista, the latter talent is not necessary at all. Since Ross passes on his enthusiasm for wine, and Amista in particular, to all who come by for a taste, we did learn that having a committed host with history at the winery makes for a more interactive and, therefore, rich experience.

A former chemist and home-chef, Mike (owner) pairs each wine with a suggested dish on the tasting sheet. Seeing as how we were getting hungry, Robin asked if there was any lamb in the back for us to enjoy with our Syrah. Ross did the next best thing and brought us special brownies from the kitchen - NO, not that kind of special - made with the Ilusión dessert wine. Marissa joined the wine club and Denise drank her whole taste of the port-style Ilusión** - all in all, a great 1.5 hrs spent there. The Amista 2004 Syrah was hands-down the winning wine of the day.

**it is important to note here that Denise doesn't think she likes Port and that Denise's Chef (DC) should be credited with teaching us that there is a difference between a Port and a port-style wine.

The afternoon concluded with yummy sandwiches and a review of our first day on the job.

2 wineries/26 tastes/1 new friend