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).