{"id":1227,"date":"2019-03-30T18:37:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-30T18:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2019-03-30T18:37:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-30T18:37:44","slug":"unti-vineyards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1227","title":{"rendered":"Unti Vineyards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unti Vineyards (www.untivineyards.com<\/a>) is a small vineyard with a small tasting room located on Dry Creek Road, about half-way up.\u00a0 If you\u2019re heading north, look for it on your left.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to drive by; we know because we\u2019ve had to turn around on several occasions.\u00a0 It feels as though Unti has been there forever but was only founded in 1997, which means we\u2019ve been tasting and buying there virtually from the beginning.<\/p>\n

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The Unti winery.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of The Press.<\/em><\/p>\n

The winery is hardly a palace.\u00a0 It\u2019s a house, with an industrial building in the back.\u00a0 Until only a few years ago, you\u2019d pull into the parking lot and walk into a wood-paneled office.\u00a0 Someone would be on the phone and another doing some filing and they were delighted to be pulled away from these activities to pour you some wine and chat for a while.\u00a0 The subject of conversation was often Domaine la Soumade<\/a> in Rasteau, France.<\/p>\n

Huh?<\/p>\n

The winery at Soumade has long shelves around the walls with bottles that the owner\/ winemaker, Andr\u00e9 Rom\u00e9ro, had enjoyed.\u00a0 There among them was Unti!\u00a0 We felt very international, being fond of both of the vineyards and their wines.<\/p>\n

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The Unti tasting room.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Tripadvisor.<\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago, the Unti family decided to build a proper tasting room.\u00a0 It still isn\u2019t palatial and is a bit industrial with rough wood ceilings and corrugated metal, but the views out over the vines soften it a bit.\u00a0 It feels homey.\u00a0 Very often there will be an Unti to pour for you.\u00a0 The winery is family owned and operated and there is a sense that the vineyards, the wine and the family all grew up together, as an organic whole.\u00a0 And in fact, they have been farming organically since the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

The wines they produce are a rather interesting mix.\u00a0 Some are Rh\u00f4ne varietals and others are varietals from all over Italy.\u00a0 Of course, they\u2019re in Dry Creek Valley so they make a Zinfandel, too.\u00a0 Our favorites are the Rh\u00f4nes, in particular their Syrah.\u00a0 Even these have an Italian character when young, with rather pronounced acidity.\u00a0 Quite a few years ago, we bought a bottle of Syrah, put it away and forgot about it for around five years.\u00a0 It had mellowed and acquired a more Rh\u00f4ne-like nose and taste.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been aging the wines we buy there ever since.<\/p>\n

Some of Unti\u2019s Italianate wines are familiar, from grapes such as Montepulciano and Barbera.\u00a0 Others are, according to their web site, otherwise unknown in the area.\u00a0 These include Segromigno (from Tuscany) and Fiano (a white grape from southern Italy).\u00a0 We are pleased to see Unti and a handful of other California growers (Seghesio, David Coffaro<\/a> and Ramazotti come to mind) are focusing on making Italian wines.\u00a0 If other people can be Rh\u00f4ne Rangers, why not Italian Stallions?<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t think of Unti as a destination winery, but we do consider Dry Creek Valley that way.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re planning a day in Dry Creek, you ought to consider stopping at Unti.\u00a0 They have a \u201cBy Appointment Only\u201d policy, but never once in twenty years have we been turned away.\u00a0 Still, you\u2019d better check with them on busy weekends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unti Vineyards (www.untivineyards.com) is a small vineyard with a small tasting room located on Dry Creek Road, about half-way up.\u00a0 If you\u2019re heading north, look for it on your left.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to drive by; we know because we\u2019ve had to turn around on several occasions.\u00a0 It feels as though Unti has been there forever … Continue reading Unti Vineyards<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1230,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}