{"id":381,"date":"2016-10-24T15:49:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T15:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=381"},"modified":"2016-10-24T16:08:19","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T16:08:19","slug":"sbragia-family-vineyards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=381","title":{"rendered":"Sbragia Family Vineyards"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the very end of the Dry Creek Valley, just before Dry Creek Road peters out, perched on a high cliff, is Sbragia Family Vineyards.\u00a0 It is just about the northernmost winery in Dry Creek so it\u2019s a bit of a drive.\u00a0 Because Sbragia Family sits athwart the closure of the fault line that created Dry Creek Valley, you will be rewarded with one of the most dramatic views in Sonoma\u2019s Wine Country.<\/p>\n

The winery itself is sleek, modern but not overly showy.\u00a0 The interior is a typical tasting room, with a wide bar and, unusually, some scattered tables where you can actually sit and enjoy your tastes.\u00a0 The colors in the room are somber, giving the overall experience a somewhat more intimate feeling than is often the case in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, especially in tasting rooms as large as this one.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019ll want to take your glasses out to the spacious terrace.\u00a0 There you\u2019ll look straight down Dry Creek Valley.\u00a0 You can\u2019t see San Francisco Bay from there, but your imagination will try to fill it in.\u00a0 Often, when you see aerial photos of vineyards the pictures have been taken from an airplane.\u00a0 Not at Sbragia Family.\u00a0 The picture below, courtesy of the winery, gives only a hint of what it\u2019s like to see it with your own eyes.<\/p>\n

\"sbragia\"<\/a>Photo courtesy of Sbragia Family Vineyards<\/em><\/p>\n

Of course, all that scenic beauty would be for naught if the wine was no good.\u00a0 You can rest easy on that point.\u00a0 The wine tasting itself has some special attractions, beginning with Ed Sbragia himself.\u00a0 As chief winemaker at Beringer in St. Helena he took an old, well-regarded winery and drove its reputation sky high.\u00a0 He started his own winery in 2004 and four years later he left Beringer to focus on Sbragia Family.\u00a0 He is still Winemaster Emeritus at Beringer and a consultant there.\u00a0 So when you taste wine at Sbragia Family, you\u2019re tasting a lot of winemaking heritage.<\/p>\n

And in fact that heritage is on a continuum.\u00a0 Ed\u2019s grandfather immigrated from Tuscany and worked in the vineyards of the early 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 His father, Gino, owned his own vineyards as well.\u00a0 Today, Ed\u2019s son Adam is being positioned to take over from his father, after spending some time at Beringer himself.\u00a0 And we were once served in the tasting room by on of Ed\u2019s daughters.<\/p>\n

The wines are an interesting mix.\u00a0 As you might expect from someone who earned his spurs at Beringer, the Cabernet Sauvignons are in the spotlight at Sbragia Family.\u00a0 There are Cabs to try from Dry Creek, Alexander, Sonoma and Napa Valleys.\u00a0 We have found that one of the most enjoyable aspects of a visit to Sbragia Family is trying to discern the differences from the four different locations.\u00a0 Gino\u2019s Zinfandel is named after Ed\u2019s father and is the original family vineyard.\u00a0 They also have Uncle Italo\u2019s Zinfandel from Alexander Valley.\u00a0\u00a0 (It is Sbragia Family<\/em>, after all.)<\/p>\n

Our personal favorite over the years has been the Merlot.\u00a0 One year we served it at Christmas dinner with our family in Qu\u00e9bec and they simply didn\u2019t realize that American wines could taste like that.<\/p>\n

The combination of the wines, the history and that incredible view make Sbragia Family a worthwhile destination if you\u2019re going tasting in Sonoma County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the very end of the Dry Creek Valley, just before Dry Creek Road peters out, perched on a high cliff, is Sbragia Family Vineyards.\u00a0 It is just about the northernmost winery in Dry Creek so it\u2019s a bit of a drive.\u00a0 Because Sbragia Family sits athwart the closure of the fault line that created … Continue reading Sbragia Family 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\/381"}],"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=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}