Author: lgsjr

Tasting in the Languedoc

Languedoc is in the southwest of France.  Until the 13th century, it was considered as a separate entity, Occitania, home of the troubadours, easy living and rich food.  There are no more troubadours, but the rest remains.  It is today the part of France with the greatest production of wine grapes.  The wine producing area is very large, stretching along the Mediterranean coast from the west of the Côtes du Rhône to the Spanish border and inland, at its furthest extreme, beyond Carcassonne.

Wine has been made here since this area was colonized by the Greeks.  Today, for the most part, the grapes grown here are of the Rhône variety: Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Carignan in red; Marsanne, Rousanne and Viognier in white.  There are more than 30 sub-regions recognized as AOCs (Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée), which are much the same as AVAs in the United States.  There are even more sub-sub-regions, called Indications Géographique Protégée, which are not quite as well recognized but may still make some excellent wines.

Sadly there was a time, not that long ago, when wines from the Languedoc were rough, alcoholic, sour and for some people, better used for cooking than drinking.  We are pleased to say that this is no longer the case.  The reason, as we see it, is the advent of organic winemaking in the last 10 to 15 years.  Referred to as bio by the French, it has sparked a revolution in Languedoc wines.  It may be attention to detail, more intense vinification techniques, stainless steel tanks or just plain cleanliness but the wines of the Languedoc today have little to do with the past.

Now, so we have found, there are many excellent wines to be had in red, white and pink.  And the prices are not to be believed.  For example, we have been drinking a rosé that Lucie in particular has enjoyed (Domaine l’Espinel) that costs less than five euros ($6).  There are some really interesting reds and whites for which the top  price we have seen is around 25 euros ($30).  Perhaps none of them are enough to make the great Chateauneuf du Papes worry, but they are really fine wines, full of complexity and depth and ready to drink now.  We think they will age well, but they may in fact be at their peak in a few years after harvest.

The wine tasting experience is a revelation.  The wineries are not crowded.  In fact in September, at the time of our visits, there have been no others sharing the tasting rooms with us.  And every winery seems to make eight to ten wines and the server wants you to try them all.  It does help to speak French, but we have found that all the servers are eager to try out their English.  Plus, most of them do not charge for tasting.

The Languedoc is sunbaked and can be quite warm, especially in the summer months.  Of course, this produces wines that are particularly flavorsome.  It is not California, with wineries lined up on highways.  No, on the contrary, you may have to drive around, get a little lost, and find wineries spaced out rather distant from each other even within AOC regions.  On the other hand, you are likely to make discoveries that you will remember warmly and search for in wine stores for years to come.  We have found that, for the most part, only the lowest quality wines on any vineyard’s list are the ones exported to North America so a wine tasting trip is likely to open your eyes – and your nose and tongue – to some delightful new experiences.

Plumpjack Winery

If you want to visit a winery with some serious clout, go to Plumpjack (www.plumpjackwinery.com) in Oakville in Napa Valley.  It is owned by Gavin Newsome (currently Lt. Governor of California and if the polls are to be believed, soon to be the Governor) and Gordon Getty (yes, that Getty family).  All of which has no meaning whatsoever with regard to the wine tasting experience when you go there.  Plumpjack is laid back, casual and definitely focused on the wine.

A word about the name.  Plumpjack refers to Sir John Falstaff, a character in several of Shakespeare’s historical plays.  He was a hearty, hard-drinking rogue and evidently that was the image that the owners wanted to give their winery.

The building housing the tasting room is no Napa palace, though clearly the owners could have afforded to build an architectural masterpiece if they had wanted to.  The fact that it is a quiet farmhouse (or so it seems) nestled within their vineyards says a lot about their approach to their wines: solid, approachable, focused on what’s in the glass and not on all the extraneous fol-de-rol that typifies some wine tasting experiences in Napa Valley.

And what’s in the glass is of very high quality.  They do make Merlots and Syrahs, but Plumpjack’s specialty (and the reason to taste there) is Cabernet Sauvignon.  The rating numbers given by the trade magazines don’t mean everything, but consistent high 90’s and a scattering of 100’s does mean something.  It tells the visitor that almost every harvest produces wines that are well worth tasting.

Plumpjack’s tasting room

The atmosphere of a tasting at Plumpjack is very important.  Even when the tasting room gets crowded (primarily on weekends) you don’t feel rushed or pressured.  The basic tasting charge of $40, while not out of line with other top-tier wineries, does keep down the size of the crowd.  You can stand up by the bar or take your glass outside to the porch or under the vines that grow alongside the building.  The views out over the vineyards add enormously to the pleasure of your tasting.

In addition to the tasting room, Plumpjack offers seated tastings.  One to consider, especially on weekends when you might want to avoid jammed tasting rooms, is Plumpjack’s hilltop tasting.  There’s a small hill on the property and they have a table at the top where the combination of wine and view are matchless.

The view from Plumpjack’s hill

Plumpjack is a “by appointment only” winery.  It’s always a good idea to have an appointment and on weekends it’s fairly necessary, but our experience has been that if you arrive and they’re not full, they’ll make room for you.

Worth noting is that Plumpjack also owns two other wineries, Odette in Stags Leap and Cade on Howell Mountain.  Your tasting at Plumpjack is likely to include some wines from these properties as well.

If your idea of a wine tasting experience is to party in fancy digs, Plumpjack isn’t for you.  But if you like serious wine in relaxed circumstances, make your way to Plumpjack on the Oakville Cross just off the Silverado Trail.  You’ll be happy there.

Winery Tours, Part 1: For Beginners

If you enjoy wine tasting and you’ve never taken a tour of a winery, you really ought to do it.  Wine making is one part farming, one part artistry and one part industry.  When we open bottles at home, we can see the artistry, how winemakers have induced humble grapes to tempt the eye, nose and tongue.  There’s a little bit of the industrial side as well, if you count the marketing that goes into the labels.

When you are actually there at a winery all three parts are right in front of you: the vineyards, the gleaming bottles and glasses at the bar and that factory right behind the tasting room.  Skipping that last part is to willfully ignore some of the mystery that ends when you swallow but begins in the field.  You really ought to gain an understanding of how the wine got from that vineyard to your mouth.

What follows is a word picture of a winery tour.  Keep in mind that this is a generalization, as each winery does more than a few things its own way.

Destemming at Saintsbury in Carneros

The grapes arrive at the winery in huge bins, packed to overflowing.  The stems and everything that isn’t grapes are removed and then the grapes are pressed.  (No, they don’t use feet anymore.)  The juice is transferred to vats and yeast is added to turn the sugar into alcohol.  Once that occurs and all the scummy stuff is removed, the juice is transferred to even larger vats where they are blended to get the mix that will eventually be wine.  From there the soon-to-be-wine is stored in barrels for months.  Finally it is pumped into bottles and the bottles are put in boxes to be sent to wine stores near you.

The barrel room at Donnafugata in Sicily

So now that we’ve told you how it’s done, why bother going?

  • There’s nothing like seeing it yourself.  It’s the same reason you go to a museum rather than looking at pictures on your cell phone.  There is the pleasure of knowing what the process actually looks like.  It’s not just bragging rights with your friends; it’s the internal satisfaction of having been there.
  • It may be a part of the tasting.  Quite a few wineries, particularly some of the best ones, are proud of the way they make wine and include a tour in the tasting and in fact you can’t taste without touring.  A few wineries that come to mind are Chappelet, Jordan and Cain in the US, almost all of the major châteaux in Bordeaux, and Biondi-Santi in Tuscany.
  • You get a sense of how difficult winemaking is.  Particularly if you have a chance to visit during the press, you’ll see how labor intensive the process of making wine can be, how much an investment needs to be made in equipment and personnel and how long the time is before the winery can make any money from the work that is done. So the next time you shell out some serious bucks at the wine store, you can say to yourself, “Yeah, I get it.  I know why it costs so much.”  Okay, maybe it still costs too much, but you’ll understand where the costs come from.

Impressions of South African Wine Tasting

Only one of us has been wine tasting in South Africa and Steve was only there briefly, so we can’t offer much in the way of recommendations or meaningful reviews.  So this will be about the experience, rather than the wines, which is what Power Tasting is all about.

Steve was in Cape Town on business and gave himself the weekend to overcome the jet lag.  He found himself alone, 8,000 miles from home and that Sunday was his birthday.  So to shake the blues he went wine tasting.

Fortunately, the best known winemaking areas in South Africa are quite near to Cape Town.  Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschhoek are less than an hour’s drive from downtown.  Unfortunately, Steve had no car, no idea of where to go and besides they drive on the wrong side of the road there.  Then and now, the American dollar goes pretty far in South Africa, so Steve found a taxi and hired it for the day.

Nederburg Winery, with dining tables outside.  Photo courtesy of Spice4Life.

The taxi driver was no wine enthusiast and had no particular idea where he was going, either.  Steve had read up on South African wines and had a few wineries in mind for a visit.  He was lucky that they were fairly close to one another: Meerlust, Nederburg and Spier were on his list.  Amazingly quickly, Steve was seeing grape vines out the taxi window and in a half an hour he had arrived at Spier.

One thing he quickly learned was that they don’t call them vineyards but rather “wine farms” which, when you think about it, makes a lot of sense.  The second thing he learned is that South Africa has a significant wine history.  In the 19th century, it was a world-class producer; the Constantia wine estate grew one of the world’s most coveted dessert wines.  (You can still get a sense of it with Klein Constantia Vin de Constance, but according to the historians it’s not the same thing.)  Next, Steve learned that many of the better wine farms have top-notch restaurants.  Steve’s lunch was local lamb chops and a bottle Nederburg’s best Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Drakenstein Mountains.  Photo courtesy of SA-Venues.com.

One of Steve’s best memories of his visit was the beauty of the vineyards at the foot of the Drakenstein (“Dragon’s Stone”) Mountains.  Of course there are many vineyard areas in Wine Country with vines and mountains, Napa Valley not the least.  But the views in Paarl and Franschhoek are particularly striking.

Most of the wines in South Africa are from familiar grapes but there is a sort of wine that is unique.  Called Pinotage, it is from grapes cross-bred between Pinot Noir and Cinsault, beginning in the 1920’s.  It doesn’t taste quite like anything else and frankly, we’re not big fans of Pinotage.  But it does add a certain local flavor to a visit to South Africa, where there are a few rather excellent wines, from better known grapes, to taste.

State Liquor Stores

Here’s a place to visit that you can’t visit anymore, and thank goodness for it.  But there is  some kind of nostalgia involved anyway.

In many US states and Canadian provinces, sales of alcoholic beverages are restricted to the government.  That’s all right because these stores are indistinguishable from the private wine and liquor stores in other states.  You walk down aisles with shelves stocked with wines, locally made and from around the world.  Just because it’s an SAQ store (Société des Alcools du Québec) or one run by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board makes no difference.  Do you really care if the profits go to the government instead of a private owner?

But it wasn’t always this.  Just because Prohibition ended in the United States in 1933 and in 1920 in Canada (a wartime provision) didn’t mean that drinking alcoholic beverages was universally accepted.  In fact, in many places it was considered to be a sin.  Therefore, various jurisdictions reached the rather contradictory conclusion that if the state or province was opposed to sin it should nonetheless profit from the sinners.  But they needed to be well aware that they were sinning.  Hence, the state stores were born.

Photo courtesy of virginiaplaces.org

There were no aisles to wander.  There were no gaily decorated bottles to see.  There was no one to ask for a recommendation of what to serve with dinner that night.  What there was was a counter, some civil servants and racks of bottles behind the counter, “unauthorized entry prohibited”.  There was a price list of the products for sale in a plastic folder on the counter and you asked one of the civil servants to get you a bottle of whatever you intended to buy.  These individuals were there to serve you, but it definitely wasn’t service with a smile.

It became a rite of passage for a teenage boy to enter a state store with a driver’s license clenched in his fist and ask for…what?  Something.  Anything.  Just to prove that he could do it.  Drinking from that bottle was almost an afterthought and it was surely not going to be a fine wine from the vineyards of Bordeaux (he probably couldn’t pronounce it, much less spell it).  More likely he said, in a tremulous voice, “I’ll have a bottle of Gallo Hearty Burgundy, please”. Thus were the wages of sin paid.

Note that we refer to teenage boys.  Legally speaking, girls were allowed but that just wasn’t done in those times.  In fact, it was a brave grown woman who entered a state store.  Moms looked askance if Dads even took their little children into a state store with them.  Lucie’s Dad took her and she still remembers her Mom’s comments when they got home.

The whole point was that you were supposed to feel guilty.  Guilt was the cement that bound the drinker with society, and it was guilt that washed the sin away from the state or provincial coffers.  The underlying schizophrenia of such a system had to become unsupportable over time.  Eventually, the governments came to realize that they could make more money from sin if they made it seem attractive rather than reprehensible.  And so the stores became as they were and still are in their less restrictive neighboring states.

For those of us who enjoy tasting and drinking wine responsibly, it is hard to think back on these benighted times.  But it’s good to do so from time to time, if only to put our pleasant avocation in context of our times…and those gone by.

Château Portier

Beaujolais is a section of Wine Country just north of the French city of Lyon.  It is  well known for  the Beaujolais Nouveau released each November.  In Beaujolais, it is the celebration of the end of the harvest, without any pretention.  It’s a great marketing gimmick and is the inspiration for parties all over the French-speaking world, but these wines obscure the quality of some excellent wines made from the Gamay grape in this region.

A slightly chilled Beaujolais Villages goes well with a barbecue on a warm summer evening, but these wines aren’t very memorable, either.  The best of Beaujolais comes from the crus, 10 appellations in the northern end of the region.  All of them are named after villages (Chenas, Julienas, Morgon, Brouilly, etc.)  Well, all but one: Moulin à Vent, which means windmill.  And not just any windmill, but a specific one that became the emblem of this cru when the appellation was established in 1936. As noted, these folks have a flair for marketing.

The famous windmill of Moulin à Vent.

The windmill in question sits on a hill overlooking a wide valley, full of vineyards, in the town of Romanèch-Thorins.  Right across the road from the windmill is Château Portier, whose wines will provide a good introduction to this well-regarded region of Beaujolais.  (Because it is the closest to the windmill, the owners of Château Portier are the official custodians of the landmark.)

One of the outbuildings at Chateau Portier.

The proprietor is Denis Chastel-Sauzet, who is the president of the Moulin à Vent vintners association.  We’re not sure what the President’s duties entail, but it is a good indication that the other winemakers hold M. Chastel-Sauzet in high regard.  The building that houses the winery is from the 19th century, with extensions that were there in the 16th and 17th centuries.  You can walk around the grounds, which offer pleasant views of these older buildings and of the valley.

The tasting room will remind no one of a Napa palace.  It’s a bit dank but it is functional.  And Château Portier bottles wines from all around the Beaujolais crus, in addition to several from Moulin à Vent.  It’s a better introduction to the quality wines of the region than in the Caveau de Moulin à Vent (the local winemakers’ cooperative) just down the road.

Many critics would say that the finest Beaujolais wines come from Moulin à Vent.  While we appreciate other crus, especially Morgon, we would be inclined to agree.  There is a richness in the mouthfeel in these wines that make them much more interesting than the easy-going Beaujolais Villages and certainly more so than Beaujolais Nouveau.  Top end Beaujolais wines deserve to be in any collector’s cellar and the best of them are age-worthy and can accompany many meals, from steak to salmon.  This is not to say that Château Portier is among the best of the region, but this winery is a worthy destination for a visitor who wants to see the famous moulin à vent (the windmill) and learn about the wines.

Walking Through Vineyards, Part 2

In our last issue, we discussed the pleasures of walking through vineyards and also noted that most farmers aren’t crazy about the idea of tourists doing so.  Here are various ways to get near or into a vineyard, some more official than others.

One way is to visit a winery that has set aside a few rows of vines for the express purpose of access by visitors.  You’re most likely to find these near California wineries.  Grgich Hills in Rutherford in Napa Valley and Dry Creek Vineyards in the eponymous region in Sonoma County are two examples of wineries that have these model vineyards.  One of the advantages is that they have different sorts of red and white grapes growing right next to each other, so you can compare them.  Of course, the best time to do so is in August and September, when there are grapes hanging from the vines.

The best way to learn about the vineyards is to take a winery tour that includes a walk though the vines.  In fact, some wineries only offer tastings if you take a tour and build a walk among the vines into the tour.  Stags’ Leap and Chappelet on Pritchard Hill, both in Napa Valley, are among those that arrange their tastings that way.  There are some plusses and minuses, though. A guided vineyard tour offers particular advantage if your guide is a well-versed educator.  You can get some valuable lessons by seeing why grapes grown in this kind of soil, near that water source, produce grapes that are used to make the wine you just tasted.  However, you need to plan more time at the winery and be ready to hear the sales pitch at the end of the tour.

Weather can be a factor, too.  We once took a tour at Chappelet on a brutally cold day in December (yes, it happens) and a few sips of Sauvignon Blanc among the barren vines was not enough to warm us up.  We took another one in fall and it was the most beautiful view of the vineyard when the leaves of the vines had turned color.

In a Burgundy vineyard.

For the most part, American growers fence off their vineyards.  The same can be said of producers in Bordeaux.  But in Burgundy it’s different.  The reason is a bit complicated, tied up in the inheritance practices of centuries gone by in that region.  A person’s estate was divided among all of his, or occasionally her, children.  As a result, each child received a few rows of vines in this vineyard and another couple in that one in the next town.  Today, even in the most famous Burgundy vineyards such as Chambertin or La Romanée, there are many owners of each parcel of land.  The vineyards can’t be fenced in because too many people have to have access to them.  And so tourists are welcome (respectfully, please) to walk among the rows.

Better yet, you can take a picnic and enjoy it alongside a vineyard, which we have done many times.  Once we had stopped at a charcuterie in Nuit St. Georges and then picked up a bottle in a wine store and then headed up the road.  We found a quiet spot next to a vineyard owned by a Monsieur Dugat and settled ourselves in for lunch.  (Don’t try doing that in Napa/Noma!)  At that point M. Dugat happened to walk by. We were afraid he would ask us to leave, but he just eyed what we were eating and in particular wanted to know what we were drinking.  “Oh, just a picnic”, Lucie replied in French.  The farmer eyed our wine bottle and saw that we had chosen a nice premier cru so he said, “Quel pique-nique!” (What a picnic!) and went on his way.

 

 

 

The Salt Flats of Trapani

If you go wine tasting in Marsala (and you really should if you visit Sicily) less than two hours drive from Palermo, you will likely want to stop for lunch.  You can try to find a restaurant in the town of Marsala, but to be honest the town is rather dull.  The people in the wineries recommended a few places, but it seems they were only open for dinner.  But then the server at Cantine Pellegrino suggested we drive up the road a short way, “only 10 minutes away” to Mamma Caura’s.

Mamma Caura’s restaurant on the beach in Trapani

As is often the case when you get advice from the locals, they don’t have a true sense of distance on roads they know so well.  She then spoke the most dangerous words of advice: “You can’t miss it.”  As long as we hugged the coast and watched for signs for the ferry, we’d be fine.   And in fact, we were.

What she didn’t tell us is that the road itself was worth travelling.  It took us past the salt flats of the next town north, called Trapani, where they take salt from the sea.  (The most desirable salt in France is called fleur de sel and its Italian cousin is sale marino, which comes from Sicily’s western coast.)  Sea water is pumped out of the Mediterranean into shallow, squares  pools, or pans, set up on the shore where the water evaporates and leaves salt with mild flavor, moist texture, and tiny, irregular grain sizes.  The salt is harvested and piled up into small hills that remind us North Americans of snow after a blizzard.

Salt has been made here this way for many centuries, even before the Romans.   The pumps were driven by windmills (evidently a recurring theme in this issue of Power Tasting) and a few are still there, more for show than for practicality.  Motorized pumps do the work these days.

Which brings us back to Mamma Caura’s.  Yes, it was easy to find and it is on the beach near the ferry jetty that takes people to the nature preserve on San Pantaleo island.  The food is simple but enjoyable. Indeed, what’s not to like on a very hot day when you enjoy a fresh and crispy tuna salad with a bottle of white wine (Donnafugata Anthelia, from the winery where we had just visited).  And the view is wonderful!  In front of you are the salt pans, the mounds of salt, and a magnificent windmill.  A few boats round out the vista.

After lunch you can walk out to the windmill, learn more about the history and the process and buy some salt at the shop.  It comes in small or large packages and in a variety of colors.

One word of caution, though.  It can be very hot on the beach.  We were there in mid-September, not the middle of the summer and we broiled, even under Mamma Caura’s outdoor pavilion.  You should still go; just have a nice cold bottle of white wine with your lunch and enjoy.

Visiting Napa/Noma in June

This article continues our occasional series on the “best” month to visit Napa Valley and Sonoma County for wine tasting.  Of course, there is no best month; they’re all great and each has its own special attraction.  In past editions we’ve discussed January, February, April and October.  It’s time to include a summer month.

Ah, June! The days are warm; the nights are short; the bees are buzzing and all’s well with the world.  All surely is well in Napa/Noma.  The vines are full of leaves and the aforementioned bees have done their job of pollinating the plants, so fruit is beginning to appear.  What will be formidable grapes in a few months are only be tiny green berries, but the hope of great wine has been lit.

An afternoon in June at Château Montelena.

The weather will often follow its usual California pattern.  Mornings will be grey and dank, sometimes downright cold.  Then sometime around 10:30, as if on cue, the clouds will part and disappear leaving blue skies and bright sunshine.  You’ll like it and so will the grapes.  By midday it will start to get hot and by the middle of the afternoon there will be no doubt about it.  Fortunately, when the sun goes down, the evenings will be pleasantly warm and you may want a sweater on occasion.

June 15, 9:00 p.m., Etude Winery in Carneros.

Many of the wineries have special events for their Club members in June.  If you are a member of one or more, these make visiting in June even more alluring.  If you aren’t a member, you might be able to participate in a barrel tasting or the opening of special bottles just because you’re there and it wouldn’t be polite to exclude you.  But you may also find visiting hours curtailed for an event, so it’s best to call ahead if you plan to visit near the end of the day.

Tasting rooms can become quite crowded in June, especially on the weekends. You will see more tour buses, stretch limos and bachelorette parties at wineries. The locals have been enjoying good weather since March, even if the vineyards haven’t been at their best.  Visitors from northern climes are drawn to Napa/Noma this month for the combination of scenery, temperature and fairly new releases of their favorite wineries.  Try to come on weekdays and if that’s not possible, prepare to be patient and maybe schedule some appointment tastings.  With an appointment, you will make sure you will be served the wines you are looking for.   They may even set a table for you to avoid the weekend crowd.

Hotel reservations may be a bit harder to get in June and prices are certainly going to be higher than in cooler months.  On the other hand, this is generally the first time in the year when you can come back from wine tasting and take a dip in the pool.  [We particularly enjoyed doing that at the Wine Country Hilton which was, sadly, a victim of the 2017 fires.]  The sun doesn’t go down until 8:30, so you have lots of time for a dip and maybe a sunlit aperitif too.

Many restaurants and groceries feature seasonal local produce.  You’ll find some of the best strawberries, peaches and plums you’ve ever tasted.  Santa Rosa’s Night Market is a great place to sample them.  Again, it is always a good idea to make a reservation at the restaurant where you’d like to eat.

What is so rare as a day in June…in Napa/Noma Wine Country?

Martinelli Winery and Vineyards

Some people are really crazy about Pinot Noirs from the Russian River Valley.  To be honest, there are some we like but overall we prefer Carneros, Santa Lucia Highlands and the Santa Rita Hills for American Pinot Noirs.  All the same, a wine tasting trip to Sonoma County would be incomplete without visiting the Russian River AVA.  Unless the eponymous river is raging in the spring, this sector has a gentle beauty as compared, say, with the majestic mountains of Alexander Valley nearby.

When you make that trip, make sure that you leave time to visit Martinelli (http://www.martinelliwinery.com/).  It will be either the first or the last winery you come to off of Route 101, Sonoma County’s main highway, depending on where you start. It’s an easy place to spot along River Road; it’s a big red barn.  And that barn says a lot about who and what Martinelli is.  Too much of NapaNoma wine making has become the province of big corporations.  A winery that has been in the same California family for well over 125 years gives you a reason to visit all by itself.  A big red barn is emblematic of a family of farmers and it is the antithesis of what have become known as Napa Palaces.

Martinelli’s big red barn

The tasting room inside is cool, dark and full of history, much of it that of the Martinelli family.  The sides of the bar are made from metal panels taken from an old locomotive. The bar itself is under wooden beams, reinforcing the fact that you’re in a barn.  For those who like to shop, there is ample opportunity in the tasting room, a bit too much for our tastes. The Martinelli sign advertising the winery also mentions its gift shop, which is unusual.  But all the knick-knacks don’t detract from the wine and wow, is there ever a lot of great wine to try.

The Martinelli tasting room

Essentially, Martinelli produces Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah and Chardonnay.  Tastes differ of course, but it is fair to say that all of their wines are of a high quality.  They grow grapes in nineteen vineyards, primarily in the Russian River Valley, of which they sell 90% of their grapes to other wineries.  So what you get to sip out of a Martinelli bottle is what they consider to be their best.

To get some idea of the variety of wines available in their tasting room, a quick perusal of current releases listed on their web site shows 24 wines.  We have found it worthwhile to focus on just one grape on each visit, to be able to sample the subtle differences in terroir that these wines represent.  That list of current releases shows nine different Pinot Noirs and seven Zins.  The demands of sobriety call for some degree of specialization on a visit.

The Martinelli family is rightly proud of their heritage and there are many stories they like to tell to elaborate on it.  One favorite is the name of one of their oldest, most famous vineyards.  It is on a very rocky, steep (60 degree) hillside.  The founder’s son was told that only a jackass would try to grow anything on that hill.  And so today, Jackass Hill produces some of Martinelli’s best loved Zinfandels.

A wine tasting visit to Martinelli will combine history and great wines.  Why would anyone want to miss that?