Category: Wineries

On the main street in the village of Barolo there’s a big yellow building housing the winery of the Marchesi di Barolo.  Barolo as we know it today was first produced by this winery.  Although it is named after the Marchesi, the real “inventor” was the Marchesa Giulia di Barolo, in the early 19^th century.  Before then, the wines produced there were sweet and sparkling.  She figured out that with cellaring in large casks, the Nebbiolo grape could be used for a deep-bodied, rich table wine.  You can still see those casks on a visit to the winery because, amazingly, they are still in use.  Alas, the Marchesi no longer owns it, but it is still owned and operated by a local family.

Visitors enter into a covered courtyard with a few touristy photo spots that belie the quality of the wines Marchesi di Barolo makes.    There are numerous tours offered in various languages, so the sit-down tasting room is able to accommodate several tours at a time.  The walls are completely covered with graffiti left by previous visitors, which again detracts from the wine.

Those quibbles aside, the tour and tasting are worthwhile.  After all, this is where Barolo was born.  The guides give quite a history lesson, explaining the importance of the Falletti family (that was the Marchesi’s family name), the love story of Tancredi and Giulia di Marchesi and, most importantly, how Barolo came to be.  Seeing those ancient casks makes the history come alive.  You also see that modern Barolo uses neutralized French oak barrels as well as the casks, to provide smoothness and to hasten the development time from harvest to bottle.

Depending on the tasting you choose, you can obtain a good understanding of Marchesi di Barolo wines and, in fact, of Barolo more generally.  You try a Langhe Rosso, which is Nebbiolo but not from the vineyard areas designated for Barolo itself.  They offer a Barbaresco for contrast, a few single vineyard Barolos and a Riserva.  (Marchesi di Barolo also makes wines from other grapes, such as Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cortese, which were not included in our tasting.)

A few words about the vineyards: the term in Piemonte for single-vineyard wines is MGA (for Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive).  There are more than 170 vineyards in the official Barolo region, but some are considered to be the best, including vineyards with names such as Cannubi, Brunate and Monprivato.  So if you see Barolo Cannubi on a label, for example, you’ll know it’s an MGA from a top winery.  Marchesi di Barolo offers four of them.  A Barolo Classico is a wine made from grapes from multiple vineyards.  These tend to be less complex and more approachable when young.

If the wines made today weren’t any good, then all the history of the Marchesi di Barolo wouldn’t matter.  But they are quite good and the best of them are sought after around the world.  So if you don’t know much about either the history or the Barolo wines, this is a good place to start.

On the main street in the village of Barolo there’s a big yellow building housing the winery of the Marchesi di Barolo.  (Well, there is only one street in the village, but even so.)  Barolo as we know it today was first produced by this winery.  Although it is named after the Marchesi, the real “inventor” was the Marchesa Giulia di Barolo, in the early 19^th century.  Before then, the wines produced there were sweet and sparkling.  She figured out that with cellaring in large casks, the Nebbiolo grape could be used for a deep-bodied, rich table wine.  You can still see those casks on a visit to the winery because, amazingly, they are still in use.  Alas, the Marchesi no longer owns it, but it is still owned and operated by a local family.

Visitors enter into a covered courtyard with a few touristy photo spots that belie the quality of the wines Marchesi di Barolo makes.    There are numerous tours offered in various languages, so the sit-down tasting room is able to accommodate several tours at a time.  The walls are completely covered with graffiti left by previous visitors, which again detracts from the wine.

Those quibbles aside, the tour and tasting are worthwhile.  After all, this is where Barolo was born.  The guides give quite a history lesson, explaining the importance of the Falletti family (that was the Marchesi’s family name), the love story of Tancredi and Giulia di Marchesi and, most importantly, how Barolo came to be.  Seeing those ancient casks makes the history come alive.  You also see that modern Barolo uses neutral French oak barrels as well as the casks, to provide smoothness and to hasten the development time from harvest to bottle.

Depending on the tasting you choose, you can obtain a good understanding of Marchesi di Barolo wines and, in fact, of Barolo more generally.  You try a Langhe Rosso, which is Nebbiolo but not from the vineyard areas designated for Barolo itself.  They offer a Barbaresco for contrast, a few single vineyard Barolos and a Riserva.  (Marchesi di Barolo also makes wines from other grapes, such as Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cortese, which were not included in our tasting.)

A few words about the vineyards: the term in Piemonte for single-vineyard wines is MGA (for Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive).  There are more than 170 vineyards in the official Barolo region, but some are considered to be the best, including vineyards with names such as Cannubi, Brunate and Monprivato.  So if you see Barolo Cannubi on a label, for example, you’ll know it’s an MGA from a top winery.  Marchesi di Barolo offers four of them.  A Barolo Classico is a wine made from grapes from multiple vineyards.  These tend to be less complex and more approachable when young.

If the wines made today weren’t any good, then all the history of the Marchesi di Barolo wouldn’t matter.  But they are quite good and the best of them are sought after around the world.  So if you don’t know much about either the history or the Barolo wines, this is a good place to start.

Paradise Springs is not your usual winery.  For openers, it’s not one winery but two – one facility in Virginia and another in Santa Barbara, California.  This piece is about the West Coast branch; we haven’t visited the one in Virginia (yet).  It’s a young winery; they started making wine in Virginia in 2010 and in Santa Barbara in 2015.

When we refer to Santa Barbara wines, we often include those made in the area surrounding the city, Santa Barbara County.  And in fact that’s where Paradise Spring’s grapes come from.  But the tasting room puts the funk in Funk Zone, Santa Barbara’s hot-spot wine tasting area.  It’s situated on a parking lot and it has a hole of miniature golf outside.  Tables outside are on artificial grass; no vines are in evidence.  If you look at the building from just the right angle, it’s quite attractive, but it’s hard to avoid looking at the food truck in the parking lot and the visitors playing golf.  To be fair, the interior of their facility is well-appointed but we only discovered it after we had enjoyed a rather extensive list of wines that we tasted outdoors.

Our server – excuse us, he’s an Experience Manager – was knowledgeable but decidedly casual.  Taken together, everything about Paradise Springs would have turned us off, since we’re rather conventional in our wine tasting tastes.  The saving grace is that we really enjoyed the wines we got to taste. 

Not surprisingly, the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs come from Santa Rita Hills and the other reds are made from grapes from the much warmer Happy Canyon.  (It’s amazing how different the climate can be, with both areas in Santa Barbara County.)  Our tastes run towards red wines, so we focused on those.  One of their outstanding Pinot Noirs is sourced from Sanford & Benedict vineyard, among the best known in the county.  There’s also a Rhône blend, which Californians insist on calling a GSM (Ugh!  Yes, the Rhône makes wines from Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre but they sometimes use other grapes such as Carignan and Cinsault.  Why do West Coast vintners insist on making wine from just those three grapes?)

There was one wine that stood out to us.  They call it The Roshi and it’s a Bordeaux-style Meritage.  This one is made from both Happy Canyon and Virginia grapes.  Paradise Springs proclaims it as the only bi-coastal wine and we’re sure that that’s true.

When we’re wine tasting in the city of Santa Barbara, we generally stick to the up- and mid-town wineries that are, in general, quite classy.  We do go into the Funk Zone too, but with some trepidation.  The wineries in that part of town have improved recently, so we can’t just skip it.  If you’re in the mood for sipping some serious wine in a hippy-dippy atmosphere, we recommend you put paradise Springs on your itinerary.

When we talk about Twomey, we need to be very precise.  For one thing, it’s just Twomey, not Twomey Cellars or Twomey Vineyards.  There used to be two Twomey wine tasting experiences to be enjoyed, one in Calistoga in Napa Valley and the other in Sonoma county, on Westside Road in Healdsburg.  Today, only the Russian River site remains.

Then there’s the issue of heritage.  Twomey is owned by Silver Oak, renowned for their Cabernet Sauvignons.  Our first encounter with Twomey was when they focused on Merlot, but somewhere along the line they switched to producing Pinot Noirs, which does make more sense for a winery located in Russian River.  So, they took over a tasting room from a boutique winery called Stonegate, and that’s where they offer tastings to this day.

A tasting at Twomey begins with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.  It seems that every winery in the area that specializes in red wines offers a little bit of white, just to show that they can.  (Maybe it’s a California law.)  The rest of a tasting focuses on Pinot Noir.  More than that, each of the wines offered is from a single vineyard, which is a hallmark of Twomey’s wines.  That said, we found a distinct style to Twomey’s various offerings.  It’s not that they all taste the same, but there is a similarity.  Since they grow or source from Oregon to the Central Coast, we infer that the hand of the winemaker is more dominant in their wines than is the terroir.

Many Sonoma County wineries buy their grapes from commercial vineyards and vinify the grapes themselves.  It was once said that in Sonoma County, the farmer is king.  That is still true to an extent, but there are also many wines that are made from estate grapes.  Twomey’s wines fall into both categories.  Their Sauvignon Blanc and the Pinot Noirs from Prince Hill Vineyard in Oregon and Monument Tree Vineyard in Anderson Valley are made from their own grapes.  That doesn’t necessarily make them better.  We preferred the wine sourced from Gary’s Vineyard in Santa Lucia Highlands, but then we are generally very fond of SLH wines.

The tasting room is a modern building of steel, wood and glass.  The panoramic windows give onto a wide terrace, where tastings may be had in good weather.  And beyond that is an expansive view of the northern end of the Russian River region.  It would be easy to say “Forget the wine; come for the view” but the wine is worth a visit as well.

Maybe it’s because of the look and feel of the tasting room, but we found a tasting at Twomey to be a little cold and distant.  The servers were professional and prompt, but not overly talkative.  Now, there are some tasting rooms where we have wished that the server would just be quiet and let us enjoy our wine.  But maybe Twomey’s staff have over-corrected in the other direction.

And, wonder of wonders, they still give you the glass with your tasting, and handsome glass it is!

Winemaking is part farming, part manufacturing and part art.  A visit to Ramey Wine Cellars (https://www.rameywine.com) is very much involved with the latter two, but visitors don’t get to see anything about the farming aspect except a map of where they grow and source their grapes.  Ramey’s winery is in an area with homes and office buildings, and Ramey looks from the outside like one of those offices. You won’t see lush vineyards and their location in Healdsburg isn’t even in the middle of the attractive area of town around the plaza. 

Located where they are, Ramey doesn’t get any visitors who just happen to be walking by and tastings are truly by appointment only.  The result is those who do make reservations are greeted and treated personally.  We were met and escorted by Sam Tesconi, the Director of Marketing and Guest Relations.  We were the only visitors at that time.

On entering their facility, one sees a large, open room with gleaming steel tanks and a variety of other equipment.  There is also a ceramic aging tank that they’re very proud of.  The barrel room, like the entire facility, is spotless.  For educational purposes, there’s one barrel with a glass head, to allow visitors to see their Chardonnay resting on the lies, which they periodically shake up to maximize the contact with the wine.

Then it’s off to a tasting – a rather generous one – in one of the six private rooms reserved for that purpose.  We were seated at a long wooden table where places were set with six glasses of wine, two whites and two reds.  We sat down and Mr. Tesconi explained the makeup of each wine and the vineyards from which they came.  Ramey makes wine from both estate and sourced grapes, mostly from Sonoma County but also in Napa Valley and Central Coast.

Ramey aspires to wine greatness and, while Power Tasting doesn’t review wines, we can say that we enjoyed what we tasted very much.  They are best known for their Chardonnays, two of which were served.  There was a notable difference between the wines from Sonoma Coast and Russian River.  The reds were a Pinot Noir, a Syrah and two Cabernet Sauvignons.  Each one had a distinctive character with some stylistic similarity.  It would be hard to pick out one that we would call a clear favorite.

Most tastings feature recent releases with a few years from harvest.  Rarely do we get to taste a winery’s top wines.  In this case, while the white wines and the Pinot Noir were from the 2022 harvest, the reds all had at least seven years of aging and one, the Cabernet Sauvignon from Pedregal Vineyard in Oakville, was from 2014.  We really felt as though we had been introduced to what Ramey wines were all about.

When we visited Ramey, we got a very informative, personable tasting of some rather good wines.  It really didn’t matter that we had to forego the scenery.

We were spending a day tasting wine in the town of Healdsburg in Sonoma County.  We often take a day away from driving through vineyards to take advantage of the tasting rooms (and restaurants) in town.  As we walked along Healdsburg Avenue, the main drag there, we spied an awning advertising the names Ehret and Lurton, obviously a tasting room for two labels just below.

Ehret meant nothing to us, but Lurton did (well, might have). G&C Lurton makes some classified wines, specifically Dufort-Vivens, a second growth Margaux and Haut-Bages Liberal, a fifth growth from Pauillac.  Were they actually offering tastes of these notable wines in the heart of California viniculture?  Indeed they do…and more.

The explanation begins back in France.  Gonzague Lurton (the G in G&C) decided to make American wine that would represent a combination of California terroir and Bordelais winemaking skill.  He purchased land in Chalk Hill, just south of Healdsburg, and planted Bordeaux grapes there and called his vineyard Acaibo.  He then decided to open a tasting room featuring his wines from both his growing locations.  Tastings are also available at the vineyard, but we haven’t taken advantage of this.

Gonzague and his wife Claire (who also has a long history in winemaking) induced their nephew, Jean-Joseph Cogombles to work in the tasting room.  Thus it came to pass that we were served both Bordeaux and Sonoma wines by a family member.  Jean-Joseph is a young man who is surely destined for a life in wine; we found his wine knowledge to be at the sommelier level.

The tasting room is spacious, with tables scattered around it.  There is also a bar at the back, and that is where we sat on a slow day (we were the only tasters present) and enjoyed the wines Jean-Jospeh served.  Frankly, we preferred the French wines more, but it wasn’t a fair competition.  Top tier Bordeaux is going to have an advantage over relatively newly planted American vines.

But the contrast was worth exploring.  The Acaibo wine we tried was lush and aggressively forward, as befits a California Bordeaux blend (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot).  Let’s say simply that it has potential.  Interestingly, the name Acaibo is a term in the local Native American language for three waters, mirroring the three grapes.

A visit to G&C Lurton in Healdsburg is not a typical Sonoma County tasting experience.  We got to use our French, though Jean-Jospeh speaks clear if accented English.  The opportunity to compare a famed winemaker’s products from two distant parts of Wine Country side by side is unique.  We would certainly return on another trip to Healdsburg.

Oh, and about Ehret.  They’re a Knights Valley winery with a bar of their own at right angles to Lurton’s.  We never got to taste their wines but may on another occasion.

A visit to Barbieri &Kempe can seem like déjà vu.  It can also be a little like double vision.  Let us explain.

Barbieri & Kempe has taken over the space in downtown Santa Barbara that once housed the tasting room of Sanford Winery.  (They also have a tasting room in Los Olivos, but we haven’t been there.)  Even though Sanford (and now Barbieri & Kempe) were located in a high-end outdoor shopping mall, there was a sense of refinement and exclusivity when Sanford was there.  Barbieri & Kempe brings a different vibe: friendly, inviting visitors to stay a while and enjoy the experience.  Even though the interior is well-appointed, their terrace (with statues of laughing dolphins adding to the atmosphere) beckons to visitors.

Once seated, you find out that the Barbieri & Kempe tasting room isn’t for one winery, but two that share the space.  Then you find out that Paolo Barbieri and Erin Kempe are a couple, with each producing and bottling wines under their own names.    Paolo is also a Master Sommelier and began making wine in his garage.  Erin worked in restaurants and met Paolo that way.  She assisted him in his early winemaking efforts until she gained the confidence to put her own name on wines she produced.  Dinnertime at their house must be interesting: “My wine tonight or yours?”

The wine tasting experience is enhanced by the possibility of ordering cheese with your pours.  Barbieri & Kempe is also a cheese chop with a nice selection of California and international cheeses available as a tasting plate or to buy at retail.  Perhaps in recognition of Signor Barbieri’s Italian roots, there are also Italian salamis for sale.

There’s an openness to the way tastings are offered at Barbieri & Kempe that says, “We are what we are and we are where we are.  We hope you like our wines.”    Overall, we did enjoy them, in particular the Grenache-Syrah-Mourvèdre blend from Ms. Kempe and in particular her Illumina Bordeaux blend. In general, they both cover a wide range of varietals.  There is a fair amount of overlap in the grapes each of them uses for their wines, with both of them offering rosés, reds and whites. 

We have often praised in-town tasting.  You miss the sight of the vines, but you spend more time tasting and less time driving.  The atmosphere at Barbieri & Kempe is very urban, with the hubbub of a shopping center and all the passers-by.  Somehow, that seems to add to the experience, not detract.  We found Barbieri & Kempe’s wines enjoyable, if not the most representative of Central Coast wines that we have tasted.  But we at Power Tasting are not wine critics; we comment on the wine tasting experience.  And we enjoyed our time sampling this couple’s wines at their Santa Barbara site.

As these things often do, our interest in Benovia began in a restaurant.  We wanted a Pinot Noir to go with dinner at Willi’s Seafood in Healdsburg, California.  Our server suggested Benovia, saying it was the only wine that had been on their list since the restaurant opened.  We were impressed by the wine and decided to visit their winery in the Russian River AVA the next day.  We did call in advance, since their website says tastings are by reservation only.  We were told they could squeeze us in.

The Benovia “ranch”.

The road to Benovia is not as picturesque as in other parts of Russian River, more industrial than rustic.  As we approached the winery (in November) through the vineyard, we noticed that there was still fruit on the vines.  Or more accurately, there was fruit rotting on the vines.  Evidently the sales of lesser-known premium wine are depressed.  The owners decided it was smarter to feed grapes to the birds than to make wine that wouldn’t be sold.  To say the least, this is a sad trend.

The interior of the Benovia winery, with our server named Izzy.

Beyond the vineyard, we encountered a large factory-like building and then, just beyond it, a rambling ranch house.  On entering, we found an empty tasting room, with one group of people sitting on the patio.  Squeeze us in, indeed!  Nonetheless, we were welcomed warmly and were seated in front of a fireplace (no fire) in a living room setting.  In fact, that typified our visit to Benovia; it’s like visiting friends with a nice house and good taste in wine.

Benovia is a relatively recent arrival in the world of wine, having opened in 2005.  The owners purchased the vineyard around the winery, as well as several other Russian River terrains.  As a result, most of their wines are estate made, which we always consider to be a plus.  Of course, since they’re situated in an area famed for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, that’s what they make.  They also sell a few wines made from other grapes, which we didn’t taste.

The wines served at the tasting were a good representation of Benovia’s wines.  In many tastings, visitors are offered the bottom of the winery’s list.  A tasting at Benovia spans their price points.  The wines served are a mix of single vineyard Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, from both Russian River and Sonoma Coast.  Power Tasting doesn’t review wine, but we can say that our favorite was the Pinot Noir from the Martaella vineyard, which was the one we drove through to get to the winery.

Benovia is a small winery, producing only 4,000 cases, an amount that is being reduced due to market pressures, as described.  We hope they survive the slump, because we enjoyed the tasting experience there and we also like the wines we tasted, including the one that we had at dinner. 

Many Sonoma County wineries are the result of generations of farmers who grew grapes for making wine.  Benovia isn’t like that.  It’s more 21^st century, a winery opened by people who made their money elsewhere.  That’s not necessarily bad and if they are committed to quality winemaking, we’d like to see them encouraged.

It all started at Baci, a restaurant in Healdsburg.  [If you visit Healdsburg, we recommend you dine at Baci.  Ask for Lisbeth, the owner and the hostess, and by the time you finish dinner you’ll feel like you have a new friend.]  We thought that Zinfandel would go well with our meal but didn’t recognize any on the list of locally made wines.  When we asked the waiter for a recommendation, she immediately said, “Saini”.  We ordered a bottle and loved it, so the next day we drove to the winery to see what else they had to offer.

The Saini tasting room.

We found an attractive wooden building, at once rustic and modern, a theme that is continued inside.  The first two things we saw as we entered was a long granite bar, perched on wine barrels, above which was a huge, elegant chandelier.  The other was a small brick shack, of which more later.

The chandelier above the bar has more than 1600 Swarovski crystals.

There is a high likelihood that you will meet a member of the Saini family when you visit.  We got to meet the owner John Saini (pronounced SA-ini), his daughter-in-law Laura and his grandson Angelo.  Three generations at one time!  John is there often and sometimes leads tours of the vineyard.  We had a chance to chat with him and his business manager, George Christie.  We learned how his grandfather established the vineyard in 1917 and planted vines that are still producing.  He had built a brick shed for storing his wines.  When the current tasting room was built, it was hoped to incorporate the old shed, but it was structurally unsound.  So they demolished it and rebuilt it into the entrance of the building out of the original bricks.

John Saini with his grandson Angelo.

It is evident that family means a lot at Saini.  But it’s more than genealogical heritage.  John Saini refers to George and Lisbeth of Baci as “family”.  We happened to be there for a member event, and all those guests were family, too.  We believe we are now, too.  That sense of connectedness – to the soil, to the vines, even the trees and the Dry Creek neighbors – suffuses the Saini experience. 

The sense of family is even there in the wines.  The list includes Nonno’s Bianco and Rosso (Nonno being Italian for grandpa).  There’s Valentina Marie’s Rosé and Angelo’s Paintbrush, a blend of just about every grape they grow.  Even the trees get into the names: Apple Block and Olive Block Zinfandels, the latter being the one we tried at the restaurant and still our favorite.  Overall, there is an Italianate tinge to the wines, one more connection to the Saini heritage. We can’t guarantee that anyone else will get to meet so many family members as we did, but it’s a high likelihood that every visitor will encounter the warm welcome we got at Saini.  We at Power Tasting don’t review wines, although we can say we enjoyed what we tasted at this tasting room.  We do write about the wine tasting experience, and all we have to say is that we left Saini Vineyards with big smiles on o

This article is meant to be the companion piece to “Freixenet, Back When”, published in the Experiences section of Power Tasting’s April 2025 edition.  As published, we had consistently misspelled the name of the winery, which we have since corrected.  And while we’re at it, the name of the winery is pronounced FRESH-eh-net. We apologize to our readers and to the people at Freixenet.

There are often wine tasting destinations near big cities.  Napa Valley is an hour or so from San Francisco.  It’s a few hours’ drive from New York City to Long Island’s North Fork.  Wine is being made inside Vienna’s city limits and nearby as well.  And just outside Barcelona, there’s Penedes, where Cava is made.  An easy train ride from Barcelona to the village of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia brings you directly to Freixenet.

The Freixenet winery.

In case you weren’t aware, Cava is Spain’s sparkling wine.  At Freixenet, it is made the same way as French Champagne, except that the primary grapes are Macabeo, Paralleda and Xarelo (or Xarel·lo, as the Catalans spell it).  Their wines range from the well-known Carta Nevada and Cordon Negro to some interesting wines at the other end of their spectrum, such as Gran Reserva Brut Nature (with no dosage) and an Extra Brut.  They also have a rosé sparkler that is made of the Trepat grape.  Finally, there is a dessert sparkling one made from Malvasia grapes. 

Reproduction of a Freixenet advertising poster of another era.

All these are the wines served on their wine and cheese tour, which we recommend.  If you do take the train there, you will find the winery right at the station.  Externally, it looks very much like a Spanish hacienda, which we guess isn’t unintentional.  The area in front of the winery has some ancient presses and a golden 1950 Chrysler.  Once inside, the reception area is sleek and modern, decorated with art that recalls Freixenet’s history.  There’s also the Freixenetmobile, in the form of a bottle of Cordon Negro.

The Freixenetmobile.

The tour begins with a film about Freixenet’s history and current presence in the world.  Not only are they the best selling Cava, the company sells more sparkling wine than any other producer globally.  They have a long history, having been founded in 1914.  They survived the Spanish Civil War that took the lives of the founder and his son.  His widow kept Freixenet going through the Franco years.  In 2018, they were bought out by the German Sekt maker, Henkell, so now they are not just Spanish but international

If you’ve seen how Champagne or California sparkling wine is made, there’s not much new on the tour of Freixenet.  One fun extra is an array of antique bottling equipment.  The high spot, naturally, is the tasting.  There, Freixenet flexes its muscles a bit and shows of what Cava is capable of.  As always, Power Tasting doesn’t review wine, but we can say that we did enjoy what we were served and were quite delightedly surprised by Freixenet’s range. 

Sadly, their better Cavas aren’t available in the United States and only sparingly so in Canada.  So there’s nothing else to do than travel to Spain and take the Freixenet tour.