{"id":2589,"date":"2024-02-28T21:02:24","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T21:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2589"},"modified":"2024-02-28T21:02:24","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T21:02:24","slug":"bacigalupi-vineyards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2589","title":{"rendered":"Bacigalupi Vineyards"},"content":{"rendered":"

We love driving down Westside Road in the Russian River Valley.\u00a0 Healdsburg is just behind us; great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay lie ahead.\u00a0 Westside is a well-tended country road, with wineries on your right side, heading south, and occasional glimpses of the valley floor to your left.\u00a0 And there on your right you will find Bacigalupi Vineyards (https:\/\/bacigalupivineyards.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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The Bacigalupi tasting room.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of the winery.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bacigalupi is a family vineyard, which means a lot in these days, when \u201cfamily\u201d often means \u201cWe made a lot of money doing something else, and bought ourselves a vineyard\u201d.\u00a0 The Bacigalupis have been growing grapes on this property since 1956, with the first plantings of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in 1964, possibly the first Pinot Noir in Russian River.\u00a0 They must have done some things right, because their Chardonnay was in the blend that won the Judgement of Paris in 1976, included amongst Chateau Montelena\u2019s<\/a> grapes.<\/p>\n

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Bacigalupi\u2019s Pinot Noir.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of the winery.<\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, you may have already tasted some of Bacigalupi\u2019s production.\u00a0 They sell more of their grapes than they use for bottling under their own label.\u00a0 Williams Seylem and Gary Farrell are among their customers, who gladly announce the vineyard they source from.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know if this is true (and the family won\u2019t tell) but it\u2019s only reasonable to expect that they hold back their best grapes for their own wine.<\/p>\n

To this day, Bacigalupi is truly family-owned.\u00a0 Charles, the founder, has passed away, but his wife Helen is still with us.\u00a0 John and Pam, son and daughter-in-law, run it and Katey and Nicole are in management positions.\u00a0 We have found that if you stop by for a tasting, a family member is likely to be pouring your wine.\u00a0 And in keeping with that of-the-soil tradition, the winery is simple, more of a farmhouse than a tasting room.\u00a0 It\u2019s far enough off Westside Road that it feels rather isolated, as though it were the only farm property for miles, instead of one of the many Russian River wineries.<\/p>\n

To this day, Bacigalupi has stuck with what they do well: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.\u00a0 In fact, they have kept the 2\u00bd acre Paris Tasting Vineyard.\u00a0 Wine from this vineyard is available (though hard to find) under the name Renouveau.\u00a0 Our tastes run more to their Pinot Noirs, from several of Bacigalupi\u2019s vineyards.\u00a0 We find them representative of Russian River Pinot Noirs, which is saying quite a lot.\u00a0 If you want to know what good Russian River Pinot Noir tastes like, try theirs.\u00a0 They are full-bodied, but not like some of the bruisers from Santa Lucia Highlands, nor thin and acidic as you find at other Russian River vineyards.<\/p>\n

While the wines are modern and bright, the experience of a visit to Bacigalupi is homey and laid-back.\u00a0 It\u2019s as though you are being invited into the Bacigalupis\u2019 home, which after a fashion you are.\u00a0 The wines are well worth tasting but they\u2019re not the only reason to stop there.\u00a0 You get to feel a part of a culture that is sadly dying out, of honest people making quality wines because that\u2019s what they do<\/em>.\u00a0 More, it\u2019s who they are<\/em>.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a serious wine taster, you\u2019ll appreciate the people as well as the wine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We love driving down Westside Road in the Russian River Valley.\u00a0 Healdsburg is just behind us; great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay lie ahead.\u00a0 Westside is a well-tended country road, with wineries on your right side, heading south, and occasional glimpses of the valley floor to your left.\u00a0 And there on your right you will find … Continue reading Bacigalupi 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":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2592,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions\/2592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}