TheWino.net

B Cellars - Wine Tasting Notes

B Cellars, located on Silverado Trail in Calistoga, has been making wine since '03 but just opened up this tasting room 10 weeks ago. They are a relatively small producer (3.5k cases a year) that has ambitions to be bigger (based on the money spent on the tasting room).

August Briggs - Wine Tasting Notes

August Briggs winery, located in Calistoga on the Silverado Trail, is a small producer (4kish cases a year) of mostly single vineyard Pinot's, Syrah's & Cabs. They also produce wine for Jeff Gordon on a separate label.

Barnett Vineyards - Tasting Notes

Barnett Vineyards, up on Spring Mountain Road (on the edge of Napa & Sonoma counties) is a small producer (4k annual cases) that specializes on mountain Cabernet Sauvignon.

Gundlach Bundschu Wine Tasting & Tour

We visited the winery, Gundlach Bundschu, just outside Sonoma, CA today for a tasting and tour.  GunPun.com, as they're trying to use as a funny short for their name, was founded in 1858 and has remained a family owned & operated business for the past 152 years.  

Three Wine Company Tasting

Wine tasting again in Clarksburg, Ca at the Old Sugar Mill. The first winery were tasting at is the Three Wine Company.

They source their grapes from out Northern California. Started by former Cline Estates owner Matt Cline and his wife Erin, they produce about 6k cases in a boutque fashion. Their tasting room is located in a great old sugar mill that has been renovated to be a wine tasting room.

Three Wine Company focuses on Zinfandel and old vine red varietals like Carignane & Mourvedre. Everything I tasted was consistent and mild, very good stuff. I loved their '06 S3X Riesling which is a nice alcohol 9% to sugar 12% ratio. It's a wonderful dessert wine for those that fancy it.

Williamson Wines Tasting

Williamson Wines is located just off the Healdsburg square in Sonoma County. Started by Australian transplants, Bill Williamson uses a French winemaking style to develop subtle, food friendly wines.

The winetasting experience is truly unique. The complimentary tasting includes a plethora of wines, each prepared with a tiny food pairing to bring out specific elements of the wine.

Overall the Williamson Wines tasting experience is incredible and highly recommended.

Another Good Nite

Eight bottles down with a steady flow of delicious BBQ over an eight hour period. Burgers and portabella mushroom wannables pasted with red pepper maynonnaise capped the night. Coupled with a grilled nectarine feta starter, the meal fit the weather (hot) and Sauvignon blanc perfectly.

Michael David family of wines tasting

Michael David Family of Winds is a Lodi based winery that started in 1984 under the Phillips Ranch logo, then in 2000 they launched the 7 Deadly Zins label that was an immediate hit.

I tasted the syrah and petite sirah's, as I had previously tasted their zins. I liked them all, though little stood out. The Inkplot Petit Verdit 2005 was distinctive, it had a nice bite to it without being painful.

Their tasting room, located just off highway 12 (a few miles east of highway 5), has a little cafe, outside picnic area and small food. It was a nice easy stop, free tasting and pleasant wine.

Ojai Vineyards Pinot with Chicken & Rice

We celebrated my future brother in law's 30th birthday today with a family lebanese recipe of chicken & rice.  We coated it down with a wonderful bottle of 2005 Pinot Noir from Ojai Vineyards, in the Santa Barbara region. 

The boutique winery makes outstanding Syrah and consistently good Pinot, this bottle was no different.  Combined with a deliciously flavorful meal, it was an excellent evening.  We topped off the celebration with german chocolate cake and crackle cookies, compliments of FestinsBakery. 

Gourmet Homemade Dinner

My mother in law is coming to stay with us next week to help us transition into the world of parentdom. Tonight was a kind of dry run where she came and made a four course gourmet, delicious meal.