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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.

Miraflores Winery Visit & Tasting Notes

My last stop of the day was by far the best thanks to consistent wines & very friendly tasting room staff at Miraflores Winery. The winery is brand new, 18 months old, all their grapes are sources from the nearly 40 acres of planted grapes on their 240+ acre vineyard property. They have gained quick notoriety for a wonderful Zinfandel (wine spectator gave the 05 a 90) and Syrah (wine enthuiast gave their 05 a 92).

Everything I tasted was yummy but my favorites were the Zin & Barbers.

Friday Night Tasting?

The picture should tell the whole story.  In what was initially
intended to be a single bottle of wine winding down after a nice dinner and a long week of work resulted in seven, count them, seven bottles of vino.  In TheWino fashion, a small group of close friends, ended up drinking good wine well into the night.  On Saturday morning we felt the pain, some more than others (my brother in law in particular was hurting) but nothing can replace opening up endless bottles of wine.  Well, ok its not always the best idea if you have comittments the next day but fortunately for me I had none. 

Of the seven bottles my favorite was the Longoria Syrah (2002, Santa Barbera County). 

Penny's Hill & Mr. Riggs: Latest Tasting Notes

I'm trying to catch up on all the Australian wineries we visited on our trip
in April and am finally close to finishing (we visited approx. 24 wineries over a six day period). 

Penny's Hill & Mr. Riggs is a winery that uses two different labels to sell its wines.  The winery's tasting room is found just outside McLaren Vale and includes a restaurant (the Red Dot Cafe), which on the weekends and holiday's results in a heavy load of visitors.  Unfortunately our visit did not include a tasting at the Red Dot Cafe. 

Wirra Wirra Vineyards: Latest Vintage Tastings

Wirra Wirra Vineyards in the McLaren Vale region of South Australia is a medium Australian producer of a range of quality varietals - which are exported to the US.  Wirra Wirra was our first stop on the last day of our Australian Wine travels.  So we were approximately sixteen wineries in when we pulled up to this beautiful winery with a basket full of treats & cheese (that's another story - we thought doing a pre-determined cheese trail trip was the way to go but it was too constricting & difficult to maintain while focusing on the wine).  I didn't have big expectations so as one could expect, I was pleasantly surprised and would recommend visiting Wirra Wirra if you have the time & interest the next time you're in the McLaren Vale region.

Yalumba Winery: Barossa Valley, South Australia

Yalumba Winery claims to be the largest, family run independent winery in Australia.  We were the first folks to arrive at Yalumba the day before Good Friday, which for those of you who haven’t been to Australia should know is one of only two days (the other being Christmas day) that the entire country shuts down for.  So we started the Thursday before Good Friday bright and early, getting to Yalumba just after 9 AM.  Yalumba's location includes a beautiful tasting room & campus of sorts in Angaston, which is in the Barossa Valley (north of Adelaidein South Australia).  Yalumba makes an assortment of white, red and sparking wines, including a unique and very good red sparking vintage.  They're well exported to the US, Europe and Asia.