We drove up from SoCal and started a 5 day trip at Williams Selyem.
The architecture as you arrive at the winery facility is beautiful. Great thought was put into the design of the building with barrels in the glass around the entryway.
30% of the winery was sold to the Faiveley family in 2021.
They are bottling 30 different pinot noirs and 50 total bottlings.
We drank through a flight of Gruner Veltliner, 2020 3 Sisters Chardonnay, 2020 Savoy Vineyard pinot, 2020 Luella’s Garden estate pinot, 2020 Saitone Estate Vineyard Antonio’s field blend and 2019 Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper Cabernet. Pretty cool story how they were offered and then started making this cab each vintage.
The Luella’s was exceptionally good. I detected no smoke taint in any of the 2020s tasted.
We ended up with some Saitone Estate as they just got a wine club order (not mine).
Our next stop was at Martinelli where we drank through Bella Vigna Chardonnay, 2019 Zio Tony Ranch Chardonnay, 2017 Lolita Ranch Pinot Noir, 2019 Vigneto di Evo Zinfandel and 2020 Giuseppe & Luisa Zinfandel.
This was a fairly quick stop compared to some of our other tastings on the trip. The 17 Lolita Ranch pinot was delicious during this tasting. This was our first stop at Martinelli since 2017.
Stop 3 - A. Rafanelli Dry Creek.
This is a beautiful property with a large pond behind the winery building. They have some gravel walk ways to hike around the pond and take in the beauty of the vineyard.
We were hosted by Rick in the tasting room and Stacy Rafanelli. We didn’t go through their cave as we have done the tour here before.
We were poured 2018 zinfandel, 2019 merlot and cabernet. Rafanelli lost its entire 2020 vintage and had no 2020 zin last year, will have no 2020 cab and merlot this year for the release. I purchased a few bottles of the 19 cabernet and 1 merlot.
We spent some time talking to Dave Rafanelli after the tasting and they will still be weathering the loss of the vintage since they stagger the zins, cab and merlot releases; however since they own the property they will be ok financially.
Stop 4 - Mauritson - Dry Creek.
This was my first time visiting Mauritson, in fact I had never even had their wines so everything they poured was new to me. We bellied up to the bar and I have to admit the tasting was far different than I expected. This day just so happened to be their cabernet release day for wine club members and they had a lot of their cabernets opened, including library bottles. I was fully expecting this to be a zinfandel centered tasting since we were in Dry Creek.
Mauritson has their Dry Creek property and in addition to that they have a chunk of the vineyard in the small Rock Pile AVA and of course other locations in Sonoma.
We started with a SB, Rose and 2019 Grower’s Reserve Zinfandel, 2020 Mauritson Zinfandel and then it was a cabernet fest. 2019 Rockpile Cab, 2019 Clough, 2019 Loam, 2019 Suther, and 2019 Positas. They also poured a 2009 Loam Cab they had open for us.
I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with their cabs and if I wasn’t sandbagging buying for later in Napa I would have bought at least a case here.
Day 2 Bedrock Wine Co at the General Joseph Hooker House
When I set the tasting appointment I jokingly asked if we could drink from @Chris_Cottrell’s biggie smalls
glasses. So naturally they had Biggie Smalls radio on when we showed up for the tasting. Nice touch Bedrock!
We were hosted by Isa and I am 99% sure I am not spelling her name correctly. We started with a 2017 Under the Wire Alder Springs sparkling. Good way to start the morning with some bubbles.
We skipped the Cuvee Karatas and did a side by side Evangelho with a 16 and 21. The 21 has bright fruit but obviously still too young. The 16 is just banging, party in the mouth, still primary and can age longer.
Next up was the 16 Monte Rosso zin, much darker mountain fruit. The tannins are fading and this can definitely be laid down longer.
Isa (sp?) then coravined some 2013 Kamen cabernet for us. My notes, wow this is drinking great but still primary, hold, hold, hold. Going to be even better in a couple years.
2016 Montecillo cab - a little young, still very bright fruit.
2019 Bien Nacido X Block Syrah - felt like a black olive note on the finish. This is a damn fine syrah. I will try to hold mine for 10-12 years but if you do open, give this a decant.
We finished with a 21’ Pagani zin and were pleasantly surprised that this is open for business and drinking very good NOW. We weren’t sure if this bottle was opened the previous day since we had a 10 AM tasting but there were no tannins on the finish. If you are going to drink one of the new releases young, I think this is the one.
That is a wrap from Sonoma.