This was a wine tour arranged by the owner of Cave Creek Wines, working with some distributor reps. Even though the wineries were all big producers and in spite of David Bueker's good advice to feign illness and go off on my own, I elected to stay with the group. It was a fun group and I got to know more of the people than I have from my infrequent attendance at the Friday night tastings.
Day 1 started way too early with a 7:22 airport departure. Things improved once we were on the wine tour bus in Oakland and corks started popping. I decided I liked Sauvignon Blanc for breakfast.
First stop was Benziger near Glen Ellen. We were met by Bob Benziger who took us on a tram tour around the vineyard and explained their practice of biodynamics. I can appreciate the recycling of water, composting, beneficial insects and running a closed system, but when Bob started talking about burying a cow horn filled with manure during the night of the fall equinox I decided biodynamics was just a fancy word for bulls—t.
Then it was off the the cave (they built a cave system in the hillside) to see all the expensive French oak barrels (about $1200 each) and to taste some wine. We tasted the Family Sauvingon Blanc, Chardonnat, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cab and a Bordeaux-style blend called Tribute. The SB was pleasant; the rest of the Family wines unremarkable. The Tribute seemed well structured, but it was hard to tell if it was going to get better or if was already gone. At $75, I wasn't about to find out. The wines were OK, but basically seemed like supermarket wine to me.
Next stop was up the valley to visit Chateau Diana and meet Dawn Sachetti, the winemaker. We didn't get much of a tour, but Dawn did talk about the winery and some of its history.
Chateau Diana makes the low-end Black Oak wines, as well as some mid-priced wines under the LeBaron Ranch label and somewhat higher priced wines under the Chateau Diana and 1221 labels.
We tasted the LeBaron Ranch Petite Syrah and Zinfandel, the Chateau Diana Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay and the 1221 Cabernet Sauvignon. T I'm not impressed with the LeBaron Ranch wines – the Petite Syrah lacks the body I expect from the grape and the Zin was just ok. The Chateau Diana whites, however, were crisp and clean, with the Chardonnay carrying an unexpected mineral undertone. The 1221 Cabernet shows some promise and I may try to track some down (no sales at this winery, they don't even really have a tasting room.
On the way back down to Santa Rosa we stopped at a place that had several tasting rooms from different wineries – Amphora, Peterson, Papapietro, Kokomo and a couple of others. This was strictly a pay for tasting stop -- $10/5 tastes at each tasting room. Since my palate was about shot at that point and closing time was in 20 minutes (they barred the doors at the stroke of 4), I saw a man about a dog and got back on the bus.
Then it was 'home' to the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa. Nice place to stay, but eat elsewhere. As Jerry, a former chef put it, “Tell the chef to go back to culinary school, or at least watch Gordon Ramsey!” Harsh maybe, but deserved.
Some us of finished the evening by the pool downing some cold Newcastles we picked up at the drugstore next to the hotel. Refreshing.
