About 60 miles north of Healdsburg and along some seriously winding roads that might cause motion-sickness for some lies the Anderson Valley.  This American Viticultural Area (AVA) is well-known for producing some fantastic Pinot Noir, so it didn’t take much for my tour guide for the day, Deb Kravitz (@whatdebpours), to convince me we should make the trek.  If you are visiting the Napa/Sonoma area and want to check out what Anderson Valley has to offer you will need to plan for an entire day due to the distance and time it takes to get up there and back.  But, it will be well worth the trip.

The main grape varieties planted in the AVA are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer and White Riesling.  Warm sunny days and cool foggy nights are ideal for these types of grapes and ensures slow maturation leading to maximum flavor and development of varietal character.

Roederer Estate Brut Rose

Roederer Estate – Started in 1982 by the historic, 200-year old Champagne Louis Roederer, they are obviously well-known for sparklers but also make still wines.  We chose to stick with the bubbly to start our trip.  The view from the property is spectacular and my favorite was the NV Brut Rose.  However, Deb informed me that the L’ Ermitage Rose rocks even more, though they were not pouring it

Husch Vineyards Tasting Room

Husch Vineyards – Husch has quite a large list of wine to choose from which made it difficult to select just 6 for the basic tasting.  It included Sauvignon Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel.  After some deliberation and a little sensory-overload, we ended up with 2 Gewurztraminers, 3 Pinots and a Zin.  The 2008 Pinot Noir was very expressive with anise and bing cherries on the nose while the 2006 Knoll Pinot Noir reminded me of Oregon-style Pinots with cherry cola characteristics.  In the end, I enjoyed the 2009 T-Bud Dry Cuvee Gewurztraminer the most with it’s floral, citrus and spice aromas.

Toulouse Vineyards – Named for the type of domesticated Goose originating near Toulouse, France, the owners released their first vintage (2002) in 2005.  The Pinot Noir Rose’ had a light, salmon-orange tint and was refreshing with watermelon and strawberries on the nose.  The 2009 Pinot Gris and 2009 Muscat were standouts as well.

Phillips Hill Estates – The tasting room is a cool little old house in Philo.  While you are there, you can get a sandwich at the small grocer next door too.  The winery is the child of artist, Toby Hill, who was, unfortunately, not around while we were there.  Deb tells me he is quite an interesting guy and that he creates his own labels for the wines. There is more Gewurz and Pinot Noir, including 2 bottles of 2008′s containing fruit that was affected by the fires in the area that year.  I particularly enjoyed the 2008 Ring of Fire and the smoke taint was less recognizable on the nose still allowing the luscious fruit to take center stage.  The 2007 Corby was the most delicate and elegant in the lineup.

2009 Jim Ball Rose of Pinot Noir

Jim Ball Vineyards – A retired lawyer, Jim started his winery and teamed up with infamous winemaker, Greg La Follette, to make some truly outstanding Pinot Noir.  This was a great way to finish the day of tasting.  The 2009 Rose’ Pinot Noir has a salmon-orange hue with luscious red fruit and watermelon aromas.  Greg’s creations, the 2006 Estate Pinot Noir and the 2007 Boonville Pinot Noir were also outstanding.  The latter was a little herbaceous at first, but eventually blew off allowing anise and black cherries to come through.  For those looking for a bolder Pinot Noir, check out the 2007 Jim Ball Pinot Noir that displays bacon fat, sandalwood (like woodust on the floor of my grandfather’s wood shop) and black cherries.  Deb and I had the pleasure to also try a few barrel samples and we both agree that the 2009 vintage is going to knock your socks off.

The evening ended with dinner at long-time and well-known Rodney Strong and Iron Horse winemaker in a previous life, Forrest Tancer, and Cynthia Ariosta.  Both are very much involved with horses and hosting long-distance riding events.  The view from their home up on the Greenwood Ridge was phenomenal, though we did not get to the see the usual early evening fog “event” everyone talked about.  Still, this was a good day.

Horses

The South is at risk of losing it’s title of having the friendliest hospitality in the land.  Once I arrived safely in Santa Rosa after my 5-day trek across this great land of ours, I had expected to take a few days to relax, get settled and work on a few things.  Well that thought didn’t last long as I was greeted by great friends in the area, including those I had met face-to-face before as well as others I had only known as online friends.  I truly appreciate this outpouring of generosity and friendliness which has made me feel at home very quickly and has helped my transition to living in wine country that much easier.

It Takes Lots of Beer to Make Wine

So, I roll into wine country and you’d think I’d celebrate the arrival by cracking open a fine bottle of local juice, no?  No.  My first two night were chilling with Shana Ray and Hardy Wallace at Toad in the Hole in Santa Rosa and Healdsburg Bar & Grill (HBG), respectively, on the first two nights.  Toad in the Hole is a British-style pub off of 5th street in the historic Railroad Square area of Santa Rosa.  I did not know that there were so many local microbreweries in the area and I enjoyed a Bear Republic Racer 5 and Lagunitas IPA.  At HBG, the bartender, Dave, enlightened us with some unique brews (at least to me) including Supplication wild ale from Russian River Brewery, Hitachino Nest White Ale and a German Smoke beer.

Grape to Glass

This weekend was busy with many events in the area including Grape to Glass and on Saturday I attended a discussion on Russian River Valley terroir and the Hog in the Fog dinner.  The setting along the Russian River could not be any more beautiful as Darek Trowbridge, Mark Greenspan and Kevin Hamel discussed terroir, grapegrowing practices and the impact of the river to the region.  Thanks to Old World Winery and Steven Washuta for allowing us to attend.  Some tidbits I took away from this discussion included:

• the identification of Goldridge Soil, which is a sandy loam in which Pinot Noir will  flourish
• 1800-2000 degree days is ideal in this area for Pinot
• you may detect more tree fruit aromas (i.e. apricots, peaches) in Chardonnay in the warmer, northern end of the AVA
• you may detect more green apples, pears citrus in Chardonnay in the colder, southern end of the AVA
• The 2008 Olivet Lane Pinot Noir by Pelligrini rocks

Steven Washuta and Kevin Hamel

Olivet Lane and Pellegrini

Darek Trowbridge

Hog in the Fog was at Saralee’s Vineyards in Windsor where we enjoyed some fine animal flesh (mainly pork and beef for me) and more fantastic wines.  I met more winemakers, owners and other local social media personalities.  It was funny how every time I mentioned that I was working for John Holdredge at Holdredge Wines this harvest I would get the occasional snicker, but all in good fun.  It’s good to see John (and his wine) is well known and well liked.

Soiree Lighthouse

There’s nothing like a bonfire near Diamond Mountain in Calistoga at Drew’s pad (@winesoiree) with some new and old friends.  Oh yeah, there was more wine.

Photo by Andrew Lazorchak

Dirty Drive Around Russian River Valley

The weekend wrapped up with a surprise early morning text from my fellow ATL-ien, Sir Dirty himself to take a cruise around wine country and maybe hit a few wineries.  We made two great stops for Pinot: Woodenhead and Iron Horse, not to mention some fantastic sparkling wines are also made at the latter.  While at Iron Horse, we ran into Clint and Loni of Stark Silver Creek, a great local lifestyle site that I have followed in the past.  It was great to finally meet them in real life.  I highly recommend the 2007 Woodenhead Buena Tierra Pinot Noir.

Loni, Clint and Hardy

Thanks to everyone for the great hospitality!

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Join the Twitter Tasting with Halleck Vineyards!
Open any bottle of your Halleck Vineyard Pinot Noir on July 15 th at 5 – 7 pm PST.   Taste.  Tweet with others all over the US.

Ross and Jennifer Halleck are hosting a Halleck Vineyard Pinot Noir tasting at:  
        Aubergine Café and Bar
        755 Petaluma Ave.
        Sebastopol, CA 

View Larger Map

They will have the big screen wired to follow tweets around the country. And they will be adding theirs too. Please join them!!

For those new to the medium, including the Hallecks, Twitter is a mobile application for passing short news messages to anyone interested from your phone or computer.

We hope you gather your friends and break out your Halleck Vineyard Pinot for this ground breaking event. Then log on with your phone or computer to Twitter. Type in your comments and include “#pinotnoir” (no quote marks) at the end plus “#SN” for Sonoma Coast to “vote” for our region. This will allow your comments to appear on the Twitter Tasting and Smackdown thread.

If you write a tweet about Halleck Vineyard Pinot, they will give you a 15% discount on a bottle of Halleck Vineyard Pinot Noir!  Get tweeting!

For more information and to register go here: http://pinotnoir.eventbrite.com/

If you are a winery and want to know how to take advantage of a fun event like this, please check out this link.

Halleck Vineyards

With less than 10 days left until the hammer drops on what promises to be the most entertaining Twitter wine tasting extravaganza with regional bragging rights at stake, do you know where your Pinot Noir is?  If you are in the Atlanta metro I sure hope you were able to RSVP to our local venue, Paul’s Restaurantin Peachtree Hills and I look forward to meeting you.  It took all of 3 days for the event to sell out, but I guess I should not be so surprised.  Check out this line up of wines and the specials provided to participants — by the way, I know everyone is coming really to see Andrea Robinson, Master Sommelier, who will be with us at Paul’s.  She’s way cuter than me.

WINES:

• Simonnet Febvre Cremant de Bourgogne Brut
• Latour (Marsannay)
• Domaine de la Vougeraie Gevrey-Chambertin “La Justice”
• Robert Skinskey (Carneros)
• Halleck Vineyards (Sonoma Coast)
• DeLoach Vineyards (Sonoma Coast)
• DeLoach Vineyards (Green Valley)
• Hahn Estates (SLH)
• Belle Glos Las Alturas (SLH)
• Mudhouse (Central Otago)
• Hahn Estates (Monterey)
• Laetitia Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara (Arroyo Grande)
• King’s Ridge (Oregon)

SPECIAL OFFERS:

1. Enjoy Paul’s for dinner prior to the event and receive 10% off your meal
2. Receive a FREE red wine stem from Andrea Robinson’s The One™ collection, provided by Macy’s, that will be used during the tasting
3. Receive a free 2010 wine buying guide if you purchase a 4-pack box set of The One™ stemware at North point, Lenox or Perimeter Macy’s locations
______________________________________________
If you did happen to miss the chance to RSVP to Paul’s, you can still take advantage of this sweet stemware deal if you are participating in the event via Twitter:  Andrea Robinson, Master Sommelier and designer of the new The OneTM stemware collection, is also participating in this event and has a provided a wonderful offer to event participants: 50% off a 4-pack or single red stem of TheOne^TM

• 4-Pack ($24.96 + s/h) Offer Code: PinotTweetupBox
• Red Stem ($6.25 + s/h) Offer Code: PinotTweetupSingle

Order Here:  http://bit.ly/AndreaTheOne
______________________________________________
If you are a local wine shop, winery or someone who just a certifiable Pinotphile, then it’s not too late to put a gathering or event together to enjoy this wonderful grape and watch the Battle Royale ensue in cyberspace!  Here is more information to help you out!

Some wineries are offering special deals if you need some wine for your party… check out the #PinotNoir stream on Twitter for more on this!

Moving on to Part 3 of our recent Sonoma trip, we head further south in the Russian River Valley to the town of Sebastopol, where Ross and business partner, Jennifer, Halleck had our party of 6 over to the their house and estate vineyard for a visit.  This is very unique but nothing new for this very charming and down-to-earth couple.  They pride themselves on getting to know people and give club members exceptional treatment when they are being visited or vice versa.  I became a club member just last Fall when our close friend, Jack, introduced us to Halleck’s wines and told us the stories of Ross’ visits to Atlanta.  As it turns out, Ross visits Atlanta quite a bit and many other locations around the world, as does Jennifer.  It seems a winery owner’s job is never done or dull as they are seemingly on the road all the time visiting distributors, restaurants, and members or they are hosting member events such as a Kenyan Safari or a trip to Hawaii.

View from the Backyard

The Halleck estate vineyard is literally in their front and back yard surrounding the house.  It was the Pinot Noir from this vineyard that wine consultant, Greg La Follette, of Tandem Wines (name to be changed to La Follette Wines), sourced fruit for the 2001 Tandem Pinot Noir Halleck Vineyard that won the Pinot Noir Shootout in 2002, giving the Hallecks the needed promotional and credibility boost for their business.  In 2005, Rick Davis became their full time winemaker who worked with Greg on the award-winning 2001 wine as well.

As I mentioned, Ross travels quite a bit and last Fall he spent an entire week in Atlanta.  The whole trip was all business as he attending the Quality wine show, visited restaurants, hosted dinners and visited club members.  According to their website, Halleck’s wines are present in 37 locations in Georgia at last count, which is pretty successful for a smaller winery in this behind-the-times state.  Jack opened his home to Ross his first night in town not only to share his wines and have dinner (Jack is a pretty damn good cook, by the way), but to also crash for the night.  How many winery owners or winemakers have stayed at your house?  I, unfortunately, did not have the pleasure of staying up with those guys until the wee hours of the morning, but I am told there were some great stories. 

Jennifer & Ross

Later that week, we joined Ross once again at Murphy’s, a restaurant, bakery, bar & wine shop in Virginia Highlands, for a wine dinner.  Nick Salpekar is Murphy’s wine consultant and got Jack hooked onto the Halleck’s wines from the beginning.  Ross is so engaging and grateful that everyone at the dinner follow his every word and find it super easy to talk to him.  Of course, he doesn’t really need to say much because these wines speak for themselves.  Finally, to end a busy week, we asked Ross to join us once again, this time at our house, so that we could thank him for his generosity during the week and show him a little southern hospitality.  We were hosting a BBQ and pairing Lodi Zinfandel with the various dishes, but we let a few Pinots and a Gewurztraminer into the mix too.  You can read more about that party here.  In the end, a great friendship and great respect for the wine had begun.  So, you can see, a personal touch really does go a long way.

As you can probably already tell, the main focus for Halleck is Pinot Noir being situated in the heart of the Russian River Valley.  However, they do offer a fabulous Sauvignon Blanc and a phenomenal Gewurztraminer.  I also noticed that Jennifer likes to say “phenomenal” almost as much as I do.   You can tell Ross is a spiritual man and he easily offers up that piece of personal information very proudly.  He also loves spicy Indian food, which the main driver for the Gewurztraminer they make, which is the perfect pairing for this style of food and inherent spice.

Wines

2007 Hillside Cuvee Pinot Noir - This was my favorite of the day.  It was very fruit-forward and elegant.  Tart cherries on the nose, smooth and a great finish.

2007 The Farm Vineyards Pinot Noir - This vineyard is made up of Dijon Clone 777, but I didn’t take any notes.  I recall it had great structure.

2007 Three Sons Cuvee Pinot Noir - Named after for their three boys, whom you can see on their website.  This Pinot is a blend of fruit from the Hallberg and The Farm vineyards.

Thanks to Ross and Jennfifer for opening their home to us.  It is a trip we won’t forget!

You will need to call ahead and get an appointment if you are in the area: Jennifer Halleck, 707-738-8383, Jennifer@halleckvineyard.com

Blaze not chasing any Turkeys this time