After a pretty chill day tasting Gruet sparklers and rolling out only about 300 miles (compared to 721 and 666 the previous two days, respectively), today I planned to put in another hard days work on the road but making sure to check out some of the sights Utah has to offer.  I have to give much appreciation and thanks to my good friend and fellow wine geek Jack Misiura in Atlanta who convinced me to take this route.  I had originally planned to book it across I-40 all the way to Barstow before heading north up the gut of California, however, Jack easily twisted my arm as he described some of the phenomenal natural wonders he had seen several times on previous trips.  There would be many more miles without proper cell phone coverage and very little in the way of human habitation, but it was well worth the additional 300+ miles it would add to my original trip plan.

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The light just after dawn was perfect for highlighting the deep reds and oranges in the canyons, cliffs and plateaus along the way to Monument Valley on highway 163.  My Dad informed me that many of the old westerns were filmed in this area.  It is vast and steep and really makes you feel small in this world.  The next 4 hours would set my mind adrift trying to completely understand these wonders of the world and how outside of my everyday life there is still vast space and monumental structures on this planet that are truly awe-inspiring to behold.

Once through Mexican Hat, UT I took a left onto 261 toward what is called the Moki Dugway.  As I turn I am immediately confronted by signs that warn of the steep grade, the gravel road and warnings not to take RVs, trailers and such on this route.  I may have just peed a little in my pants just then.  In just a handful of miles I am met by a wall of rock thousands of feet in height.  I look left and right and there is no way around.  I can only go up a steep grade gravel road with about 6 tight switchbacks with no rails on the edge of the road.  I will provide video of this later.  Needless to say, I survived.  What a rush!

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Next stop was Arches National Park just north of Moab.  Again, it is really difficult to truly fathom the size and majestic dominance of nature until you have witnessed it up close.  I drive away shaking my head in awe and talking to myself.  Much of the drive until I reach Salt Lake City is filled with the same types of expansive landscape views of plains, plateaus, canyons and mountains.  America has huge tracts of land… just waiting for you to experience!

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So, tomorrow is the homestretch for Santa Rosa, which equals another 522 miles — piece of cake, right.  The smell of grapes being pressed at Gruet had me salivating for the winery life, but I will have to wait a few more weeks and then some to wait for mother nature to complete her work on the grapes of northern California.  Only then will my trip be complete.

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

Greetings from the American home of Pinot Noir.  Yesterday was a full day of awesome sites, beautiful weather and, of course, great wine.  I’ll try to keep up to date this week and bring you tidbits of the places we visit and the wines we taste.

We landed in Portland in the morning, but didn’t stay in town for long.  We did stop for lunch though and catch up on the college football scores since we missed most of the midday games (Go Gators!).  The first stop in Willamette Valley was Beaux Freres (pronounce Bo-Frare), which requires RSVP and offers a quick tour of their vineyard and a nice in-depth history of the owner, the vineyard and farming techniques – Helen, our tour guide, did a great job!  That might be too much for new wine drinkers, but for me it was cool to hear how someone with a passion can change professions and become successful on their own.  Keep in mind this is truly a farm (and looks like one) and you will not find any fancy tasting room or entrance.

It was dissappointing that they were out of 2 of their 3 main wines, though they did accomodate visitors for this fact by cutting their fee in half ($20 to $10).  They added a 2006 Grenache (100%) which was quite a surprise — it had cinnamon on the nose with some mint, soil and spice on the pallette.

Their 2006 Ribbon Ridge Pinot Noir matched their 93 point rating from Wine Spectator (p.s. Robert Parker is the owner’s brother-in-law… hmmm… )  This wine is from the original vineyard planted in ’87-88, but it had a tight nose, which will probably open up if you decant, but had tremendous fruit blast in the mouth with long-lasting tannins and spice.

I am going to add a new page to the site specifically for this trip so that it will be easier to see the posts by winery, so be sure to go to the Willamette Valley page from the menu up top or the Page links to the right – link here: http://www.winetonite.com/?page_id=96

talk to you soon…