May

12

rochioli-picnic-area-and-tasting-room.jpgAfter picking up a soft baguette, aged asiago cheese, fresh strawberries, artichoke-olive spread, and a large “brownie splat” cookie at the nearby Oakville Grocery in Healdsburg, California, we headed to Rochioli Vineyards & Winery in the Russian River Valley to enjoy an idyllic Mother’s Day picnic. 

The winery’s small tasting room was warm and inviting, with a light wooden interior, windows overlooking the rose garden just beyond, a rotating selection of artwork devoted to local Sonoma artists, and a ceiling fan that kept our baby happy and distracted as we sampled the two featured wines:  the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc and the 2006 Pinot Noir.  The 2006 Chardonnay was available for purchase, but not for tasting.

While we enjoyed the Pinot ($48), we loved the Sauvignon Blanc both for its fruitiness and for its friendlier price ($26), and we purchased a bottle to enjoy with our picnic spread.  

Rochioli is nestled in a quiet setting overlooking a garden of white, pink, red, and yellow roses, and the stunning panoramic vista of vineyards and mountains beyond.  We spent the next hour or so relaxing at one of the three round wooden picnic tables on the winery’s patio as our son crawled gleefully around at our feet.

If you are in Sonoma County and looking for a place to picnic, Rochioli is certainly a wonderful option. 

www.RochioliWinery.com
6192 Westside Road
Healdsburg, California 95448
(707) 433-2305

Feb

18

ironhorsetastingroom1.jpgIn recognition of Presidents’ Day, we thought it timely to talk about Iron Horse Vineyards, whose wines have been served by every presidential administration in the White House since 1985, the year when then-President Ronald Reagan brought its sparkling wines to his historic summit meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland.  But while this winery’s connections to Washington, D.C. distinguish it from other California wineries, there’s a lot more to Iron Horse than just politics.

Iron Horse is located in the Green Valley sub-appellation of the Russian River Valley, or the RRV, which is trendy on the California wine scene due to the high quality Pinot Noir being produced there.  Aside from the Pinot, what’s great about the RRV is that when you’re there you get the sense that you’re catching a glimpse of old, genuine California wine country, the way it used to be before Napa went mainstream.  The best part?  The RRV still seems like a secret.

Iron Horse exemplifies the typical RRV winery.  For example, the tasting room is outdoors, and it is located at the end of a long, dirt driveway studded with palm trees.  The tasting room consists of a bar made from barrels lined up in a row and topped with wooden planks, and when you’re sampling wines there, all you need to do is just turn around to enjoy spectacular views of the surrounding rolling hills.  Finally, if you don’t want to finish your glass but you don’t see a bucket, fear not: just dump it onto the gravel at your feet.     

This is California wine tasting without pretension and, in our view, wine country at its best.

www.IronHorseVineyards.com
9786 Ross Station Road
Sebastopol, California 95472
(707) 887-1507

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