Category Archives: Wine

Garden Setting, Food, Wine, Music — Winesong! 2009

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One of the best events on the Mendocino coast will be taking place this year on Friday, September 11 and Saturday, September 12. Winesong! is a nationally-recognized charity wine auction and tasting attended by more than 1,000 guests from across the country and around the world. They gather in the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens for wine and food tastings, music, and both silent and live auctions featuring rare vintages, special bottles and hard to find vertical collections from cult wineries. And the word is out among wine-loving bidders that Winesong’s vacation packages to leading wine regions offer unbeatable experiences. Trips to France, Italy and New Zealand all feature visits to world-famous wine producers, tastings of older vintages and meetings with the winemakers.

Pressing Wine

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A new experience! Today I had the chance to press grapes and help create wine. My friend, Barry, has been doing this as a hobby for over 30 years and he has all of the equipment. A wine press, a pump, 4 wine barrels, a wine cellar.

I learned it is a lot of work making wine like this. It’s nothing like the I Love Lucy show.

Nelson Family Vineyards

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The Nelson family settled in the hills between Ukiah and Hopland back in the 1950s. Today, their 2000 acre ranch runs from the Russian River up over the hills and across Highway 101. On it, they grow pears, Christmas trees and amazing grapes.

We were lucky to discover Nelson Family Vineyards shortly after I bought Brewery Gulch Inn in 2007. Since then, I have gotten the chance to know not only their wines, but Greg and his family as well. Recently, Greg and his wife visited us at the inn and poured a tasting of their Cab, Zin and several other wines. If you are up in the area, take the opportunity to stop by Nelson Family Vineyards .(http://www.nelsonfamilyvineyards.com/)

A Favorite Winery in the Anderson Valley

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One of the tedious tasks of being an innkeeper is selecting the wines to pour during the evening wine hour. This involves sampling countless wines at numerous tastings. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

During this process, I have had a chance to meet many of the local wine makers. One of my favorite wineries, both for the wines it produces and for the people who own and operate it, is Londer Vineyards in Philo. This small winery was started in 2001 by Shirlee and Larry Londer. They produce an amazing Pinot Noir, a beautiful Syrah and a very dry Gewurtztraminer. Shirlee and Larry were kind enough to pour a tasting for guests at the inn tonight. Just how nice are they? They came to  pour in spite of the fact it was Larry’s birthday.

Anderson Valley Pinot Festival

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This past weekend, the 11th annual Pinot Noir festival was held in the Anderson Valley. The only festival of its kind to celebrate a single varietal from a single appellation, the event kicked off with a technical conference and a barbecue at Standish Vineyards on Friday. On Saturday, a Grand Tasting featuring over 30 wineries was held at Goldenye. Following that event, 6 separate winemaker dinners were held at venues throughout the region. The festival concluded on Sunday with open houses at most of the vineyards throughout the valley.

The spectacular weather, combined withe the opportunity to sample close to 100 different pinots, made this a memorable weekend. I thought it was interesting that there were winemakers from not just Anderson Valley, but from Napa, Sonoma and other regions pouring wines they produced from grapes grown in our valley. In talking with a number of these wineries, I learned that Anderson Valley yields some of the finest pinot grapes in the world.