Sonoma Valley- Part 1
Where it all began- Kenwood Vineyards |
| Tasting Room Barn |
We were in the Sonoma Valley last weekend for a wedding
that took place at CornerStone Sonoma and were able to make a few winery
visits. As I mentioned in the Blog,
‘About Us’ section, Sonoma is where my wife and I went on our first date
visiting some Sonoma wineries. Honestly
we cannot remember all the wineries we visited.
We do know we visited Kenwood Vineyards and Chateau St. Jean. I am guessing we also visited Sebastiani,
Haywood and Grand Cru. I think all three
of these wineries no longer exist. So on
this day we went back to Chateau St. Jean, Kenwood and we also went to B.R.
Cohn which was established later in 1984.
The Sonoma Valley area (appellation) which stretches from
the town of Sonoma to just below Santa Rosa is a great alternative to
Napa. It is just as close as Napa but
has never quite held the mystique of Napa.
As the crow flies, the town of Kenwood is probably less than 10 miles
from Oakville at the southern end of Napa.
The Mayacamas mountain range separates them and the actual drive over
the mountains can take 30-40 minutes. If
you have lots of time on your hands this is a beautiful ride (once). Generally the wines are going to be up to 30-40%
less expensive in Sonoma. I think part
of the reason is that unlike Napa that had some real standout wineries in the
60’s and 70’s, Sonoma Valley did not have these so really never established the
reputation. Sonoma County does have
some of these big established winery companies (Clos du Bois and Kendall
Jackson come to mind) but these are located up in the northern parts of the County
in the Dry Creek and Alexander valley areas.
The Sonoma Valley does resemble the Napa Valley in a lot of ways
although the main highway is just a bit windier and the valley a bit
thinner.
This week will
talk about our visit to Kenwood and next week we will talk about Chateau St.
Jean and B.R. Cohn.
We have visited Kenwood Vineyards many times over the
years. Way back our ‘go to’ wine was
Kenwood Vintage Red which you could get on sale for sometimes as cheap as 2 for
$7.00. I tasted it this time and hey, it
is not bad for $8.00 today. The tasting
room has not changed too much over the years.
It is a bit bigger but is still located in a barnlike building. Since Kenwood does see a lot of visitors they
have a pay in advance $5.00 tasting fee.
You pay your $5.00 and you are given a token that you turn in at the
tasting bar. You are allowed five
tastes, or so the rule goes, and you can pick from anything on the menu of
about 30 wines. You can choose wines
from their Vintage Series, Restaurant Series (Yulupa), Sonoma Series, Reserve
Series and Artist Series. For references
the Cabernets run from about $18.00 in the Restaurant Series up to $75.00 in
the Artist Series.
 |
| Jack London Label |
Charlie, a student in the Wine Business program at Sonoma
State was our (main) host. It was not
too busy in the tasting room so we were definitely able to have a nice
conversation with Charlie. It turned out
it was only his second day but we would not have guessed it. With so many wines on the list this could
have been difficult for him but he did great.
And at day two he had already developed some favorites. I tasted wines throughout the list while my
wife chose the higher end reds only. We
probably tasted more than five wines. I
tasted the Sonoma Series Sauvignon Blanc that has been one of our ‘go to’
summer Sauv Blancs over the years and is usually available at the grocery store
for less than $10.00. I also tasted the
Sonoma Russian River Pinot at $20.00 which was also good and a nice price. We tasted the Jack London Zinfandel and
Cabernet. Jack London Vineyard is a
vineyard south of the winery towards the mountains on the west side of the
valley near Glenn Ellen which Kenwood has used for years and which produces
consistently good wines. Between us we
tasted two of the available Artist Series cabs.
These wines vary from year to year but receive the premium treatment and
handling. One of these received a’
thumbs up’ while we were not sure about the other.
So our visit to Kenwood was good. I know a lot of us like to go to wineries to
taste wine that we do not see in the grocery store all the time but at Kenwood
you can see these wines alongside lots of wines that you normally do not
see. Kenwood has some really reasonably
priced wines and their upper end wines are of high quality. Kenwood is owned by Korbel, the biggest maker
or California Sparkling Wine (Champagne).
Every year we host a Sparkling Wine tasting and every year people are
fooled by the quality of Korbel. The
quality of Korbel at $10.00 is very close to the quality of many of the other
popular brands (Chandon, Mumm, Roederer) which tend to run $15.00 to $20.00. I think this plays through with the Kenwood
wines as well.
What we liked- Good prices, casual atmosphere, history
What we bought- We bought nothing. But there were some great deals on cases and
if we had a big event coming up I would have bought some of the Magnums of Jack
London Cabernet which you would not find in a retail outlet. Also, you can find some great deals from time
to time on Kenwood at establishments like Beverages and More.
Kenwood Vineyards
9592 Sonoma Highway
Kenwood, CA 95452
(707) 833-5891
Next Week- Sonoma Valley- Part 2
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