Turkovich Family Wines

Winters, CA

A couple of weeks ago we were driving up Highway 505 just north of Vacaville and we stopped in Winters.  Winters is a small little town set against the eastern side of the Vaca Mountains and just five miles from the Napa County line.  We have taken this route a few times driving over Highway 128 and coming from Napa over to the central valley and for anyone that has not done this it really is a very pretty ride.  Off the Silverado trail you pass some big time wineries such as Chappallet, Nichelini, Kuleto and Brown, then past a portion of Lake Berryessa and then down into Winters.  Winters is in Yolo County and parts of Yolo County, especially the Capay valley just north of Winters, look very much like Napa.

We only had time for a couple of stops and with three tasting rooms open we chose Turkovich and a cooperative called Rootstock.  The other tasting room in town, and probably the best known tasting room, is called Berryessa Gap.  We’ll stop here another time as it was a good looking stop.

 

 

We first became familiar with Turkovich at last year’s Tapas (Tempranillo) Festival.  The Tapas festival had maybe 50 wineries pouring Spanish varietals and surprisingly Turkovich was one of our favorites.  The Turkovich tasting room is right downtown and easy to find as Winters only has a few streets downtown.  Winters is probably most famous for the Buckhorn Steakhouse and the tasting room is only two buildings down the road.  Winters also has a music venue called the Palms which gets great acts considering there just is not much to Winters.  The Tasting Room is in a cool old brick building with high ceilings and with the attached Winters Cheese Company.  In the late afternoon and early evening the room turns into a spot with some small plates and wines available by the glass.

 We sat at the bar and were initially the only guests so we were able to ask lots of questions regarding the cool spot and history of the winery and so on.  Christopher Turkovich is a third generation farmer who opened the winery in 2007.  Rhone varietals Syrah and Viognier are two of the key varietals along with Tempranillo, Petite Sirah, Grenache, and Mourvedre.   

We tasted the whole list which included a Viognier and Estate White Blend (Roussanne and Viognier) and three or four reds.  As always, when just starting off the whites always taste good.  It is really nice finding options other than Sauvignon Blanc, our favorite white wine, and Chardonnay.  The reds were all good.  We probably liked the GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre) best but still liked the Tempranillo that we had had several months earlier.  I think all the wines were priced from $18.00 to $26.00 or so.

 

We also stopped at Rootstock.  This is a cooperative tasting room and gift store featuring Yolo County products.  On this day there were six wineries represented.  My knock on cooperative tasting rooms is that you do not always meet the winery representative.  One of the wineries, Route 3 Wines, was represented by a family member the day of our visit.  Between the group of wineries there were probably 30 wines available for tasting.  We did find, on suggestion, a standout.  The winery was called Casey Flat Ranch and their two Red Wines, the Open Range Red at $18.00 and their CFR (Casey Flat Ranch) Red at $35.00 were excellent.    

So we were happy with our stop in Winters.  I think Turkovich is open late on some evenings and certainly if you have an hour on your hands when you are passing by or if you want to take a different route home from Napa I think Winters is a good stop.

What we liked:  Winters is a nice town and this may someday be a vibrant wine area.

What we bought: Turkovich Tempranillo, Open Range Red

Vitals:

Turkovich Winery

304 Railroad Avenue

Winters, CA  94694

(530) 795-3842

www.turkovichwines.com

Rootstock

22 Main Street

Winters, CA  94694

(530) 794-6013

www.rootstockgifts.com