Sonoma County Weekend- Part 2

Russian River/Dry Creek

As I mentioned last week we spent the weekend in Sonoma County a couple of weeks ago so were able to make some winery stops in Sonoma County as well as a couple of stops in Napa on our way home.  Last week we talked about Hartford, Thomas George and Porter Creek.  This week we’ll talk about Limerick Lane Cellars, Yoakim Bridge Vineyards, and Ferrari-Carano Winery.

The Wine bottle pool

As with many of our stops we went to Limerick Lane Cellars because we had tasted the wine at a tasting event.  In this case we had met the new owner and tasted the Limerick Lane Zinfandel  at this year’s ZAP festival in San Francisco.  Jake Bilbro, who had just purchased the winery in 2011, and his brother Scott, the winemaker were pouring wine at ZAP and we committed to visiting the winery sometime in 2012. One of unique features of the property is that beside the winery is a wine bottle shaped pool.  Apparently this is not a regular part of the visit since we could not convince the host to show us the pool on the day of our visit.

We were familiar with the Limerick Lane name but really were not familiar with its significant history.   The estate vineyards were originally planted in 1910.  The vineyards were sold to the Collins family in the 1970’s and became established as a premier grape supplier to area wineries such as De Loach, Gary Farrell, Souverain and Ravenswood.   The first wines under the Limerick Lane label were produced by the Collins family in 1986.  The estate vineyard is in the eastside of the Russian River appellation. 

The tasting room is simple but warming with bench seating by the windows looking out into the vineyards.  There were a few folks including some regulars tasting when we arrived but our host took care of our group of six (without an appointment) well.  The wines are Syrah, Pinot and Zin.  They were also pouring a Rose Sec (Syrah and Viognier) which we served with our turkey for Thanksgiving.  We enjoyed the Pinot Noir and really enjoyed the Zinfandels.  They produce a Sonoma County Zin along with three Block Zins, the 1970 block, 1934 block and 1910 block.  The 1970 was the smoothest of the bunch while the 1910 was both full and beautiful.  A good stop.  The Rose Sec was $22.00, the Sonoma Zin was $30.00 and the 1910 was $48.00.

David and Virgina

Our next stop was Yoakim Bridge Vineyards.  Yoakim Bridge is owned and totally run by a couple, David and Virginia.  We think of two things with Yoakim Bridge, great red wine and yummy meatballs.  This is a very small winery but David makes a pretty good variety of red wines including Petite Syrah, Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet and a blend.  All the wines are well made.  We particularly like the Dry Creek Cuvee which is mostly Cab but includes Merlot and Petite Syrah.  Usually when we stop here there is a crock pot going full of meatballs cooking in the Yoakim Bridge Zinfandel sauce.  They really hit the spot.

Tasting room at Yoakim

We are wine club members at Yoakim and the reason besides the fact that the wines are consistently good is that wine club members receive a standard shipment of six wines for $150.00 or $25.00 a bottle.  The $25.00 probably averages out to a 30% discount and a deal that is hard to beat.  One thing to note about Yoakim Bridge is that this is a very small tasting room so it may make sense to call ahead if your group is larger than two. 

 

After Yoakim we had a little bit of time left and since we had some in our group that had never been to Ferrari-Carano we headed up the road a mile or so for a quick stop here.  Ferrari- Carano is really one of the big boy wineries of Sonoma County.  The grounds at the facility named Villa Fiore are magnificent.  There is a self guided walking tour of the gardens includes over 2,000 species of shrubs and, trees and in the spring there are 10,000 tulips and daffodils that sprout.  Honestly next time we are there we need to  take some more time to enjoy this.  Unfortunately the rain had started so we were forced to just taste some wine. 

Hospitality Center at Ferrari-Carano

The Hospitality Center at Villa Fiore offers a standard tasting and reserve tasting.  We opted for the standard tasting that included four of the current releases.  Ferrari-Carano makes a lot of different wines.  The standard or Classic series and Villa Fiore series are poured upstairs for $5.00 and downstairs the Limited and Reserve wines are poured for $15.00.  Ferrari-Carano farms quite a bit of acreage in pretty diverse areas so offers quite a variety of wine.  I think they initially became known for their Fume Blanc and this is still a big seller but today they are also known for their Chardonnay and Merlot.  If you look at their list of wines available though nothing is missed.    I know you see a lot of Ferrari-Carano wines in the wine shop or grocery store but I am guessing a good portion of the wines they produce are only sold through the tasting room.  Even if you do not drink wine Ferrari-Carano is a good stop just to see the grounds.  And for the shopper there is excellent retail here.

What we liked-  We will go back to all of these wineries.  We are going to be fans of Limerick Lane, Yoakim Bridge wines are excellent and Ferrari-Carano is a great spot to bring guests.

What we bought- The Rose Sec and Sonoma Zin at Limerick, our wine club shipment from Yoakim

Vitals:
Limerick Lane

1023 Limerick Lane

Healdsburg, CA  95448

(707) 433-9211

www.limericklanewines.com

 

Yoakim Bridge

7209 Dry Creek Road

Healdsburg, CA  95448

(707) 433-8511

www.yoakimbridge.com

 

Ferrari-Carano

8761 Dry Creek Raod

Healdsburg, CA  95448

(707) 433-6700

www.ferrari-carano.com