Deerfield Ranch Winery

Kenwood (Sonoma)

There are several new wineries new to the Kenwood area in the last few years that we have wanted to visit.  We stopped at a couple last weekend and while both were good I think one stood out.  Deerfield Ranch Winery sits on a beautiful piece of property on the left side of the highway as you drive north on Highway 12 from Sonoma.  It is one of those properties where just seeing it from the highway does not do it justice.  It is a large 47 acre parcel with 14 of those acres dedicated to wetland, the Kenwood Marsh.  I think as we pulled into the property we were not ready and probably did not take the time to really take in the sites.  There are two sixteen foot tall (metal) giraffes that live on the island in the marsh and the area is one of two homes in California of the Checkerbloom plant. 

 

Deerfield is owned and operated by Robert Rex and his business partner and wife PJ Rex.  Robert has been making wine for 30+ years.  Robert serves as the winemaker along with Cecilia Valdivia.  They produce about 15,000 cases from grapes grown mostly in Sonoma County.  The label has been around for quite some time although the current facility has only been open a few years.  Deerfield makes a lot of different wines in smaller lots.  I counted over 40 wines on their order form.  In addition to the Deerfield label there are two other labels, the Cove Wines (Help the Oceans) and the @WINE label, which tend to be a bit more bargained priced.  Our tasting included wines from all three labels.   

 

The Winery and Tasting facility are built against the mountains and the tasting room is actually deep into the 23,000 feet of caves.  While most cave facilities are usually long and skinny at Deerfield there is a pretty good sized tasting room carved out with a tasting bar and several tables.  We (the four of us) sat on facing couches with a large table in the middle.  We were hosted by Ben who was very knowledgeable about the wines and also displayed a sharp dry sense of humor.

 

The first wine we had was the Sauvignon Blanc.  We are fans of Sauv Blanc and this one was good but not quite as clean as I generally like.  Two Chardonnays came next.  We have found that we are starting to enjoy Chard’s a bit more this year but these two really did not hit it off with us.  I enjoyed the @Wine branded bottle at $24.00 more than the Blond Ambition (a fourth label) version at $35. Our resident Chard drinker enjoyed them both so maybe they were better than my palette was willing to accept today.  But the red wines were next and they were all good.  First we had the Merlot.  I gave it an 8.  Then we had the DRX which is the flagship wine.  This was a 2002 Bordeaux style blend that had spent 42 months on oak.  The wine scored an average of 9.13 for the four of us which is probably one of the higher scoring wines we have had in a while (at least this group of four).  Of course the wine was priced accordingly at $95.00.  I noticed that the 2005 version of this was priced at $85.00.  We finished with an @Wine Cabernet and a Cove Zinfandel and received a bonus pour (it was my birthday) of the 1999 DRX.  At this point we told Ben- No More, although I think he was done with us regardless. 

So the tasting was a pleasant surprise.  It is not often that you visit a winery that you are not familiar with, and does not require an appointment, where you get treated like quality guests, but this is how we felt at Deerfield.  I really wish I had done some research in advance as I would have paid more attention to those big giraffes in the entryway and really would have looked at the surroundings a bit more.  I guess one of the only negatives is that since you are tasting in a cave you really are not looking out into the grounds and you forget about the Giraffes and the Marsh and those kinds of things.  I guess the other comment would be that Ben was handling four or five other groups so he had to hustle but somehow he remembered where we had left off and was somehow listening to our comments and such and knew what our next pour should be. 

 

I would put Deerfield in the higher echelon of Kenwood area wineries (St. Francis, Chateau St. Jean, Arrowood, BR. Cohn) and would like to go back there and explore a bit more. 

 

What we liked- Ben, the wine in general, and the grounds.

 

What we bought- The 2008 Merlot at $38.00.  At this point I don’t think I am ready to accept the Cabernets at $40.00 and up and the DRX at $95.00 but we’ll see.

 

Vitals

Deerfield Ranch Winery

10200 Sonoma Highway

Kenwood, CA  95452

(707) 833-2570

www.deerfielranch.com

Cornerstone/Page/Revolver

Yountville, CA

 

 

 We had some time on a Saturday afternoon so headed to Napa with the intention of just a couple of stops and not going further than the Oakville Crossroad.  I gave my partner a couple of options.  We could do a couple of Sparking Wine tastings (Domaine Chandon and Domaine Carneros) or we could just stay in Yountville and stop at a couple of spots, or we could go up to the Napa Wine Company right at the Yountville Crossroads and Highway 29. 

We chose to go to Domaine Chandon.  We have always kind of avoided Chandon because we have heard it was always so crowded.  We certainly have no trouble drinking the brand but just had not had the need to go there.  We pulled into the gorgeous property and the immense parking lot with many limos   but despite the crowd we thought we would stop anyway as after all we had the Winery Finder 2 for 1 Tasting Application (even though I was having trouble getting it to load properly).  What a place this is.  The grounds are amazing.  It almost looks like the buildings are surrounded by a golf course. It reminded me of the Master’s at Augusta.  Well it was very crowded.  We were amazed as it looked to me that this must be the ‘must stop’ for recently turned 21 female wine tasters and they were all dressed for a party.  I am sure you can make appointments for more personal tastings but at the main tasting bar it was three deep at least.  It would certainly be a challenge to even get a taste.  This was certainly unlike what we have seen at other Sparkling Wine establishments but we’ll hold judgment until we visit again to see how things really work.  We decided not to stay but we are not disappointed that we checked it out.  Maybe if you are headed there on a weekend the way to go is with an early appointment.  It did look like the appointment outside tastings might be much more appealing.

 

So we headed to (downtown) Yountville and searched out Cornerstone Cellars.  We had seen them at the Rhone Ranger event and knew they had been in town for some time and we had a 2 for 1 Tasting coupon.  Apparently tourist season has started as it was difficult to find a parking spot.  We finally found one and after having a little trouble finding the tasting rooms (really almost impossible to miss) we stumbled into what we thought was Cornerstone Cellars.  It was not.  Another tasting room is right next door called Page Cellars/Revolver Wine Company.  Regardless of the fee we were ready to taste wine.

Page/Revolver is a bit of a (tastefully done) Rock and Roll themed establishment.  The winery was founded by Bryan Page with the first vintage in the late 90’s.  Bryan came with a food/restaurant background and after touring many of the Chateaus throughout Bordeaux became a fan of St Emillion (French Bordeaux classifications that I don’t quite understand) which led to a passion of creating at Napa Style St Emillion blend.  The Page wines are of the traditional Bordeaux styles and blends while the Revolver label includes wines of varying and Non-Bordaux varietals. 

 

The wines were good.  We had a Proprietary White blend, a Rose, a Proprietary Red and a Petite Sirah.  We also tasted the Vine/Vein Cabernet which was excellent.  This wine is collaboration with Mike Dirnt, the Bassist and co-founder of the band Green Day.  This was a dark and intense 2009 wine, certainly capable of aging for some time but at $150.00 a bottle it did not make it into our wine cellar. Christiana was our gracious host and the tasting fee was $20.00

We moved next door to Cornerstone.  Cornerstone is actually two labels.  The lower end label is called Stepping Stone while the higher end label is Cornerstone.  Cornerstone has roots back to 1991 when their first Howell Mountain Cabernet was produced.  The current winemaker, Jeff Keene, of New Zealand, joined in 2008 and the winery has blossomed.  The Tasting Room has several seating arrangements but we chose the bar seats looking right out onto Yountville’s Main street.  Partly because of the two labels, Cornerstone has quite a variety of wines to taste.  Everything is Napa grapes other than a Pinot and Chardonnay made of Willamette Valley grapes. 

We really enjoyed the White and Rose wines.  I think this had to do a little bit with the fact that the tasting bar faced the bright sun.  The wines were cool and crisp.  And it is a bonus that the Stepping Stone label was reasonably (but not quite everyday) priced.  Our first taste was the Pinot Gris.  Then we had the (bone dry) Rose, both very good and both $20.00.  We tasted several reds and my favorite was the Cabernet Franc at $35.00.  We were poured the Cornerstone Howell Mountain Cabernet which was a powerful wine and which we liked very much and then asked for the Stepping Stone labeled Cabernet which did not match up with the first wine but at $35.00 was a good wine. 

We had a really nice chat with our host, who has a plan to open a small brewery in Santa Rosa, and despite this being just a tasting room and not a full blown winery facility, had a really nice tasting experience here.

 

We were hungry and both tasting rooms suggested we stop at the food truck parked in the parking at of Pancha’s (Napa Valley’s really only dive bar) just up the road.  We had a couple of Fish Tacos and we were ready for one more tasting.

 

What we liked- Yountville is like the first stop in the Valley and so easy to get to.  Both Tasting Rooms were very casual and the wines good.

 

What we bought- Three bottles of last year’s Stepping Stone Rose at Cornerstone.  A steal at $10/bottle.

 

Vitals- 

Page/Revolver

(707) 944-2339

www.pagewinecellars.com

Cornerstone Cellars

(707) 945-0388

www.cornerstonecellars.com

 

Both at:

6505 Washington Street

Yountville, CA  94559

Rhone Rangers

Rhone Rangers- Grand Tasting

San Francisco- March 23, 2013

 The Rhone Rangers is a non-profit, 501(c), educational organization, dedicated to promoting the enjoyment of Rhone varietal wines produced in the United States.  The organization was established with 13 wineries in 1997 and today consists of nearly 200 wineries from California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Michigan and Virginia.  In France’s Rhone Valley there are twenty-two permitted grape varietals.  The predominant varietal that most of us drink on a regular basis is Syrah but Grenache, Mourvedre and Petite Sirah certainly are fairly common these days also.  The predominant white varietal is Viognier with lesser amounts of Roussane and Marsannne.

The Grand Tasting this year was the 16^th Annual and was held in San Francisco at Fort Mason.  In addition to the Grand Tasting held on Saturday afternoon they also hold a Friday Evening Winemaker Dinner/Live Auction event with a select group of winery members.  On Saturday prior to the Grand Tasting they have a couple of Seminars.  These are probably great events if you are able to shell out the extra dollars.  As is normal for us, we volunteered for the event and are admitted entrance to the event earlier than the public with the Trade and Media.  This year we volunteered on Friday so as not to interfere with the Saturday event at all.

This year’s event listed 92 winery participants with another 20 or so food purveyors tasting as well as selling their products.  The food highlights, before we get to the wine, were The Girl and the Fig from Sonoma, serving a Duck Confit, Three Twins Ice Cream, serving several flavors of ice cream and my favorite Clairsquares serving Buttery Shortbread cookies.  There are also vendors with gourmet sauces and mustards and we came home with a couple of these. 

But the wine- Since there are several varietals on the table it is hard to decide the approach you will take.  Most wineries really are interested in having you try all their products but we all know it is tough work to go from white to red to white again so this really is not advised.  If you want to try both white and red you are better off starting with white and moving to red halfway through the event.   Our approach was going to be to stick with Red Blends.  Since the program listed about 50 or so Red Blends this should have not been a problem but again some of the pourers insist that you try this or that and it can be hard to say ‘no’.

My guess is more than half of the wineries represented were from San Luis Obispo County (Paso Robles) and further south.  This definitely convinced us that we really do need to make a trip south this year.  There were stand out wines.  I’m not sure there were blockbusters but there were plenty of good wines.  My notes consist of checkmarks in the program and that is it but here goes:

The Adelaida- Red Blend, Alta Colina- Baja and GSM Blends, Andrew Murray (not the tennis player) Grenache,  Arrowood- Red Blend, Big Basin- Grizzly Red Blend,  both the Bonny Doon- ‘Cigare’ Blends, Fess Parker- Big Easy Red Blend,  Hahn Family- Red Blend (at $14, the deal of the day), Halter Ranch- Cotes de Paso, Hearst Ranch- Three Sisters Cuvee (and an up and coming winery), Jada- Hell’s Kitchen Red,  Kukkula- Several excellent Red Blends, L’Aventure- Cote a Cote (which seemed to be the crowd favorite), Martian Ranch- Red Shift (definitely on our visit list in Los Alamos this year), Morgan- Cotes du Crow’s,  Ridge- Lytton Syrah (had to stop here), Treana & Hope- Troublemaker, and Wrath- Doctor’s Vineyard Syrah. 

Martian- One of our favorites

 Despite all the choices we were very controlled at this event and drank lots of water and took time to enjoy the people watching and food purveyors.  I think this was a good approach.  While we were there for four hours we came out of there with clear heads.  After the event we went to the nearby Presidio Social Club for dinner and what a great spot.  We will definitely return to both the Rhone Ranger’s Grand Tasting and the Presidio Social Club again.

 

 

Vitals-

Rhone Rangers Grand Tasting

Annually in Late March

www.rhonerangers.org

Saddleback

Saddleback Cellars

Oakville, CA

 

 

The last two weeks we talked about wineries that were new to us.  This week we’ll talk about a winery that we have been to a couple of times and really liked but we had just not been there in the last couple of years so our recent knowledge just was not there to review in detail.  This day of wine tasting began with a tasting at Titus, then on to Long Meadow Ranch (see 7-13-12 posting), then lunch/snacks and a little bit of wine at the Clif Family Winery back yard area as we are members (see 6-29-12 posting), then to Hunnicutt and finishing at Saddleback.  Our last tasting was at Saddleback as it is the most southern winery of the group and closest to Napa and from previous experiences is the most ‘laid back’ winery of the group.  Honestly doing four tastings in a day (plus the bottle the four of us shared at Clif) is pretty aggressive.  The first tastes of the day are always the ones you remember most so there may be something to the notion that alcohol affects your senses, memory and occasionally judgment.  I think we’ll just agree for this job (casual reviews of wine tasting experiences) four in a day will be the limit.

Nils Venge

 I think Saddleback is a winery that has great notoriety but is not generally known by most of the public.  Its driveway is right across from the entrance to Silver Oak and my guess is that Silver Oak gets 10 or 20 times the traffic.  Yet, the owner of Saddleback is known as the King of Cabernet and while winemaker at Groth, just down the street, their 1985 Cabernet received the first perfect score ever from Robert Parker Jr. given to a California wine.  

 

 

 

Nils Venge is the owner of Saddleback Cellars.  His history in the valley goes back to 1970.  Nils was ahead of the crowd and had graduated from Davis in 1967 focusing in viticulture and enology.  Nils began working in the vineyard in 1970.  By the mid 70’s he was managing and making wine for Villa Mount Eden and making Cabernets that are legendary.  In 1976 the property where Saddleback sits today was purchased.  The first Saddleback label was released in 1983.  Today Nils is involved in Saddleback, Venge Winery, Envy Winery and consults for other wineries.  We have seen Nils at various San Francisco tasting events presenting his wines.

Tasting room at Saddleback

The tasting experience at Saddleback is best experienced in good weather.  Really the only way to do it right is to be sitting at one of the picnic tables or plastic chairs set up next to the vineyard.  There is a tasting room that has a bit of character of its own but it may not be for everyone.  The tastings can be very personalized.  Reservations are required so they have a spot set up for you when you arrive.  I remember one tasting at Saddleback where the host did not leave our picnic table for the whole duration of the hour plus tasting.  There can be a lot of wines to taste.  Although Nils may be known as the King of Cab, and most of the estate property is Cabernet, there are many other varietals to taste.  Whites include a Sauv Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio and a Viognier.  The reds include several Cabs, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Charbono, Merlot and Zinfandel.  My guess is that Cabernet makes up a pretty fair amount of the production of five to six thousand cases so the production on many of the wines is probably pretty small and much of it probably goes to wine club members.  They do take good care of those paying the $20.00 tasting fee as many of the wines were poured for us including some bonus pours. 

Our tasting included a Pinot Grigio and a Chardonnay as well as a Syrah, Merlot, Zinfandel and the 2007 (a bonus pour) and 2008 Cabernets.  All wines were good and my two favorites were the 2008 Cabernet and the 2010 Zinfandel.  Although we did not have designated host, the two individuals taking care of us were very knowledgeable about the wines.  There were three or four other groups, including a group of cyclists, so it was busy but the tasting was completely relaxed.  This is a winery without the bells and whistles and this is on purpose.   When you are done tasting, you go inside and settle up.  I am a collector of Two for One tasting coupons and had saved a coupon that I had received several years ago and it was honored for the four of us in the group.  I think if this had been our first or second tasting of the day we would still have a bigger buzz/memory of the experience but following two 10 out of 10 tastings earlier in the day, it was still a very satisfying experience.

What we liked- We are fans of the picnic table tasting experience and this is one of the best.  At Saddleback you are tasting great wines in a winery where success has not gone to anyone’s head.

What we bought- Zinfandel

Vitals-

Saddleback Cellars

7802 Mowry

Oakville, CA  94562

(707) 944-1305

www.saddlebackcellars.com