Hawkes Winery
Alexander Valley, Sonoma County
Continuing with our Sonoma Weekend reviews we visited two
more wineries. Again one was new to us
and the other, Medlock-Ames, was a winery we had been to and reviewed
previously (and really enjoyed).
Hawkes Winery is actually not completely new to me. I had visited their tasting room previously
in downtown Sonoma. I was really
impressed with their wines and wanted to visit their Alexander Valley tasting
room which although is not exactly the winery, it has a bit more of the being
part of the winery feel to it. Many of
you have probably driven by Hawkes before at it sits right on Highway 128, the
main Alexander Valley byway and the road that takes you over to Calistoga from
Sonoma County. The tasting room is right
next to the Jimtown store which is a noted lunch stop and mercantile.
We actually popped into Hawkes first and there was a bit
of a crowd so we headed next door for a tasty sandwich at Jimtown. When we were done we popped back to Hawkes and
the crowd had died down. We hit the
tasting room at a good time as everyone left were wine club members. There were three staffers behind the bar and
Andrea became our main hostess. She was
enthusiastic and down to earth and we totally enjoyed our visit and she was a
big part of it. Hawkes main focus is
Cabernet but they also produce a merlot and chardonnay. We tasted the chardonnay and it was
fine. We next went to the merlot and on
to the cabs. On my previous visit to
their Sonoma Tasting room I had really enjoyed the merlot and I did again. We then tasted the Alexander cab, a blend of
several vineyards and then a couple of the vineyard specific cabs. We enjoyed them all and would be happy to
serve the basic cab, the Alexander alongside any basic Napa cab. The vineyard
specific wines were also good, and a bit pricier. We’ll need to taste those again to really
appreciate them.
Our bonus with the rest of the crowd being wine club
members is that we got to barrel taste all the vineyard specific cabs. The wine club members all seemed to be
seasoned cab drinkers and definitely big fans of Hawkes.
We enjoyed the wines and the experience so much that we
signed up for the wine club. We chose
the ‘reds only’ lower end club. It is
our first wine club in the Alexander Valley and they promise good parties at
the winery in the Chalk Hill area which kind of sits in the south eastern
reaches of the valley. The Monday after
we dropped another club that really was not providing us fringe benefits other
than the discounted wine (and great location).
The wines at Hawkes would be a bit cheaper than what you will find in
Napa, but not inexpensive. The tasting
fee I would think would not be more than $10 (we were comped with the Wine Club).
What we liked- The combination of good people,
especially Andrea, and excellent wine. Hawkes is less than 10 minutes from
Healdsburg and probably only 30 minutes to Calistoga on Highway 128.
What we bought- We came home with our wine club
shipment which was three bottles including two bottles of the Alexander Valley
cab and one bottle of the Red Vineyard cab.
We took it straight home and put it in the wine fridge. . We’ll open one in the fall.
Hawkes Winery
6734 Highway 128
Healdsburg, CA
95448
(707) 433-4295
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