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Northern California
Our Story and Mission- Ever since we were old enough to drink wine, we have been frequenting winery tasting rooms throughout California. Our trips in the late 70’s involved stops at 6-8 wineries (or maybe more) in a day. My first date with my wife was a day of wine tasting in Sonoma 31 years ago. So we are experienced with this stuff. I think there are several ingredients to a satisfying Tasting Room experience. The wine has to be good for starters and generally the known wineries all put out pretty decent wine. But there are other key factors in making the experience memorable. Sometimes a classy tasting room works for us, but sometimes standing around a barrel outside does the trick. At other times it is just good service that pleases us. Certainly one of the keys is the person serving the wine. So there are a whole bunch of things that make visiting a Tasting Room a positive experience. The point of this blog is to talk about and recommend Winery Tasting Rooms where we have had good experiences.The blog was conceived after spending a weekend with my sisters who normally do not frequent wineries and running into a couple of disappointing stops.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Mazzocco Sonoma Vineyards

We spent last weekend in Sonoma County and although we got a late start (10:45 or so) we were able to make it to a few wineries on Saturday.  Two of the wineries we had been to before (Ridge and Medlock-Ames) but two were new.  This week we will talk about one of our new stops and one of our revisits and then in the next post we’ll review our other new tasting room.


We went up to the Healdsburg/Dry Creek/Alexander Valley area with no plans at all.  That can work in your favor because you have no high expectations.  As we got up to the Dry Creek exit I said would you like to go left (Dry Creek) or right (Alexander Valley).  Maureen chose left and since we had so much enjoyed Ridge Vineyard the last time we were up there we headed up Lytton Springs Road off of Dry Creek Road.  We saw a nice looking tasting room on the right side so we pulled in.  I recognized the name Mazzocco and I think this label has been around for quite some time.  I tried to do a little research when I got home and there is not a lot of mention of the history of the label.  The winery is now owned by the Wilson Family.  The Wilson’s own several Sonoma and Mendocino County wineries including Pezzi King and Soda Rock.  I have noticed their ads over the years and honestly visiting these ‘corporate’ type wineries is not my first choice which may be a mistake sometimes.  When we pulled in to the winery it did not occur to me that Mazzocco was part of this group.



We were of course pleasantly surprised.  What a good looking spot.  There were several smaller outside tasting areas and then a big horseshoe bar inside.  From the start you can see that this winery is all about Zinfandel.  There are about 20 Zins listed on the tasting menu.  There were a few other parties at the bar but we got our own pourer/host named Sebastian.  He must have thought we were going to be big buyers because he treated us like royalty.  The list pointed out eleven wines that were being poured that day but Sebastian took us off the list.  They do make a Gewurtz and a couple of Chardonnay’s but other than that it is Zin, Cab and Pettite.  Most of the standard Zins run in the mid to low $30 range although there are a couple of Special Selection (Member’s only) wines over $100.00 

We tried the Chard and it was nothing memorable.  Then we started on the Zins.  Every Zin we tasted was of high quality.  We were equally happy with the standard bottlings as the reserve wines all priced at $52.  We also tried a couple of Cab/Zin Blends as well as the Inheritance Cab.  I think my wife was influenced by our neighbor tasters as the Inheritance priced at $40 was their favorite.  Amazingly although the Zins are what this place is all about I think we left with one of the Blends (Caz, Dry Creek) and a bottle  of the Inheritance.  Sebastian was great.  He is from a family involved in the wine business, has poured at some Jackson Family wineries and is a student at Santa Rosa Junior College with aspirations of UC Davis.  We had to cut him off at around eight tastes as, after all, this was our first winery.

I would recommend Mazzocco to any serious Zinfandel drinker.

I’m not sure there is a tasting fee at Mazzocco.  Their website shows a $10 fee for groups of eight or more.  We did not pay a fee although that may have been because we purchased two bottles.

Afterwards we headed to Ridge Vineyards which is maybe a half a mile down the street.  We have previously reviewed Ridge as we like their wines and their tasting room.  Our second experience was good but not necessarily great.  What we really did notice during our tastes was the real difference in the Zins that are coming from different regions.  Ridge puts our Zins with area/location designations (Geyserville, Lytton Springs, Dusi (from Paso Robles).  As was the case the last time we visited our favorite was the Paso Robles which I believe is the best priced wine also.
 What we liked- Great service and quality wines in a quality setting.

What we bought- The one Red Blend and the Inheritance Cabernet.

Mazzocco Sonoma
1400 Lytton Spring Road
Healdsburg, CA  95448
(800) 501-8466
www.mazzocco.com


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