old timer
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Posts Tagged ‘Millie Howie’s Reviews’
The Old-Timers
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010(more…)
Trentadue Winery in Alexander Valley Sonoma County
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010When you ask Leo Trentadue (Trentadue Winery, Geyserville, CA) how he happens to be a successful winery owner, he gives all the credit to his father, Joseph Trentadue. A native of Bari, Italy, Joseph arrived in the United States when he was 16. Two years later he enlisted in the army, but before he could be sent overseas, Armistice was declared, and he decided to go back to Italy. At the railway station, where he and his friends were waiting for the train to carry them to the docks, he saw a poster with pictures of orange groves and the magic word, “California.” He decided he might as well go look it over. He could always go back to Italy – but he never did.
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Summers Winery in Calistoga
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
“Here’s one for you,” says Jim Summers – co-owner with his wife Beth of Summers Winery in Calistoga. “We produced what is probably the only ‘twice-bottled’ Charbono ever made.” That the small winery produces any Charbono is unique, since very few wineries – maybe a dozen or so in the State of California even work with this grape. But, the story is that Jim and Beth, new to the industry, were extremely happy about the vintage of 1996. The grapes were good. The harvest went well, and there was enough fruit to make about 350 cases of Charbono to sell in their brand-new tasting room.
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J Winery in Healdsburg CA
Sunday, July 18th, 2010
In September, 1999, when the J. Wine Company opened its tasting room, in what had formerly been Piper-Sonoma’s headquarters, owner Judy Jordan turned into reality her firm belief that no wine should be served without food. For visitors to the winery, accustomed to walking up to a bar, downing an ounce of this wine and that, and walking out again, the introduction of not just food, but dishes carefully created to enhance the wines produced by J, came as a distinct – though not unpleasant – surprise.
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Fetzer Vineyards
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
If you fancy fine wines, are delighted to spend an overnight or more in a cozy bed and breakfast, enjoy walking through acres of flowering and fruiting plants, and find joy in browsing displays of tantalizing foodstuffs or racks of unique gift selections, you will find any or all of the above when you visit the Fetzer Vineyards Tasting Room and Visitors Center at Valley Oaks just east of Hopland. And, lest you fear there will be large crowds and little elbowroom, you’d be only half right.
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Good Comes from the Glut – Charles Creek Cellars
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
There has been a lot of publicity about overproduction of grapes over the last few harvests. This can mean lower prices paid to growers for their grapes and more bulk wine on the market. On the plus side, for the consumer, a heavy harvest and more vines coming into full bearing can possibly mean lower bottle prices, better quality wines in low end packaging and, for some emerging wineries, it can mean an opportunity to expand production with grapes from vineyards with a long history of providing quality fruit to the industry.
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Sausal Winery
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
With all the national and international conglomerates gobbling up small, independent wineries like so many breakfast sausages, it’s pleasant to stand at the tasting bar, sipping super-wonderful Zinfandels – the wine they are most famous for – with the Demostene clan. Though not anywhere near as well known as those other family wineries, Gallo and Mondavi, the Demostenes can trace their vine roots back farther than either of those big boys.
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Everett Ridge Winery
Monday, May 10th, 2010
Until 1989 Jack and Anne Air had no idea where Sonoma County was. Both were born and raised on the east coast and had always been big city dwellers until they went to visit some friends in Kenwood in 1989. Jack took one look at his friend’s tractor and he pictured himself on the seat riding down a vineyard row.
The Airs’ first purchase was a 160-acre piece of property in Nuns Canyon, not far from the city of Sonoma. Anne and Jack moved onto the land in 1993 and with a lot of hard work transformed an old vineyard, dating from the 1940s, into what became the superb Nuns Canyon Vineyards with wineries clamoring for the grapes.
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New, Small and a Must See – Stryker Winery in Geyserville
Monday, May 10th, 2010If you didn’t know Stryker Winery was up there, sitting on a softly rounded knoll off Highway 128 in Alexander Valley, you’d drive right past it. This is pretty surprising, since the winery, owned by Karen and Craig MacDonald and (Ms) Pat Stryker, is large enough to produce 20,000 cases of wine, when operating at full capacity. Thanks to some very innovative and thoughtful planning by architects Richard Schuh and Amy Nielsen it is not just unobtrusive, but nearly invisible. Even after you have walked past the fermentation and aging cellars, you are not quite ready for the tasting room with a vaulted ceiling soaring nearly two-stories above the glass-enclosed interior. Three of the room’s four sides are glass presenting breath-taking views around Alexander Valley.
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Rockpile – A new, young, distinctive Sonoma County appellation
Saturday, May 8th, 2010When the ten families growing grapes at high elevations above Lake Sonoma banded together as the Rockpile Growers and petitioned the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) to create the Rockpile viticultural area, the officials thought it was some sort of joke. There really couldn’t be someplace called Rockpile. But the intrepid grape growers persisted, fulfilling all the requirements as to historical significance, soil type, climate, etc. With Jack Florence, Sr. representing the growers, working with Nancy Sutton of the San Francisco BATF office the Rockpile appellation became official April 29, 2002.
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