Dry Creek Valley Wine-Tasting

Well, it can't ALL be fitness, can it?

At Kacey & Brian's very clever suggestion, we opted to make a full weekend out the century and stick around another day to do some wine tasting. Since I've been interested in Dry Creek Zinfandels for the last year or two, it seemed an excellent opportunity.

We were very lucky in that Sunday was nowhere near as nice as Saturday for riding. Cold and foggy until noon, and very windy in the afternoon - would not have been nearly as fun.

We blitzed a record number of wineries in the afternoon (they're so close to each other!) and made a few purchases we probably shouldn't have, but oh well. There weren't any real standouts, but that was mainly because the quality of the whole field was so high.

Here are some notes, just for future reference in case we go back or see any of these on the wine list when we go out...

• Mauritson
• Good Sauvignon, and it's distributed
• Growers Reserve Zin
• Rockpile 'Independence' Port - if we were going to drink a Port for some reason, this would be a good one.
• Amista
• Tiny new winery, no distribution
• Really interesting Syrah - we bought one
• Teldeschi
• No distribution
• This guy talked our ear off for 45 minutes - nice enough guy, just had a lot to say
• '04 Zin was really powerful, but a little too harsh
• Passalacqua
• Small, no distribution yet, but they're looking to do so
• Russian River Zin - light body, but a lot of flavor
• Avoid the Dry Creek Zin - tasted like rubbing alcohol
• Dry Creek Vineyard
• One of the biggest guys in town. We already know we like their Heritage Zin, and discovered we like their Fume Blanc as well.
• Rued Vineyard
• Small family operation - no distribution
• Good Pinot, and we picked up a bottle of their '04 Zin
• Bella Vineyard
• BEAUTIFUL place, with a cave cellar!
• High-quality all around. No distribution, sadly, and we were feeling a bit burnt out and overspent by the time we got here, so we didn't get anything.