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Pinot Noir Winery Crawl - Sonoma, Russian River, Dry Creek - Hartford Family Winery - Tony's Top Pick |
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Written by Tony Lima
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Monday, 11 August 2008 16:00 |
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Page 2 of 8 In the Russian River area, the Hartford Family Winery, with it’s lovely, tasteful chateau-like winery and grounds, is making pinot noir and chardonnay wine the way we prefer it -- fruit forward, not much tannin or oak, and drinkable now (but also ageable for a year or two). Their yummy 2004 Three Jacks chardonnay ($45/bottle) features a citrus nose with a lemon-vanilla finish and is sourced 100% from three different chardonnay grape vineyards. Unfortunately, this chardonnay is in limited quantity and is available only at the winery. (We’ve bought a enjoyed a couple bottles since the visit.) The 2006 Fog Dance pinot noir ($45, Green Valley of the Russian River vineyard) has black cherry aromas followed by cranberries, red cherries and allspice on the palate. (We’ve bought and consumed about six bottles of this elegant pinot noir since our first winery visit.) Finally their 2006 Dina's Vineyard zinfandel ($50, Russian River Valley) is a big, chewy wine that needs at least two years in the cellar. I can give no better description than the winery's own tasting notes, "deep, dark colors along with highly focused blackberry and blueberry aromas and flavors with a broad multi-layered texture and wet stone finish." (We’ve put aside a couple bottles in our basement.) Update on Hartford, April, 2009. After enjoying our initial July 2008 bottle purchases at home over the summer and fall of 2008, we decided to join their wine club (reds) on a visit in late 2008. We have been very happy with our quarterly shipments and have used the member discount to load up on special favorites – like the 2006 Fog Dance pinot noir. Truett-Hurst Vineyards and Winery is one of the newer wineries in the Dry Creek area. The new owners bought the former Martin winery and renamed it They’re also revising the production model; when we visited there were about 20 acres outside the tasting room that were growing weeds. Jim, the winery manager, explained to us that the land was lying fallow for three years and would be farmed biodynamically when grapevines were planted. They intend to move toward zinfandels and petite sirahs. Truett-Hurst actually has two other labels in addition to their own. They still own the Martin label, although that will be retired once they sell off the remaining inventory. The other label is Stonegate, an ultra-boutique wine from the Napa Valley. Truett-Hurst is using telemarketing to sell the Stonegate label, unusual in the industry. (April, 2009 update: the winery web site is a single page. It appears that progress may be slower than they had anticipated.)
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 20 September 2009 13:40 )
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North Sonoma