We went to a wedding in St. Pete Beach, Fla. over the weekend and made a few interesting discoveries. The first, is that St. Pete Beach is not really a wine-drinking city. At least not from the wine lists I saw at a couple of restaurants in town. I asked one server for their wine list and the response was, “We have white, red, and white zinfandel.”
The second is that every wine story can have a happy ending. Jill went to the liquor store across the street from our hotel. It was your run-of-the-mill liquor store, but Jill came back excited because it not only had the wonderful Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc for a very reasonable $12, but also one of our favorite Malbecs from our recent trip to Argentina. Before I get into the Malbec, it’s worth noting that Sauvignon Blancs from the Marlborough region in New Zealand are often crisp and delicious in addition to often being great buys for under $15.
The Bodega Colomé Estate Malbec is a truly wonderful wine. The dense purple color you see on the pour carries over to the taste, a rich, deep fruity flavor with a fantastic finish that stays with you until your next taste. Even the crappy plastic hotel cups we were drinking from couldn’t mask the wonderful taste.
Looking to get some more information on the wine, I Googled it and was surprised to see the Bodega Colomé Estate winery actually is owned by The Hess Collection, a beautiful Napa Valley winery on Mount Veeder that is a wonderful place to visit and taste. I phoned the winery and they said they only get the wines from Argentina sporadically and they typically sell out fast. I was able to track it down on Wine.com, though at $27.99 it’s about $5 more than we paid in Florida.
Still, Malbecs are some of the best bargains out there and the Bodega Colomé Estate Malbec could stand up to some of the more mid-priced California reds out there. It’s well-worth searching out. You might even find it at your local liquor store.
David and Jill Shabelman
Bad traffic through Sonoma County pushed back the time of our canoe trip down the Russian River on Saturday, and subsequently delayed our visit to wine country. With the 5 p.m. tasting room closing time looming, there was only time to visit one place, so we couldn’t make a mistake. It’s why Sbragia Family Vineyards was the easy choice.
Nestled on top of a hill on the way to beautiful Lake Sonoma in Geyserville, Calif., Sbragia is, as its name suggests, a family-run winery that produces some of the best reds and whites in the Dry Creek Valley. The patriarch, Ed Sbragia, has a top-notch pedigree as the former winemaker at Beringer, where he won Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year for a 1986 Private Reserve Cabernet and a 1994 Private Reserve Chardonnay. Not surprisingly, the Sbragia Chardonnay shares many characteristics with the one from Beringer.
Sbragia’s white wines, and its Zinfandels, are the draw. The Home Ranch Sauvignon Blanc is perhaps our favorite wine from the winery, in part because it delivers the most bang for the buck and comes in comfortably below our $20 comfort zone for white wines. Sbragia also participates in the Sonoma County Vintners Visa Signature program that gives users a free tasting and 10% off all purchases.
The Home Ranch Sauvignon Blanc is the perfect warm summer day wine. It’s bright and crisp with a definite citrus flavor. It never disappoints. The other interesting thing about the Home Ranch Sauvignon Blanc is the reusable glass stopper they use in place of the cork.
The Gamble Ranch Chardonnay most resembles the wines Sbragia produced at Beringer, most likely because the grapes are sourced from Yountville in Napa Valley, but the wine lies just outside of our price range at $40. It’s creamy and rich, but doesn’t taste overly oaked. It’s always a treat to taste it at the winery.
All under $30, the three Zinfandels at Sbragia also provide good value. On this visit, the $28 2005 Gino’s Vineyard Zinfandel stood out. The extra year in the bottle than the 2006 Italo’s Vineyard Zinfandel brought out more of the wine’s character and gave it a little extra zip during the tasting.
The wines are reason enough to visit Sbragia, but an added bonus is its fantastic deck that sits high above the valley and provides a gorgeous location to hang out, drink wine and have a picnic. Many people believe that the enjoyment of wine comes not just from the wine itself, but also from where you are, who you are with, the setting, the food you’re eating – virtually everything that you’re experiencing at that moment.
Sbragia’s wines are good with or without an experience. Visiting the winery only enhances it.
Jill and David Shabelman
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