Reason No. 1,247 on why it’s great to live in the Bay area – you can be talking (or writing) about a winery one day, then visiting it the next. While drinking one of our favorite Malbecs from our recent trip to Argentina, we did a little research and found the winery in Argentina actually was owned by Hess Family Estates, which also owns The Hess Collection Winery in Napa Valley.
With that in mind, we headed to Hess to check out their wines and their fabulous art collection. We were pleasantly surprised on both fronts. Hess immediately sets the mood for a great experience with a walk through a gorgeous courtyard that takes you to the tasting room. The bar area, unfortunately, was closed this trip while they replaced the floor, but it is one of the nicest tasting areas, a large round bar that can accommodate a lot of people and not leave you cramped as many other tasting rooms.
Hess makes a number of wines that can be found all over under its Selection brand. The wines are decent and fairly priced. But Hess makes a number of other wines that can only be found at the winery or through its Wine Club that not only are fantastic, but very reasonably priced by Napa Valley standards.
Among the wines that particularly stood out were two Petite Sirahs. Reason No. 2,372 why it’s so fun to visit wineries is that sometimes you get a chance a chance to taste the same varietal with fruit coming from two different vineyards, which gives you an idea of the different climates in those vineyards. The tannins in the 2006 Artezin Mendocino Petite Sirah hit you right away. They were big and bold – no way to miss them. There was also a nice fruit taste, but it was overpowered by the tannins, which should mellow out as the wine ages. The Artezin retails for $25.
The real standout was the 2006 Allomi Vineyard Petitie Sirah. The Allomi Vineyard is in Napa Valley and is the source of a few different Hess varietals – Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc to name two. The Allomi Petite Sirah is a wine you don’t want to finish in fear that the whole bottle is gone before you can get another glass. It was much less tannic, with smells of leather and tastes of slight berry fruit. The Allomi retails for $36. Jill’s sister bought a bottle and then quickly took it back to Chicago with her so we’re hoping she opens it during a holiday when we’re back home. Thanks Hess for making both wines available to taste side-by-side and to the Hess servers, who were quite generous with their pours.
Other standouts were the Hess Small Block Series Viogner ($28 retail) and the Hess Small Block Series Zinfandel. The Zinfandel was a dark magenta color and had the perfect blend of jammy fruit and white pepper. It retails for $36.
We also were able to secure a bottle of one of our favorite Malbecs, from Bodega Colomé, an Argentina winery owned by Hess. The tasting room manager went into the depths of the winery’s cellar to find us a bottle, though a quick Internet search also turned up the wine at K&L Wines in San Francisco (yes, they ship). However, we weren’t able to convince anyone to sell us a bottle of the Artezin Charbono, a red wine that is rare in these parts. The bottle is only sold to members of the Hess wine club.
Hess also has an art gallery, which contains Donald Hess’s private collection. It is worth a tour either before or after your trip to the tasting room.
We were impressed with Hess and the number of wines we were able to taste. The prices are incredibly reasonable for Napa Valley and I’m sure we’ll find ourselves back there soon.
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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