By the time we made it through Lake County and over the pass into Calistoga, we were getting a little hungry. Over the hill past the Petrified Forest and down into Santa Rosa, heading south we found Ledson Winery. Gail noticed the "Market" sign out front, so we turned in to see.
We ended up eating outdoors under the huge oaks; a glass of zinfandel and toasted ham, cheese, onion and pesto sandwich for me, while Gail had a glass of white wine and salad. It was a peaceful stop.
Our first wine stop was at Loxton Cellars, owned by Chris Loxton. Our friends Nels and Christine were good friends with Chris "back in the day" and they insisted that we had to go visit.
It is a good thing to have great friends.
We walked in and met Chris, an engaging, always smiling gentleman who grew up in an Australian wine family. Chris treated us like old friends, and we had the best time wandering around talking and seeing his operation, before sitting down to a great, private tasting. One of the neatest things he showed us was this huge, new style of barrel from France. It is not a "traditional" barrel shape, rather it is smaller at the back and larger at the front so the bottom slopes down, back to front, trapping the sediment more effectively. The top is almost flat across, but rises in the front, so when the barrel is filled there is minimal surface area exposed to the wine. It is the only barrel of its kind in the United States, and the barrel maker comes over to sample and test and adjust it.
We tasted one white, a 2012 Chardonnay from Hawk Hill Vineyard, which was aged in oak but was not at all "buttery." The real flavors and subtleties of the grapes came through, not in an overly crisp, steel sort of way, but in a mouth filling, clean and dry way. I am certainly no Chardonnay fan at all, yet this was an excellent wine.
The 2012 Pinot Noir, Griffin's Lair was very light in color, had a great nose and really full taste, with a long finish. It was beautiful to smell, and a delight to sip.
The 2012 Zinfandel, from Sonoma Hillside Vineyards was a true, balanced zin, fruity with lingering oak finish, not overly peppery but with a nice spice. The color was slightly darker than the Pinot, the nose lighter but (for me) the taste more intense. I love a good zinfandel.
As we drank and talked, Chris showed us the vineyards where he sources his grapes, and why he uses each particular grape and area. He directs the harvest, and sorts, de-stems, crushes and makes the wine himself.
He is really proud of the 2009 Griffin's Lair Syrah, maybe his best wine. A beautiful dark ruby color, complex flavors that open up slowly, yet are not overpowering, and then you are left with a long lasting aftertaste that just leaves you wanting a little more.
We finished with a unique tasting wine, a 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from the McGraw vineyard. It has a unique nose of green peppers, a nice strong fruit forward taste that was well balanced with the pepperyness, and a mellow oak finish.
Well, we ended up buying several bottles of each, some to share with our friends and some to hoard for just us. Chris sent us off with a gift bottle of the Syrah for Nels and Christine, and we promised to return next year.
You can visit Loxton Cellars, and sign up for a reserve tasting or walkabout tour at his website, here. He is often around the tasting room on weekends, so you might get lucky and meet him as well.
Our next stop was right next door at Wellington Vineyards. Nels and Chris both used to work here, and we were not disappointed at stopping by this modest looking vineyard. We were greeted in the parking lot by Toby Germano, and when we told him why we were there he stopped his inventory work (thanking us profusely for "making him" take a break...) and ushered us into the tasting room where we were once again treated like familiar friends and treated to a wonderful tasting. This is not at all a "fancy" or snobby winery, the staff is friendly and personable, and wines are of very good quality. Several acres of the vineyard are planted with 80-120 year old vines.
The main reason we were there was to try a unique wine called Noir de Noirs (black of the black, I think) which is a blend of four grapes varieties that produce red, not white, juice. These are called teinturiers, and some winemakers use small amounts of these grapes to add color to their wine. The grapes are Alicante Bouschet, Lenoir, Grand Noir and Petite Bouschet, and it is a unique blend and very intense wine. The color is so dark that they make a point of immediately rinsing out the glass after tasting, other wise the glass is permanently stained. Nels originally told us the story of this wine blend, and Toby filled in the details.
Wellington also makes a "field blend" wine, using the leftover grapes from each year's harvest. The blend is different every year, and the wine is called "The Duke." It is just a good, solid, drink it now kind of red table wine and if you look at my photos below you will see that this year it is ajust a little of everything.
And it was good.
The problem with a small sports car is, of course, the small storage space, so we packed in a few bottles of the Noir de Noirs, some of the Duke, and said our goodbyes to Toby and his crew.
You can visit Wellington by looking at this link.
We spent the night in Boyes Hot Springs, at the Sonoma Creek Inn. It is a nice little place, reasonably priced (more money to spend on wine) in a quiet neighborhood. We dropped our bags and set out to walk the 2.5 miles to the Sonoma Square. It is an easy walk, just a little ways south along Highway 12, then onto the Sonoma Bike Trail through neighborhoods and open spaces.
We stumbled across the Depot Hotel Restaurant, looked at the menu and decided to grab a table for dinner. It turned out to be a really great choice. I had Foie Gras to start, and Spaghetti with Truffles for dinner. Gail had local Petrale Sole. Both meals were delicious, with a good amount of truffles shaved onto the spaghetti and nice presentation. We agreed we would return sometime. See the photos below.
The next morning we took a lazy breakfast at the Basque Boulangerie, a great little bakery on the Sonoma Square. We passed an hour wandering around, window shopping and looking at the Mission and old soldiers' quarters.
We headed to our long time favorite wine and food pairing at St. Francis Winery. We have been here several times before, and it is a great event every time. The price is going up from $50 to $60 a person, but we have found it to be a great experience.
In short, we had:
Arctic Char a la Barigoule with celery root-butterball potato puree, saffron preserved lemon and parsnip chips, paired with 2013 Chardonnay, Behler Vineyard, Sonoma County.
Roasted Trumpet Royale Mushrooms, with stinging nettle fonduta, pine nut relish, parmesan frico and balsamic glaze, paired with 2012 Red Wine, Cuvée Lago, Sonoma County
Fig and Verjus Braised Pork Cheeks, with rainbow chard, chèvre polenta and almond-citrus picada paired with 2012 Zinfandel, Bacchi Vineyard, Russian River Valley (120 year old vines from 1895, best food and wine pair I thought)
St. Francis Meatloaf (beef, pork and veal, with candied bacon) with sweet potato tots, creamed spinach, tomato, black garlic and guajillo chile ketchup paired with 2012 Zinfandel, Terra Rossa, Sonoma County.
Chef's Seasonal Cheese Selection (French blue cheese) and Souffléed Chocolate Cake with spiced candied pecans, crème Fraîche, fig and port caramel and chocolate sauce, paired with 2012 Port, Sonoma County (20% alcohol). They put a candle on Gail's plate for her birthday.
I thought the best combination was the Pork and Zinfandel, and the best looking dish was the mushroom. See the photos below.
So that wrapped up a good food and wine weekend.