On the Road with the Grape Guy

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Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy

Sonoma came back to our city (Toronto) for another tasting. This it the other California county; you know the-place-that’s-not-Napa.  They highlighted their 13 AVAs (American Viticulture Area) in a seminar held before the main tasting ... and within sampled eight wines during the showcase:

Top 3 Seminar Wines …
-    Rodney Strong 2007 Symmetry (Alexander Valley) … full 5 grape Meritage blend with a great intensity of fruit. (****)
-    Seghesio Family 2007 Cortina Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley) … plumy and cherry with good weight, nice tannins and ageworthy. (****)
-    Thomas George 2009 Viognier (Russian River) … “we want to show off our fruit, not a cooper’s work in France” said Jeremy Baker, and they sure do, great purity of fruit: pineapple, peach, pear, really juicy and real delicious. (****½)

Some Learnin’ About Sonoma …
- Sonoma has 450 wineries and 1800 growers
- Sonoma has 1,050,000 acres of which only 6% (62,907) is vineyard land
- Sonoma makes up only 6% of California’s wine production
- Sonoma breaks down like so: 9% urban, 36% pasture, 49% forest and 6% grapes
- Grape varieties grown are 22 whites and 44 reds: Chardonnay tops all varieties followed by Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah
- The growing trend is to be more AVA specific with their wines, not just on the label but with the fruit in the bottle
- Philosophy: “Leave the land better than we found it”
- AVAs include: Alexander Valley, Bennett Valley, Knights Valley, Russian River Valley, Chalk Hill, Dry Creek Valley and Rockpile (which are all names appearing on the labels) + 6 others
- Interesting to note that Carneros is both a Napa and Sonoma AVA; that’s because half of Carneros sits in Napa and the other half in Sonoma, it is the only AVA to sit in both counties
- Sonoma’s newest AVA is Bennett Valley, which achieved status in 2003
- Green Valley is the coolest region, yet sits in the middle of the County
- Rockile is the least planted AVA with only 150 vineyard acres
- Knights Valley has the least amount of wineries within its AVA: 2
- Sonoma Valley has the most wineries: 81
- Largest acreage AVAs, Alexander Valley and Russian River Valley: 15,000

The Wines …(click here to see my wie picks from the day )

To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.

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