When we first began going to the Dry Creek Valley about a decade ago, the very first winery in the area we visited was Mazzocco Sonoma and its winemaker Antoine Favero was the first winemaker we met in the region. The only problem with this being our first stop is that the bar was now set very high for any future winery visits. Not only are Mazzocco’s wines of extremely high quality and Antoine is an excellent winemaker, he is also a wonderful person to hang out with.
This visit, we had the pleasure of staying at the Briar Cottage on the Mazzocco property. The cottage is one of several lodging options offered by the Wilson Artisan Wineries, of which Mazzocco is a part. The cottage is a fully furnished guest house with all the amenities right next to the Briar vineyard and it is a very easy and scenic stroll to the tasting room.
Across from the cottage is the winery itself, so if you want to be in the middle of the action and still have that great vineyard view, this is the place for you! We were able to watch Antoine in action, along with his winemaking team. While we were checking out the winery operation, Antoine explained to us how the process for removing pomace from the red fermenting tanks had changed. Rather than having the tank shoveled from the inside, the tanks are now drained and the left-over skins/pomace are removed by using the wine from the receiving tank encouraging the skins to drain out on their own – all this was done with a special hand-held wand, which is much safer and more efficient.
But of course, we were here to taste the wines, and once again we were tasting at Mazzocco first on our trip. And yet again, we were not disappointed.
Tasting room manager Eddie took great care of us. He provided commentary and back stories to highlight each tasting.
We started with the 2023 Stuhlmuller Reserve Chardonnay. The Stuhlmuller vineyard is in the Alexander Valley, east of Mazzocco’s location in the Dry Creek Valley. This 100% Chardonnay was rich with a lingering finish and bright Meyer Lemon in color with similar notes on the palate. The wine spent 22 months in French oak, about half of it neutral, and showed smooth balanced acidity.
Then Eddie surprised us with a side-by-side tasting of the 2023 Chardonnay Mendocino Cuvee and the 2024 Sauvignon Blanc. (This side-by-side approach would be a continuing theme.) Both the Chardonnay and the Sauvignon Blanc came from another Wilson Artisan Wineries property – Jaxon Keys, which is in the southern end of Mendocino County just north of the Dry Creek Valley.
The Chardonnay bottling had 9% Viognier which added to the bright lingering finish that felt almost effervescent with a wink of honey. It had delicious grapefruit and orange blossom notes.
The Sauvignon Blanc had passion fruit and pineapple notes to savor, with a kiss of sweetness on the lingering finish. It was aged 100% in stainless steel.
At some point during our tasting, Antoine arrived. Our visit was right near the end of harvest and he had a lot going on – when is he not busy? As we were finishing up, we were discussing our plans for the rest of the week with Antoine. We were scheduled to visit Wilson Winery the next day, which is also part of the Wilson Artisan Wineries group and the first winery Diane and Ken Wilson acquired in the area. Diane herself makes the wines there, and she and Antoine divide up the winemaker duties along with Chris Barrett among the several other wineries owned by the group. A great benefit of their winery clubs is that joining any one of them gets you free tastings at all of the Wilson Artisan Wineries and special rates at their vineyard lodging properties and B&B’s.
Now it was time to move into the varietal that we feel the Dry Creek Valley and Mazzocco in particular do best. Not that the other wines aren’t delicious (they are!) but there is something about Zinfandel from the Dry Creek Valley. And Mazzocco makes a lot of them! Read all about them in Part 2 of this article.
Wilson Artisan Wineries – A family of boutique wineries in Northern California
1400 Lytton Springs Rd, Healdsburg, CA 95448
Michael and Karen Perlis have been pursuing their passion for wine for more than 30 years. They have had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show them the way and after a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting wineries and vineyards, and tasting as much wine as they possibly could, they had the amazing luck to meet Eve Bushman. Michael and Karen do their best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers.
