SANTA ROSA, Calif., /PRNewswire/ — Washington’s Maryhill Winery, located in the Columbia River Gorge, was named Winery of the Year at the 2025 Dan Berger’s International Wine Competition (DBIWC). The event celebrated its 44th consecutive year of judging at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds on Dec. 11. Owners Craig and Vicki Leuthold opened Maryhill Winery 25 years ago….
If you’ve been reading this series from the beginning about our latest visit to the Dry Creek Valley (and if you haven’t, why not?), you may recall that we added one more winery to our itinerary. When we were visiting with winemaker Antoine Favero at Mazzocco Sonoma, he graciously suggested that we pay a visit…
Have you heard of Saini Vineyards? We have to admit that we hadn’t until last spring when we were planning our self-made tour of historic vineyards in Sonoma County. Unfortunately, our schedule filled up quickly but we were determined to make it happen on our next visit to the area, and we did! Two of…
Ken and Diane Wilson began acquiring land and planting vines in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley in the 1980s. They started making wine when they bought the historic Fredson Winery in 1993 with its century-old tin barn. It is now known as Wilson Winery of Dry Creek. The redwood vats were replaced by modern tanks…
You may recall that a couple of days before our visit to Ridge Lytton Springs, Joel Peterson of Once & Future Wines had opened a bottle for us of the Ravenswood Belloni Zinfandel from 1993. Much to our surprise, Shauna shared barrel samples with us of the 2024 Belloni Zinfandel. Quite the coincidence! Even in…
It seems fitting to finish up this short series on Mendocino County and Coro Mendocino wines by going back to where it started at Jaxon Keys when winemaker Antoine Favero first showed us a bottle of Coro a couple of years ago. Since that trip was all about the brandy and we hadn’t reported on…
Love, love, love Rodney Strong Wines. From the six I tasted in 2019 to the 2018 single bottle reserve Cabernet Sauvignon I tasted a year ago which also made my Best of 2023 list. From the New York International Wine Competition two years ago: Rodney Strong Wine Estates (Healdsburg, CA) Double Gold medal: Russian River Valley;…
We’ve been supporters of the Historic Vineyard Society (www.historicvineyardsociety.org) for a long time. The work they do preserving and cataloging California’s old vine plantings provides an important service to our state’s heritage, especially when so many of these vineyards end up being replaced by more profitable grape varieties or become victims of real estate development….
We’ve opined in the past that, when possible, the best place to stay in wine country is at a winery. We recently wrote about staying at the Briar Cottage at Mazzocco in the Dry Creek Valley. This time we did it one better by staying at the guest house at deLorimier Winery in the Alexander…
We’ve been spending most of our wine country trips lately in northern Sonoma County, specifically the Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys. There is an abundance of wonderful wineries in these areas, with a great focus on some of our favorite varietals, such as Zinfandel and California Rhones, among others. First on our list this trip…