A few years ago, we were scheduled to meet with winemaker Chris Barrett at the Pezzi King Estate. Concerns over inclement weather resulted in moving the visit to the Pezzi King tasting room in Downtown Healdsburg, which we wrote about here: Perlises Pick: Pezzi King Winery – Eve’s Wine and Spirits 101 Admittedly, at the…
We’ve been fans of wines from the Rockpile AVA for a long time. There is just something about the rich balanced flavor and structure of the wines from this region, primarily Zinfandels and Petite Sirahs. But only recently have we gotten a better understanding of the history of this AVA. Located at the far west…
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…
We were actually planning on visiting Bella Vineyards and Wine Caves back in 2017, but a fractured kneecap got in the way. Fortunately, we were finally able to rectify that and it was definitely worth the wait. Bella Vineyards is in the far reaches of the Dry Creek Valley. The scenic drive is beautiful –…
As we were finishing up our tour of the deLorimier Winery property and winemaking facility, we had the great pleasure to meet with winemaker/owner Diane Wilson. Diane is in charge of winemaking at several of the eleven wineries owned by her and her husband Ken. At deLorimier, some of the winemaking duties are shared with…
The Tam O’Shanter in Los Feliz has been one of our select go-to restaurants for a long time, even more so after the pandemic closures. While we can’t say we’ve been going since they opened over 100 years ago, we’ve been dining there much of the last twenty. At this Scottish-themed restaurant, service is consistently…
Driving on the Sonoma Highway just north of Kenwood, it would be virtually impossible to miss seeing St. Anne’s Crossing Winery, even if you weren’t looking for it. After all, how many other wineries have a 28-foot tall bear standing guard over their tasting room? The Bear is a sculpture created by Sonoma County artist…
We were first introduced to the group of Wilson Artisan Wineries in 2015 when we visited Antoine Favero at Mazzocco Sonoma. We’ve been back a few times to Mazzocco and have also visited a few other wineries in the group: Wilson, Soda Rock and Jaxon Keys. Antoine makes the wines at Jaxon Keys and Soda…
We recently had a bottle of the 2016 Comstock Rockpile Petite Sirah along with a few other wines. Petite Sirah is well known for often being dark, brooding, and taking a long time to come around to peak drinkability. This was just the opposite. It was bright, lively and downright elegant. It was the wine…
As mentioned in our previous article, one of the benefits of staying at the Briar Cottage is that it made it that much easier to get to our scheduled visit with Mazzocco Sonoma winemaker, Antoine Favero. All it took was a short stroll over to the Mazzocco tasting room. We were a little early, so…
