Spring brings asparagus season, and asparagus just screams for two of my favorite ways to prepare food… grilled, and with an egg on top.
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This is the second in a series detailing our recent wine touring trip to Healdsburg, in Sonoma County, California. Day one can be found here.
Our plan for our second day in the Dry Creek area was to visit the tasting rooms at the northern end of Dry Creek Valley. These are mostly clustered along Dry Creek Road about 15 to 20 minutes north of Healdsburg. One of the reasons that we were interested in headquartering our visit in this area was because you literally can’t turn around without encountering an interesting, Zinfandel-producing winery. This certainly proved to be true on this day. Rather than trying to write all of the wineries up into an enormous post, we’ve broken each winery into its own post. You can click on the image of the winery below to read more about each one!
Sbragia
Dutcher Crossing Winery
With that, we called it a day as we had reservations for Cena Luna. You can learn a lot listening to the locals.
Our last stop of the day was certainly one of the most interesting. The Teldeschi’s are an old grape growing family with a long history in the area. Frank is the fourth generation of the family and the one who started the winery. He has some unique ideas about producing wines.
This winery was founded by two transplanted midwesterners. We were greeted at the door by Riley, the winery dog, who while at first showed great interest in us, eventually decided that we were boring.
Papapietro Perry is located in what can only be described as an industrial park for wineries. Six small wineries have their production facilities clustered together. With land at a premium in Dry Creek Valley, this makes sense, and doesn’t detract from the wine…
In 2000 Steve Zichichi, a doctor from New Orleans and his wife purchased the vineyard and built the winery. The vineyard is planted in Zinfandel and Petite Sirah with the vines between 40 and 80 years old…
The Prestons are proponents of organic farming and are as involved in the making of olive oil and vinegar as they are their wines. The wines themselves are mostly Rhone varieties and Zinfandel.
Bella Vineyards is on West Dry Creek Road which is a narrow road running parallel to Dry Creek Road. One of their claims to fame is a cave tunneled under one of their vineyards that is used for barrel aging wine. It also contains the tasting room which lets you get into the spirit of things.
David Coffaro has a unique perspective on winemaking that has earned the respect of his peers. He definitely does things his way. Like the use of screw cap bottles. Or blending grapes you’ve hardly ever heard of. Or selling most of his wine as futures. Or making a wine from the bottom of every barrel. Or making wines that are affordable.
On the second day of touring the Dry Creek region of Sonoma County, we visited Dutcher Crossing Winery.
Dutcher Crossing is located right on Dry Creek Road. The tasting room is in a modern wooden building that blends nicely into the surrounding vineyards.
Sbragia is a family owned winery founded by a long time winemaker at Beringers. It is located at the far northern end of Dry Creek Valley.
Pedroncelli is one of a number of multi-generational family wineries having been founded in 1927. The winery consists of a collection of rustic farm buildings a few miles off Dry Creek Road. We had visited the winery on one of our previous trips about ten years ago and found not much has changed…
Last night, dead tired, I tumbled into bed somewhat early. I picked up a book for a little bedtime reading. It just happened to be this book:
Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill Cookbook: Explosive Flavors from …
Farro is not one of those ingredients that most people have laying around in their kitchens. That’s a pity. It has become a staple in my house due to its versitility, texture, flavor and health benefits.
Among the housewares big names like All Clad, Viking and Cuisinart and the exhibits with celebrity chef monikers plastered all over their booths is a small section set aside for the new inventions. The Inventors …
Spring brings asparagus season, and asparagus just screams for two of my favorite ways to prepare food… grilled, and with an egg on top.
