Quivira Vineyards

  
This article is one in a series of articles about our recent tour of California Wine Country. You can read about Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, the Summary, the Winery Dogs and the Restaurants as well.

Quivira Vineyards
Our next stop was at Quivira Vineyards.  The property has been a vineyard since the 1960′s, initially selling the grapes to other wineries and then producing its own wines starting in the 1980′s.  In recent years the winery has become a proponent of using biodynamic practices to produce better wine while reducing the burden on the environment.  A number of the best family owned Dry Creek vineyards are taking this approach.  The winery has both organic and biodynamic certificates and is solar powered.

In addition to Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, the winery produces a number of wines using Rhone varieties of grapes.  This was one of the things that motivated our visit, as we are fans of these varieties.

The tasting room is in a rustic building covered in solar panels.  While we were there, it was undergoing expansion, but that didn’t present a problem.  Surrounding the tasting room our some nice gardens and picnic grounds.

The tasting started with a Rose made from Grenache grapes.  This was followed by two Sauvignon Blanc wines, one that had undergone barrel fermentation and one that had not.  It was interesting to compare the two wines, as there were subtle differences introduced by barrel fermentation.  This was followed by several Zinfandels, a Mourvedre, a Syrah and finally a Petite Sirah.  With the exception of the Dry Creek Zinfandel which comes from a vineyard a few miles away, all of the wines are from the vineyards surrounding the winery.

After the tasting, we had a picnic lunch accompanied by a bottle of the Quivira Petite Sirah.

Wines sampled:
2008 Wine Creek Ranch Grenache Rose
2007 Fig Tree Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc
2007 Sauvignon Blanc Barrel Complete (barrel fermented)
2006 Dry Creek Zinfandel, 8% Petite Sirah
2006 Wine Creek Ranch Zinfandel
2006 Wine Creek Ranch Mourvedre
2006 Wine Creek Ranch Syrah
2006 Wine Creek Ranch Petite Sirah

 

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