UNCORKED WINE TRAVELS

Musings Along The Wine Trails

Ode to VML Winery’s Russian River Tasting Room

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VML Winery on the Russian River’s Westside Road has been a familiar sight, and a favorite haunt for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay lovers for the past five years.  Grapes are  primarily sourced from Freestone’s Ivywood vineyard and the Swicegood Vineyard high atop the ridge in Green Valley.  Both vineyards produce the 115 and 667 Pinot Noir clones.  Chardonnay clones include the Calera clone and the Old Wente clone.

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I had the pleasure of meeting artisan winemaker, Virginia Marie Lambrix, earlier in the year for a private wine tasting.  Virginia’s engaging personality shone brightly as we tasted through the flight of the 2012 Blanc de Noir Sparkling Wine, 2014 RRV Gewurtztraminer, 2013 RRV Chardonnay, the 2013 Walker Station Chardonnay, the 2013 RRV Pinot Noir and the 2013 Stars “Barrel Selection” Pinot Noir. [Read more…]

Sanford Winery ~ Sta. Rita Hills’ First Pinot Pioneers

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You might say that Sanford Winery & Vineyards is as old as the hills… the Santa Rita Hills, that is.  It was back in 1971 when Pinot Pioneer Richard Sanford planted the first Pinot Noir grapes in the Sanford & Benedict vineyards, that put Santa Barbara Wine Country and Santa Rita Hills on the map.

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Fast forward 30 years…today, the Sanford & Benedict vineyard supports 68 acres of the Mt. Eden Pinot Noir clone, 52 acres of Chardonnay and 15 acres of other estate grapes. [Read more…]

High In The Vines At Sta Rita Hills’ Babcock Winery

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After the 2014 Wine Blogger’s Conference in Santa Barbara Wine Country in July, I had the pleasure of accepting an invite from Bryan Babcock, winemaker extraordinaire of Babcock Winery, to tour the vineyards.  Bryan spoke at the closing dinner of the conference about his revolutionary Pedestral Cane Positioning.  Curiosity got the better me, so I decided to check it out for myself.

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When you meet Bryan, there’s a “McGiver” type glint in his eye.  Bryan has been farming grapes in the Sta Rita Hills AVA for over three decades with great success. It is no surprise that he is now pioneering a new farming technique, which he refers to as Pedestral Cane Positioning or Canopy Pivoting.  This innovative technique works with gravity and allows the canopy of leaves to spill toward the ground as it grows, keeping the clusters above the leaves.

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In addition, a shade cloth-type canopy shields the grapes from the sun when needed. This type of trellising system, combined with the wind and gravity has led to substantial labor-saving costs. [Read more…]

Santa Maria’s Cambria Estate Vineyards & Winery Is Empowering

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Approaching Cambria Estate Vineyards & Winery from Santa Maria, it’s easy to miss the turnoff unless you’re watching for their sign.   The views are panoramic and open as large tracts of vineyards span the river beds for miles along the east-west valley in Santa Maria Valley AVA.

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In 1981, the Santa Maria American Viticulture Area was designated as the third AVA in the United States and the first in Santa Barbara County.  This unique microclimate leads to early bud break and a long ripening season for the grapes.

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Cambria Estate Vineyards and Winery has been touted for over 25 years as a world-class producer of fine Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines.  The winery is also SIP Certified, (Sustainability in Practice), a bio-dynamic farming practice that embraces water conservation and the highest utilization of the land.

What makes Cambria Estate Vineyards and Winery even more unique is that it is woman-owned with a woman winemaker at the helm.  Vino-preneur Barbara Banke and her two daughters run the day-to-day operations and Denise Shurtleff is the artisan winemaker. [Read more…]

Sunce Winery Exudes True Old World Charm

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Winter Wineland 2014 was the perfect venue to visit over 36 wineries in the Russian River Valley in January, plus another 100 or so wineries in Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley, Healdsburg, Geyserville and Santa Rosa.  My wine trek started along Olivet Road, my favorite stretch of vineyards  in the heart of the Russian River Valley, which led me to Sunce Winery.

IMG_6017Third generation Croatian-born winemaker, Frane Franicevic, has certainly perfected his love of winemaking over the years.  Frane released his first wines in 1990, created in a barn off Piner Road, later moving his winemaking operation to the current Sunce Winery site in the late 1990s.

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Sunce is a Serb-Croatian word for “sunshine”.  And, plenty of sun shines in the Russian River Valley in the peak growing season.  Sunce Winery is named after one of Frane’s daughters, Sunce, with another vineyard and a varietal wine blend named after his other two daughters, Zora and Zemlja. [Read more…]