Wannabe Wino

As you may know by now, we took our annual spring time pilgrimage to Sonoma this March and spent out first day tasting in the Anderson Valley. The main purpose of heading up that way was to stop at Roederer Estates, a vineyard we visited 2 years ago on our first trip to Sonoma. However, we had some time to kill before they opened (I'm a little eager when it comes to visiting wineries, and since I was doing the driving, I had us up and ready to taste well before most places opened) so we popped into Navarro Vineyards. I had previously heard of Navarro from many other bloggers but had never tasted any of their wines myself.

Kind of needless to say, but we were the first people to sidle up to the tasting bar that morning, so we had the full attention of the tasting room attendants. Navarro has an enormous selection of wines, Matt and I each tasted 8. Even though I was spitting and intended to all day, I didn't want to taste through the whole line-up that early in the morning. I remember another occasion where the first tasting of the day consisted of around 24 wines, and even though I was spitting, it sorta killed me early on in the day. We had a full day planned and I wasn't getting waylaid by my first stop this time!

Navarro's tasting room is of modest size, though it had a gorgeous porch overlooking the vineyards. I'm sure on a busy day it gets crowded inside, though they did have a second, smaller tasting bar right off to the right when you first walked in.

2006 Pinot Gris: $18. Citrus, dry, orange, crisp, tart, very refreshing. We took home one.

2006 Sauvignon Blanc: $17. Light floral, melon, tart, acidic.

2006 Gewurztraminer: $19. Spicy, floral, orange blossoms, dry, mineral. One came home with us.

2006 Edelzwicker: $12. Blend of Gewurzt and Riesling. Spice, dry, but sweet than the Gewurzt alone, a cinnamon essence. One made it into our purchase.

2005 Pinot Noir: $28. Vanilla, cherry, tar.

$2005 Zinfandel Old Vines Cuvee: $29. New release at the time. Berries, dark, juicy, peppery. One came home with us.

$2005 Mouvedre: Not listed on the menu, so no price. Reserved, very good, not overwhelming. Understated fruit. I liked this one a lot, one made it into our box.

2005 Syrah: Dark currants, cherry, pepper.

2004 Petite Sirah: $27. Blueberries, pepper, spices, berries, nice fruit. We bought one bottle.

And finally, we also took home a bottle of the 2006 Riesling Cluster Select Late Harvest. I didn't actually taste this one, Matt did. He's the dessert wine guy in our house, but I took his word for it and one of the little bottles came home with us at a cost of $29.

All in all, a nice first stop, though you can see that I was eager and itching to buy some wine....6 bottles on the first stop of the day!! That pace didn't slow too much the whole time, and I think we amassed just shy of 7 new cases of wine (if you count the futures case that we'll get in the fall....).