Wannabe Wino

We stopped by Acorn Winery on our last day in Sonoma at the recommendation of Patrick and Genevieve. If you'd like to make a stop at Acorn, you'll need to call and make an appointment as they don't (or at least they didn't) have a tasting room open to the public. We called the morning we wanted to visit and had no problem getting a tasting later that afternoon.


Acorn has been in the hands of the current owners since 1994. All of the wines are made from estate grown grapes and all the wines are field blends. The grapes come from 26 acres of the Alegria Vineyards and the annual production is about 2800 cases.

2005 Medley- A blend of Zinfandel, Syrah, Cinsaut, Cabernet Franc, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, Mouvedre, Viognier, and a bunch of Muscat varieties. Raspberry, red cherries, peppery, nice fruit, well done. Matt loved this one, Acorn places a 3 bottle per customer limit on it and we took home 3 bottles.

2005 Sangiovese- Black cherry, plum, smoky, leather, toasted vanilla, mocha. We took home one.



2005 Heritage Vines Zinfandel-Vines planted in the 1890s. Smoky oak, peppery, plums, black fruit.

2005 Axiom Syrah-Vanilla, black cherries, earth smoke, red fruit, vanilla bean. Delicious, my favorite. Two bottles came home with us.

While we only tasted four of the current offerings, Acorn makes many other varieties. I would love to go back when they are tasting some of the other ones. The line up we did taste showed fantastically well, and I wish we could have taken home even more than we did, but we were trying to limit ourselves to no more than 6 bottles from a single winery so that we could bring home a greater selection. Next trip!

We're all in the mood for a me...wait, that's melody, not the 2005 Acorn Vineyards Medley, our wine for the night. The wine hails from the Alegria Vineyards and literally contains every grape and the kitchen sink. For starters, it cost us $28 at the winery, clocks in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, and is closed with a a real cork. Now the grapes...no percentages, but at a minimum, it's got a bit of: Zinfandel, Syrah, Cinsaut, Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, Mourvedre, Viognier, and 6 Muscat varieties. Is that ever a blend or what? In the glass, the showed black as ink, with just a little tinge of redness around the edges.


On the nose I found sweet dark fruit, blackberries, vanilla, spice, cream, cedar, oak, cherry, and plum. I loved the nose and had to drag myself away from it lest Matt finish the wine before I even got a chance to taste it. In the mouth I got most red fruit. The wine showed cherries, very tart cherries, perhaps bing cherries?, baking spice, raisins, and dried orange peel.

Overall, the wine seemed well intergrated, though the tannins indicated that it has some time left to age on it. For Matt, the Medley represented the wine of the trip. Acorn limits you to buying 3 bottles at a time, and we bought all 3 that they let us. We'll let the other 2 mature a but more in the basement before we crack open another one!

So I guess this confirms my status as a total wine geek (as Lenn just asked about), but I have never seen bud break before so I was super excited to be in Sonoma for it this year! We didn't see any on our first two days, but finally, on the 3rd day (March 18) we witnessed it! These shots were taken at Acorn Winery where Patrick told us we should definitely not miss a tasting (and I agree, highly recommend the place.) These are, if I remember correctly, the Sangiovese vines.