Category Archives: Sonoma Valley

Simi

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Simi's courtyard and historic winery

Simi’s courtyard and historic winery

16275 Healdsburg Ave, Healdsburg, CA 95448

Website: https://www.simiwinery.com/

I would classify Simi’s tasting room as a casual hang-out place, even though the winery has lots of history.  The historic winery and tasting room is in downtown Healdsburg.   Given the location, parking can be a bit of a challenge at a busy time of day because you have to park on the street.  However, the winery itself is in a picturesque setting off the road.  Right outside of the tasting room is a stone walkway leading down into a courtyard that is surrounded by redwoods.  There’s a fountain in the center, and the 140 year-old historic stone winery is in back of the courtyard.  Today Simi is part of Constellation Brands.  Just like the other Constellation Brands wineries in Napa and Sonoma, a benefit of joining one of their wine clubs is that you can get free tastings at all the sister wineries. 

This winery dates back to 1876 when the first wine was made from Sonoma County grapes.  Giuseppe and Pietro Simi from Tuscany founded the winery.  They set off for California looking for gold and ended up making wine instead.  They had been making wine in the same stone cellar since 1890.  Unfortunately both brothers died suddenly in 1904 leaving the winery to Giuseppe’s daughter Isabelle.  Isabelle maintained the winery through the Prohibition years.  She made an intelligent decision to cellar the wine until Prohibition ended and wound up with 500,000 cases ready to sell after repeal.  Isabelle continued with the winery until her retirement in 1970.  She has the distinction of starting the first retail “tasting room” out of a 25,000 gallon cask in front of the winery’s stone cellars.  After Isabelle’s retirement, the winery changed hands until Constellation Brands (formerly Canandaigua Brands Inc.) acquired them in 1999.  The new hospitality center opened its doors in 1990. 

 

Simi Tasting Room

Simi Tasting Room

The exterior of the tasting room is made all of stone and shaped like an octagon.  There’s a terrace that wraps around the side.  The winery offers walk-in tastings or wine cellar tours.  They also have food for purchase created by an on site chef.  All of the stone continues on the inside of the tasting room.  This tasting room is spacious with a wood table and some bookshelves covered with items for purchase.  There’s a fireplace to the right of the entrance, and the tasting bar is directly across from it.  This place has the longest tasting bar I’ve seen in any tasting room and can accommodate a big crowd.  Since this winery hosts weddings and other events, I’m sure they have big crowds to tend with fairly often.  Luckily it wasn’t overly busy when I visited.  There is a wide selection of wines from Russian River, Alexander, and Dry Creek valleys.  I sampled the Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Malbec, and an 1876 Cuvée made from a blend of Gewürztraminer and Muscat.  They were all pleasant wines.  My recommendation if you are visiting on a nice day is to grab a glass and head outside to the terrace.

Simi's Terrace

Simi’s Terrace

Merry Edwards

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Merry Edwards Winery

Merry Edwards Winery

2959 Gravenstein Hwy N, Sebastopol, CA 95472

Website: http://merryedwards.com/

This winery is named after the founding female winemaker Merry Edwards, who is well-known for her Pinot Noir.  Her wines have won lots of awards and accolades in Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast magazines and is served in some top restaurants.  As of February 2019 the winery was sold to the Louis Roederer champagne house.

When Merry began her career, it was uncommon to have a woman winemaker in California.  She attended the first class at the University of California Davis that allowed women.  Merry started as a winemaker in 1974 at Mount Eden Vineyards in Santa Cruz.  She then moved on to be the winemaker at Matanzas Creek between 1977 – 1984, helping them start up the winery.  Between 1984-1997 she was a consultant for many wineries in Oregon and California.  Finally, in 1997 she founded Merry Edwards Winery with family and friends.  One of Merry Edwards’ biggest achievements in the wine industry is introducing the importance of clones to California winemakers.  Merry celebrated over 45 years as a winemaker.  She’s been inducted into the Vintners Hall of Fame and is 1 of 4 women awarded the James Beard for Best Wine, Beer, and Spririts Professional in the United States.

The tasting room that exists today opened in 2008 in Sebastopol in the Russian River Valley.  The winery focuses on single-vineyard designate wines, primarily Pinot Noir.  They also produce a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chardonnay.  The tasting room is open to the public daily for casual tastings.  This winery opens at 9:30 a.m. before most other wineries.  Being from the east coast and having to adjust to a three-hour time difference whenever we go to California, 9:30 a.m. isn’t all that early to us.  We took advantage of that and had the tasting room to ourselves.  Visitors who want a more in-depth tasting experience can call the winery to make a reservation.  Our casual tasting included a sample of 4 wines – 3 Pinot Noirs and the Sauvignon Blanc.

Merry Edwards outdoor seating area

Merry Edwards outdoor seating area

This winery is located in a quiet place in Sebastopol.  It’s situated right along a vineyard called Coopersmith, named after Merry’s husband Ken Coopersmith.  As we pulled into the driveway, the vineyard was straight ahead of us and the winery and fermentation tanks were directly to left of the parking lot.  A walkway leads from the parking area to the front of the winery.  We were greeted by a winery cat sitting on a sign pointing us in the direction we needed to go.  Out front of the winery there is a rock wall that separates a peaceful seating area from the vineyard.  There are some wooden park benches shaded by umbrellas with a rock fountain in center, and plants and flowers all around.  It felt like we were walking up to someone’s home.

Inside the tasting room is very moderate.  The walls and tile floors are a tannish color that blends in with the light-colored wood paneling.  We weren’t expecting or looking for anything real fancy since we were there to focus on the wine.

Merry Edwards Tasting Room

Merry Edwards Tasting Room

My husband and I were greeted as we walked in and led to a little tasting area off to the right with a small table for our tasting.  My husband and I stood on one side while our server was on the other.  Our server explained that the Pinot Noirs he was pouring for us were released very recently.  Each one was from a different vineyard or area.  I found each one to have a lot of fruit, but I felt that they might have been too young because they seemed too tannic to me.  Given everything I’ve read about the Pinot Noirs, I assume that the wines would age well over time and the tannin would smooth out, but they weren’t the type of wines I would purchase to drink right away.  However, we absolutely loved the Sauvignon Blanc and took some home with us.  The Sauvignon Blanc is fermented in oak and has lots of fruit flavors.  I found it quite refreshing.

If you are in the Sebastopol area and like Pinot Noir, I’d make it a point to stop into this winery.  The wineries more than forty years of dedication to wine-making and viticulture is apparent in the wines.

Rodney Strong Vineyards

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Rodney Strong Visitors Center

Rodney Strong Visitors Center

11455 Old Redwood Hwy, Healdsburg, CA 95448

Website: http://www.rodneystrong.com/

There is an interesting history to Rodney Strong Vineyards.  The winery is named for founder Rodney Strong who was a professional dancer before becoming a winemaker.  He retired from dance in 1959 at the age of 32 and began experimenting with blending bulk wine in his own home.  In 1962 he went on to purchase an old vineyard and winery building and took classes where he learned how to make his first wines.  In 1970, Rodney Strong built a new winery near a vineyard that was planted by Sonoma settlers in 1904.  Rodney Strong was a pioneer in Sonoma Valley introducing the first single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon in 1974.  He also was instrumental in establishing Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley, and Chalk Hill as individual American Viticultural Areas (AVAs).  The winery that Rodney Strong built houses the current tasting room and lower cellar.  The winery was sold to the Klein family in 1989 and they continue to run the winery today.  

 

Vineyards at Rodney Strong in the Russian River Valley

Vineyards at Rodney Strong in the Russian River Valley

Rodney Strong is located in the Russian River Valley approximately three miles south of Healdsburg on Old Redwood Highway.  I would describe the winery as old world meets new world.  The winery itself is very modern, but looking around at the surrounding vineyards I got a sense of the agricultural history of the area.  The neatly manicured bushes, fountains, and stone steps leading to the entrance of the winery look contemporary without seeming too pretentious. 

Visitors enter the stone winery building on the second floor where the tasting room is located.  All along the outside walls of the tasting room is a walkway and down below is an open cellar with fermentation tanks.  Visitors are encouraged to take a self-guided tour by following the walkway and reading about the history of the winery from the placards on the walls.  There are more structured tours available twice a day.  The tasting room is rather large and spacious with a wide U-shaped bar in the center.  The rest of the tasting room resembles a library with wooden shelves lining the walls and small tables scattered about filled with various books, food products, and wine accessories.  It has a cozy feel to it. 

I have visited the Rodney Strong tasting room on two separate occasions.  The first time I visited was a little busy but there was plenty of room to step right up to the bar when I arrived.  It was busier the second time I visited and there were no open spaces at the bar.  The annoying part was that my friend Denise and I had to stand around for 15 minutes or longer waiting for a group of four to leave who were spending more time chatting with each other than actually sampling the wine.  They didn’t even acknowledge the fact that there were people waiting to get a spot at the bar.  Both times that I visited I found the staff to be friendly and they did a good job with providing descriptions of each of the wines.  However, they weren’t too sociable outside of that unless they were trying to convince us to join the wine club. 

Overall, I enjoyed the winery and self-guided tour.  They have some high quality wines that are definitely worth the stop.  Their specialty is Cabernet Sauvignon and they make several different ones.  They also have good Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  There are a lot of wines to choose from that vary in intensity.  The price of the non-Reserve wines were very reasonable ranging from $10 to $25 at the time I visited.  The Reserve wines are a bit pricey, some costing over $100 a bottle.  This is a place where it is worth spending a little more money on a Reserve tasting to sample some of the pricier wines.  My personal favorites were the 2008 Estate Chardonnay Chalk Hill and the very smooth 2006 Brothers Ridge Vineyard Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.  A True Gentleman’s Port is also worth a try for those who like sweet wine.