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Turley is the label. I would guess that you could find their wines on the East Coast, but it is a little far for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by busydesk
Okay, so now I will have to show my lack of knowledge....under what label(s) would I find Turley wines? And am I likely to find any of them on a restaurant menu on the East Coast?
Okay, so now I will have to show my lack of knowledge....under what label(s) would I find Turley wines? And am I likely to find any of them on a restaurant menu on the East Coast?
Is Gracianna out near the coast?
Turley makes the biggest Zins anywhere (and they are my favorite). They make single vineyard wines and have around 20 different vineyards. It is really difficult to find them anywhere but in a restaurant. They have a five year waiting list to get on their allocation list. I've been on it for several years and now have almost 100 bottles in my cellar. They are not that expensive ($25 - $80), but they limit their production.
Helen Turley was the original winemaker in 1995, but she has moved on. She now consults with a few wineries. If you like Turley Zins, you will also like Martinelli Zins. Helen Turley consults with Martinelli and they are also very big Zins.
Wife and I went to the Napa and Sonoma area annually or nearly so since the late 80s... have gone elsewhere the past couple of years, including Santa Barbara.
In the past the great wineries to visit were along Highway 29, but that's become nothing more than an overpriced tourist destination. In 1988 as young twentysomethings we took the full tour of Beringer and Charles Krug; tour and tasting was FREE. At the time white zinfandel was the big thing, not unlike moscato today. The last time we were on Highway 29 it took about 45 minutes from the intersection of CA 12, coming in from Vacaville, to St. Helena. Packed with limos and buses. When we visited about three years ago we were surprised to see how things have changed, especially the fees for tasting. One place was brand new, could still smell the fresh paint and drywall. Young, uninspired wines poured at maybe 3/4 of an ounce, three tastes, $25. The pretension was thicker than San Francisco Bay fog.
Since the late 90s we've generally avoided Highway 29 anyway. In the 90s the Silverado Trail which parallels 29 on the east end of Napa Valley had a number of smaller, family-run wineries which offered a true wine experience. Sadly, they seem to have gone full-scale commercial, which means the wineries off the beaten path are the better bets.
In recent visits we have spent most of our visits in Sonoma. I'm a fan of pinot noir, and the Russian River Valley offers a lot of very good pinots and chardonnays. At Porter Creek it's old-school. The winemaker was pouring that day, which is a great experience for oenophiles. He even took us back and let us barrel taste his pinot noir. As a plus, the tasting was around $5, and the "bar" was a converted cable spool. Hop Kiln and Moshin also offer similarly rustic experiences. For higher end, Gary Farrell has a great tasting room, and world-class zins. Alderbrook was a comfortable, fun place with the added bonus that the satellite radio playing in the background was on the 80s New Wave station.
Roadking2003 mentions zinfandel above... my wife is quite the zin aficionado, and found her nirvana in the Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys. Jordan, Pedroncelli and Hawkes all are worth mentioning, and Stryker Sonoma has a spectacular view from their tasting room. One year we stayed at the Geyserville Inn, and explored that area. Trione had just opened, and Coppola and Trentadue are good visits, despite the former being a well-known bigger winery.
My wife and I often split a tasting... makes sense if you want to enjoy more than just a couple places.
In my opinion, another must-visit is Pacific Star. We discovered them after visiting the redwoods 90 minutes north of Cloverdale. It's right ON California 1 right ON the coast. Again, the winemaker was pouring that day. It's in Mendocino County, near the town of Fort Bragg. The day we were there (January 2010) it was cloudy, but the view is worth it (below); maybe next time the sun will be out.
Some other places outside California have been mentioned in earlier posts. November's Food & Wine had an interesting article about the "other" states making wine, namely Arizona and Texas. When I lived near Tucson in the 90s the area southeast was growing in popularity, same can be said about the TX Hill Country.
In my opinion, Washington State is making wines as good as almost anything coming out of Napa and charging 70% less per bottle for equivalent wine. My money has been going there for the past few years.
Hi Sluggo. We are huge Sonoma fans and tend to be in the minority, so its nice to find some one who shares our interest.
I have Menocino and the Anderson Valley on a "to do" list, and will place Pacific Star in that list.
We are not really Pinot fans, but have had some good ones at what used to be Roessler in the town of Sonoma ( now WALT wines) and Matrix up in Dry Creek. And, at the last Harvest Fair we attended we were very surprised by Carol Shelton's Pinot. I have heard of Alderbrook and Porter Creek, but visited neither.
As for Zinfandels, that is our favorite and we have visited a LOT of wineries but I am beginning to see that what I thought were off the usual path are really pretty mainstream. Pedroncelli is a favored tasting room, but the wines have been inconsistent in the last few years so we've sort of "fallen out" with them; same with Stryker. The tasting room is gorgeous, but the wines stopped wowing us about 4 years ago. Someone told me they had changed winemakers, so perhaps that is why we noticed a change. If you enjoy Rhones, you should visit Bill Frick- just up the drive from Pedroncelli- for some really well made wine from unusual grapes. We are especially fond of wines that are sourced from Maple Vineyards, and Armida ( known for their "POIZIN") gets the grapes from the best ( in our opinion) section of the vineyard which is Tina's Block.
Richard, ironically I just saw a bottle of Turley wine today in a local wine shop. I am now going to research the offerings to see what is available here. Aren't there other labels that she consults for besides just her namesake? I am sure I've heard that told somewhere.....
Annerk, I agree that Washington State has turned out some lovely wine in recent years, especially around Red Mountain. We have not had the opportunity to go winery-hopping there as we do in CA, however. What we did do, which seems somehow brilliant and really odd at the same time, was explore their "urban enclave" concept wineries outside of Seattle. Groups of wineries set up tasting rooms ( as well as their production in some instances) in storage-unit style facilities and open on weekends for public access. It was an interesting marketing idea for the facilities based in the Eastern part of the state since it gets product to a more accessible area, but it does seem somewhat like "trick-or-treating" to literally walk from door to door to go wine tasting.
If you haven't had the chance to taste wines from Virginia, you might be surprised with some of the offerings from that state. Our experience isn't extensive, but in the lower Shenandoah there are quite a few places worth seeing. Right now, the only one I can think of is Ox-Eye, but there were 2 others we liked.
One of our sons has enjoyed visiting wineries in the Finger Lakes region and has found some that are really quite tasty. I'll see if I can get him to tell me which they were.....
Hi Sluggo. We are huge Sonoma fans and tend to be in the minority, so its nice to find some one who shares our interest.
I have Menocino and the Anderson Valley on a "to do" list, and will place Pacific Star in that list.
We are not really Pinot fans, but have had some good ones at what used to be Roessler in the town of Sonoma ( now WALT wines) and Matrix up in Dry Creek. And, at the last Harvest Fair we attended we were very surprised by Carol Shelton's Pinot. I have heard of Alderbrook and Porter Creek, but visited neither.
As for Zinfandels, that is our favorite and we have visited a LOT of wineries but I am beginning to see that what I thought were off the usual path are really pretty mainstream. Pedroncelli is a favored tasting room, but the wines have been inconsistent in the last few years so we've sort of "fallen out" with them; same with Stryker. The tasting room is gorgeous, but the wines stopped wowing us about 4 years ago. Someone told me they had changed winemakers, so perhaps that is why we noticed a change. If you enjoy Rhones, you should visit Bill Frick- just up the drive from Pedroncelli- for some really well made wine from unusual grapes. We are especially fond of wines that are sourced from Maple Vineyards, and Armida ( known for their "POIZIN") gets the grapes from the best ( in our opinion) section of the vineyard which is Tina's Block.
...
If you haven't had the chance to taste wines from Virginia, you might be surprised with some of the offerings from that state. Our experience isn't extensive, but in the lower Shenandoah there are quite a few places worth seeing. Right now, the only one I can think of is Ox-Eye, but there were 2 others we liked.
One of our sons has enjoyed visiting wineries in the Finger Lakes region and has found some that are really quite tasty. I'll see if I can get him to tell me which they were.....
I was going to mention Matrix. Brought back a couple. Trouble with where I live now is it's one of only a few no-ship states.
Have had some Virginia wines. Decent whites. Fiore of Maryland made a credible sangiovese, and a real surprise is the Dahlonega area in the hills north of Atlanta. In 2009 I was in Syracuse for a week and stretched into the weekend in the Finger Lakes. Finally, Michigan's Leelanau and Mission peninsulas have some of the best rieslings and cab francs I've ever had... great microclimates.
Hi Sluggo. We are huge Sonoma fans and tend to be in the minority, so its nice to find some one who shares our interest.
I have Menocino and the Anderson Valley on a "to do" list, and will place Pacific Star in that list.
We are not really Pinot fans, but have had some good ones at what used to be Roessler in the town of Sonoma ( now WALT wines) and Matrix up in Dry Creek. And, at the last Harvest Fair we attended we were very surprised by Carol Shelton's Pinot. I have heard of Alderbrook and Porter Creek, but visited neither.
As for Zinfandels, that is our favorite and we have visited a LOT of wineries but I am beginning to see that what I thought were off the usual path are really pretty mainstream. Pedroncelli is a favored tasting room, but the wines have been inconsistent in the last few years so we've sort of "fallen out" with them; same with Stryker. The tasting room is gorgeous, but the wines stopped wowing us about 4 years ago. Someone told me they had changed winemakers, so perhaps that is why we noticed a change. If you enjoy Rhones, you should visit Bill Frick- just up the drive from Pedroncelli- for some really well made wine from unusual grapes. We are especially fond of wines that are sourced from Maple Vineyards, and Armida ( known for their "POIZIN") gets the grapes from the best ( in our opinion) section of the vineyard which is Tina's Block.
Richard, ironically I just saw a bottle of Turley wine today in a local wine shop. I am now going to research the offerings to see what is available here. Aren't there other labels that she consults for besides just her namesake? I am sure I've heard that told somewhere.....
Annerk, I agree that Washington State has turned out some lovely wine in recent years, especially around Red Mountain. We have not had the opportunity to go winery-hopping there as we do in CA, however. What we did do, which seems somehow brilliant and really odd at the same time, was explore their "urban enclave" concept wineries outside of Seattle. Groups of wineries set up tasting rooms ( as well as their production in some instances) in storage-unit style facilities and open on weekends for public access. It was an interesting marketing idea for the facilities based in the Eastern part of the state since it gets product to a more accessible area, but it does seem somewhat like "trick-or-treating" to literally walk from door to door to go wine tasting.
If you haven't had the chance to taste wines from Virginia, you might be surprised with some of the offerings from that state. Our experience isn't extensive, but in the lower Shenandoah there are quite a few places worth seeing. Right now, the only one I can think of is Ox-Eye, but there were 2 others we liked.
One of our sons has enjoyed visiting wineries in the Finger Lakes region and has found some that are really quite tasty. I'll see if I can get him to tell me which they were.....
I've explored all of those regions plus some.
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