Zinfandel Getaway to the Russian River Wine Region

We visit Mauritson, Unti, Seghesio, Hanna, Limerick Lane
near Healdsburg in Sonoma County

On the heels of our attendance at the annual ZAP Zinfandel festival, we decide to take a wine country getaway to the town of Healdsburg. We have recruited two other couples to help us taste and discover delicious Zinfandels and other fine wines in this region that encompasses the AVA’s of Dry Creek, Alexander Valley, and Russian River Valley.

We have rented a comfortable house in Healdsburg called the Grape Escape. A house is perfect when you are with good friends. We share the expense of the rental and a house affords more time for camaraderie and relaxation. We have planned our meals together and have decided on what each couple will contribute to our food fest.

Friday in Wine Country

We meet up at the Lambert Bridge Winery located on West Dry Creek Road in Healdsburg. This is the ideal spot to start our wine tasting and have our picnic lunch. Lambert Bridge consistently makes excellent wines particularly their Merlot, which receives awards and accolades year after year. For our wine with lunch, we choose the refreshing Sauvignon Blanc to pair with the delicious Panini’s that our friend Darlene has prepared. The Lambert Bridge staff is also kind enough to lend us six Reidel wine glasses so we can fully enjoy the Sauvignon Blanc. We love this picnic spot; we think it is one of the best in all of wine country.

Following a long and relaxing lunch, we continue along West Dry Creek Road. We turn onto Lambert Bridge Road to Dry Creek Road. We turn right on Dry Creek Rd. and travel a very short distance to Mauritson Family Winery. Mauritson opened this new facility in 2004. It is a big building, perhaps a little too big for this picturesque country road. But the wines, they are wonderful.

The Mauritson family has been farming the Dry Creek Valley since the 1890’s. In the late 1990’s they decided to be winemakers and produced their first vintage in 1998. Sixth generation Clay Mauritson is the wine maker and he is making some fabulous wines. One thing for sure, Clay has a major advantage is choosing his fruit from the vineyards his family has been carefully tending for over a century. The Dry Creek Sauvignon Blanc is a standout. It ferments in stainless steel tanks and is left alone to age in stainless steel. It is a very crisp and refreshing wine. The 2002 Dry Creek Zinfandel is also quite delicious. What really knocks our socks off is a barrel tasting of the 2004 Rockpile Zinfandel. It will be bottled in June of this year. As a rule, we don’t join wine clubs but this wine is limited and we want to make sure we don’t miss out on this fabulous wine. As a wine club member one can buy the Rockpile at a “Future” price at $24 a bottle. We do not hesitate and order a case.

Our next stop is Unti Vineyards. It’s located back down Dry Creek Road a couple of miles west of Lambert Bridge Road. You can easily miss this winery; it is small and rather rustic. George Unti is the owner and his son Mick is the winemaker. The Unti Zinfandel is very popular. Mick adds a small amount of Petite Syrah, giving the wine a slightly different Zin taste and a darker color. A different wine is the Segromigno red (named after a town in Italy) that is a blend of 80% Sangiovese and 20% Barbera. It is very crisp and acidic, a good food wine. Another wine we liked very much was the Petite Syrah.

Now it is time to check into our rented house just off Grove Street very near the Simi Winery in Healdsburg. For our dinner, the main entrée is grilled Salmon with a Moroccan Charmoula Sauce, a recipe that Joe found on the Carol Shelton website. Carol Shelton is a top Zinfandel winemaker in the area. We compare the Mauritson Zin with the Unti Zin. Both are excellent, but we all agree the Mauritson goes better with the Salmon and side dishes. A very competitive game of Yahtzee ends the evening.

Saturday in Wine Country

We begin our wine journey at 11:00 am on a beautiful sunny day. The wild mustard plant is in full bloom and the vineyards look absolutely stunning.

Our first stop is Seghesio Winery, on Grove Street in the middle of Healdsburg. The tasting room and adjacent winery are new and very accommodating. The Seghesio family has been making wine for over 100 years and has estate vineyards scattered throughout the Russian River area. Wine connoisseurs have voted the recent vintages of the Seghesio Sonoma Zinfandel as a top bargain and value wine. In addition to the Sonoma Zinfandel, there are many other good wines. One of the best-kept secrets at Seghesio is the Pinot Grigio. This is a delicious wine, but unfortunately case production is low and the wine is difficult to find outside the winery.

Our next top is the Limerick Lane Winery. To get there we head south on Highway 101 and take the turnoff that leads to Old Redwood Highway. From there we go south and make a left turn onto Limerick Lane. Limerick Lane is in the Russian River Valley AVA. In contrast to the Dry Creek Valley and the Alexander Valley, the climate is much cooler in this region receiving more daytime fog and cooler evening temperatures. This climate result is Zinfandels that are lighter and a bit more spicy than the Dry Creek Zinfandels. At Limerick Lane Cellars, their flagship wine is the Collins Vineyard Zinfandel. The wine is made from the old vine vineyard just outside the tasting room. Today this vineyard is graced with golden yellow colors of the wild mustard plant.

So far we have tasted wines from the Dry Creek AVA and the Russian River Valley AVA. We decide it is a good idea to head east from Limerick Lane and do some tasting in the Alexander Valley. We take the back roads through Windsor and end up at the very south end of the Alexander Valley near Chalk Hill Road.

We stop at Field Stone Winery which is another small family-owned winery. The setting here is absolutely beautiful. Vineyards surround the tasting room and winery as far as the eye can see. The tasting room and barrel room are unique, having been constructed inside a hillside. We do a sampling of wines and settle on the Petite Syrah for our picnic lunch at Field Stone. The weather has turned a little cold and this hearty wine will certainly help us keep warm.

Our final tasting room stop is Hanna Winery. It is located just north of Field Stone and up a hillside providing a spectacular view of this portion of the Alexander Valley. Hanna, also a family winery, was founded by famed cardiologist Dr. Elias Hanna in the 1970’s. Over the years Dr. Hanna accumulated 650 acres of land of which 250 are vineyards. We have always enjoyed their wines particularly their Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. They have just released their 2005 Sauvignon Blanc and it is quite delicious, perhaps the best yet for Hanna. We also like the Bismarck Cabernet Franc, another fantastic wine for Hanna.

We make our way back to Healdsburg and stop to pick up some last minute items for our dinner. We find Big John’s Market at the corner of Dry Creek Road and Healdsburg Avenue. We have been in this market on past trips and found it to be very ordinary. We were pleasantly surprised to discover the supermarket has gone upscale and stocked with many gourmet foods, excellent produce, and a great wine selection. It is now a great place to shop.

For dinner we have each prepared various small savory plates (tapas). We are sampling the Hanna and Mauritson Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandels from Limerick Lane, Seghesio, and Mauritson. The Hanna Sauvignon Blanc edges out the Mauritson in our taste off. The Zinfandel taste off is even closer, but we give the nod to the Mauritson Dry Creek.

The next morning, we meet the owner of the house. Virgil Beasley. In a side unit attached to the house Virgil is cooking up a couple of barrels of Zinfandel. He has some 12 acres planted with Zin that he organically farms and sells off to wineries. He keeps enough of the fruit to make two barrels of wine. Virgil gives us bottle of last year’s vintage that we will sample the next time our group is together.

Our final stop before heading home is breakfast in Healdsburg at the Costeaux French Bakery. This is great breakfast spot with delicious breads and pastries as well as a full breakfast menu.