About the Topel tasting room in Healdsburg
The Topel Winery tasting room is one of many in the wine country town of Healdsburg. Around the Healdsburg Plaza, and down the road a mile, are as many as 20 tasting rooms. I think we have explored most of them. On our last visit, we saw that Roseblum Cellars has a new tasting room next to Murphy Goode. On each visit to Healdsburg, it seems we find a new tasting room open for business. The Topel tasting room is a cozy place, and it has been open for four years. It has made quite a difference for Mark and Donnis Topel. The winery is located in Hopland, and that is where the Topels make all their wines. They own vineyards there but, in addition, source their fruit from other vineyards. Since the tasting room opened here, the Topels have dropped their distributors. They have enough folks joining their wine club or buying wine out of the tasting room. Donnis Topel said, “No more trips here and there to hawk our wines.”
We tasted several wines on a very muggy and hot day in Healdsburg. The wines were soothing, and we enjoyed the Viognier the most among the whites. With the reds, we had an issue. Odd as this may be, the reds were above what I consider serving temperature. Perhaps the air conditioning was not working as it should have been. We found it difficult to judge the reds simply because we do not like drinking red wines above 70 degrees. My friend and fellow wine taster Mike agreed with me. Nonetheless, I would recommend two reds, the Ketcham Vineyards Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley and the estate Syrah Noir. The Topel tasting room is open from 11am to 7pm and is located at 125 Matheson Street.