Page 13 - 2015 Small Shops of Sonoma County Holiday Guide

Dry Farmed Wines
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P l le e a a s s e e s s e e e e h h i i s s s s e e r r i ie e s s “ W a t e r , W i n e & D i r t ” i n t h e pages of the monthly Gazette. I am grateful for
his expertise as a farmer practicing sustainable vineyard management. Preserving our
agricultural heritage is essential to the vitality of Sonoma County.
Then I did some research into dry farmed wines because we have numerous water- watch organizations who are encouraging us to drink these wines. They are more expensive than irrigated vineyard wines because yields are lower. But oh the flavor! If you can afford $40 or more per bottle of wine, find some of these wines and taste the difference.
As Chris O’Neil told me when I asked
him if Russian River Vineyards has dry- farmed wines - he exclaimed - “Yes, we do! When I bought this winery in 2008 it was an established organic and sustainably farmed vineyard and hadn’t been irrigated in decades. My winemakers, Giovanni Balistreri and Anthony Austin, told me to keep it that way. So I did!”
Don Wallace handed me a bottle of his Beeson Ranch Zinfandel and said “Here, try this!” I was at an event at Wine Guerilla’s tasting room in downtown Forestville, going down the line of wines to taste when I halted at the Carerra Ranch Old Vine Zinfandel. Wow! What’s this? It’s so different!
I haven’t tasted all these wines, and these are just a sampling of ones I learned about.
My personal wine guru is our columnist John Haggard who writes a column called Wine
Banter for us and owns Sophies Cellars tasting r r o o o o m m o o u ut t i i n n D D u u n n c c a a n n s s M M i i l l l l s s . . T T h h e e s s e e s s m m a a l l l l , , m mu u l lt t i i - - winery tasting rooms are often the perfect place to
find dry-farmed wines - or wines with grapes from dry-farmed vineyards. Small farms with small yields mean these farmers don’t sell their wines on grocery store shelves, or have tasting rooms at their farm.
Please visit the Gazette website (SonomaCountyGazette.com) for last year’s article written by Aleta Parseghian on One-Stop Wine Shops..places where the small farmer and wine producers sell their wines.
“We don’t dry farm in order to save water. If we thought we could have more productive or healthier vines, we’d water. Yes, we’re concerned with the environment, but we make more flavorful grapes and more flavorful wine by farming organically and dry farming.” ~ Frank Leeds, head of vineyard operations for Frog’s Leap Winery in Rutherford, a leading dry farm and organic wine producer in Napa Valley
DRY DARMED cont’d on page 14
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