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A couple weeks back we filled in the Friday Drinks column with a post about Cline Cellars, and today we're back with the launch of a new column about local wineries which we're going to call Wednesday Wine Tasting until we come up with something better.
We couldn't help but notice the focus on food and wine at this past weekend's Outside Lands fest, which we associated with the Gen X demo of many of the bands, but also it's kind of what makes the two-year-old event so very San Francisco. (SF Weekly's SF Foodie blog has already pointed this out.) The Winehaven tent, organized and hosted by Vintage Berkeley, included food vendors like Hog Island Oyster Co., Namu and Andalu, and therefore was was base camp for the foodie and wine-o set in between music sets.
We signed ourselves up for a "barrel tasting" on Sunday, in between Bettye LaVette and Matt & Kim, which consisted of a half hour sitting inside an enormous wooden barrel and tasting wines along with one of the winemakers in attendance. Our winery choice, Preston of Dry Creek, turned out to be one of the better choices we made all weekend.
Their Rhône-style white blend called Madam Preston, a floral blend of Marsanne, Rousanne and Viognier, was a hit with everyone tasting. But no less tasty were the ultra-jammy and smooth 2007 Zinfandel and the well balanced, Cô tes du Rhô ne-like blend, L. Preston.
Preston is a certified organic winery on West Dry Creek Road in Healdsburg, and in addition to wines they also make olive oil and bake their own bread which they sell at the farmers' market in Healdsburg on Saturdays. And our host for the half-hour was not the winemaker, but actually Maggie Preston, the daughter of the winery owner, who was nonetheless an articulate and charming advocate for her family's wines. We highly recommend a trip to Preston's tasting room the next time you're in northern Sonoma.
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"next time you're in northern Sonoma"
which is recommended to be soon, and repeated frequently...
Not sure if they still do it, but Preston had a jug wine that's available on Sundays. Good times, purchasing a jug, then going for a picnic and swim on Lake Sonoma.