Wednesday Wine Tasting: Loxton Cellars

Just north of the center of Glen Ellen is an unassuming tasting room and winemaking facility, Loxton Wines. It's a large metal shed, essentially, and the place is owned and operated by Australian winemaker Chris Loxton who started the winery in 2001 after working for six years as Assistant Winemaker at neighboring Wellington Vineyards. Chris grew up on a Shiraz vineyard in South Australia, and at Loxton he focuses primarily on Syrah and Zinfandel in relatively small batches, sourcing excellent grapes from around Sonoma County.

The stand-out wines for us each year have been the Zinfandel ($24) -- a nicely peppery and ultra-cherry-jammy wine that goes great with all kinds of food, only 512 cases produced of the '06 vintage -- and the Rosé ($17), which is one of the best and most complex California rosés we've tasted. But the Syrahs are nothing to sneeze at either, with the '05 taking home the Gold Medal at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair.