Getting your hands dirty
posted by philip in Snooth, Wine
One of the highlights of my trip last week was spending time at the wineries. While it’s nice to sample the famous wines at the exclusive places, I found that I learned a lot more from the smaller boutique wineries … and you can’t get much more boutique than Corda Winery:
David Corda is a 4th generation Marin County local. Based in Petaluma, the farm has been in the family since his grandfather’s days. The wine is literally made in a barn. The whole process is gritty, up close and fantastic. We tasted wines from the ‘06 barrel samples that were still fermenting, right through to their 2000 bottled releases (my favorite, as ever is their Cabernet Franc - one of the smoothest Franc’s I’ve tasted).
Best of all? I wasn’t given special treatment. There was a local couple who had seen the Corda sign and had just driven up to see the winery. They were given the exact same tour I was.
If you get the chance to make it out to your local ‘Wine Country’ (wherever that may be) go visit the famous wineries and make sure you try the wines everyone has heard of, but make sure you stop at somewhere off the beaten path too - thats where you’ll really learn something.
Speaking of off the beaten path wineries, the Wall Street Journal Online has an interesting article in today’s edition about Screaming Eagle Winery, and how its location has remained hidden for years, partly through the help of locals who give vague and misleading directions to tourists. (However, I’m not sure how hidden it will be in the future given that the WSJ provided details of rather specific landmarks as well as a description of what it looks like!)
[…] hearing about Philip’s trip to Sonoma in April, I decided to plan a trip of my own, so I spent last weekend there. During the trip, I […]