It was getting to be later in the day and there were a great deal more people in attendance by the time we got there making personal attention not really possible.  We got our first pour from Steve MacRostie, but he got called him away and we didn’t get to talk to him as we had hoped, however the staff was quite friendly and we were particularly impressed with their single block Syrah from the Wildcat Mountain Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast.  The wine had a great depth of flavor, nuances of vanilla and oak, some good black fruit and blueberries with a nice full body. 

Tin Barn Vineyards, Castle Vineyards & Winery, Ty Caton Vineyards:

From MacRostie we contined south on 8th St to a group of wineries found in another industrial area, but this one is surrounded by vineyards.  These three little wineries were all incredibly gracious and were having a lot of fun with the event making us glad we had made the special effort to get up to this particular area and I hearty recommend including these wineries in any trips you make to the region. 

Tin Barn
We entered the winery from the back door through what seemed almost like a cave of barrels.  The main room is surrounded by floor to ceiling wooden barrels and stainless steel tanks with the tasting done at banquet style tables with table clothes.  The winery offered the most incredible smoked turkey sandwiches prepared by the Missing Rib BBQ.  This was possibly the best turkey I have ever tasted and need to figure out how to make it; it was unbelievably moist.  There was also very nice music performed by Celtic Sands, a trio that plays their own version of British folk music. 

The winery offered some creative tastings of two vintages of Zinfandels from both their Napa Vineyard and their Russian River Vineyard.  This allowed you to taste not only the difference in two vintages of the same vineyard, but then to take that and compare those against the same vintage in different region’s vineyards.  These types of vintage and regional tastings make it great to taste their impacts on wines made in the same winery by the same winemaker.  From there we got to move out of the winery into the actual tasting room to try their wonderful Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah wines.  This winery is by appointment only the rest of the year, so make sure you call ahead to taste their wonderful wines. 

Ty Caton

Located in a fairly small cellar room, Ty Caton was serving no less than six wines for tasting representing most of their line of fine wines.  Its hard to taste so many wines in one day and make accurate assessments late in the day, but this was an exception, we didn’t want to miss any of these wines we had heard so many good things about, especially when you have the winemaker there to discuss the wines with as you taste.  He seemed to be enjoying the event and was willing to discuss his winemaking philosophy and vineyards at great length making the trip all that much more valuable and fun for us.  We were particularly taken with their Cabernet Sauvignon, particularly the one from the Sonoma vineyards that was beautifully full on the palate with great black fruit and a very long finish and the Petite Sirah with  a big fruit attack and great structure of acid and tannin.