Dry Creek Passport Weekend

A short distance down the road was the winery that seemed to attract the biggest crowds, A. Rafanelli Winery.  Although known for its Zinfandel, most people seemed to be there for the Cabernet Sauvignon that disappears with the weekend crowds.  The line to get into the winery took at least 30 minutes and then wound around inside the food and tasting tent and then on to a line to buy the wine.  The food was excellent; there was quail, lamb, rabbit and ribs and a table full of decadent desserts. It is a testament to the staff of the winery that everyone seemed to be having a great time regardless of the wait times.  Of course the wine they were walking up and down the lines pouring as we waited didn't hurtl! I have to say, once I got a hold of some of the Cabernet I understood why everyone was willing to wait in those lines to make sure you could buy it before it was all gone.

From Rafanelli it was on to Michel-Sclumberger, a beautiful mission style winery surrounded by lovely landscaped grounds. Once again we found more great food and wonderful wine. The specialty for me here was pork tamales paired with a lovely, food friendly Pinot Noir and light and crisp Chardonnay, both done more in a Burgundian than California style.

On our way to our next destination, Bella Vineyards we saw a gentlemen waiving at us from the driveway to Raymond Burr Vineyards. We had heard good things about the winery and even though it was not on the tour we decided to stop in and give it a try. This is a delightful, small winery on the side of a hill with great views across the valley. They were serving burritos and rice with their wonderfully rich, but fruity Chardonnay and a 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon that I just loved for its flavors and its value. It was well worth the stop off the tour.

We finally made it to Bella and the party was hopping.  This is a very fun oriented winery that is secure enough to offer a little whimsy with their wonderful wines.  We started with the wine cave tasting that came complete with a bistro, imitation campfire and some old fashioned folk songs.  From there we crossed over to the camp headquarters for tri-tip and sausage with mustard.  I don’t know if you ever saw the second Adams Family movie, but if you did think of the camp scenes and you will be able to visualize the tasting room staff and their counselor attire complete with whistle.  Then there was the gorilla driving the golf carts to take you to your car if you didn’t want to walk.   It was a blast, but they do take their wines seriously and the Zins were some of the best we had all weekend. Continued ...