Wine Stars

The Spring semester got off to a great start when Toad Hollow Winery agreed to host the first SSU WineSense Club tasting.  A total of 46 millennials showed up that evening to learn more about the wines from this Sonoma County winery located in Healdsburg (http://www.toadhollow.com/). The students tasted and toasted to six Toad Hollow wines along with scrumptious food pairings.  The wines included:  2010 Chardonnay - Mendocino County, 2011 Rose of Pinot Noir, Sonoma County, 2009 Pinot Noir - Russian River Valley, 2006 Pinot Noir Reserve - Russian River Valley, 2007 Merlot - Russian River Valley, and NV Risque [...]

Over thirty Millennials showed up to taste the award winning wines of Williamson Winery this past week.  Located in Sonoma County with a tasting room on the Healdsburg Plaza and their famous Home Ranch Vineyard in the Dry Creek AVA, Williamson is primarily known for big reds, such as syrah, zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon.  However, they also source fruit from other locations and it was these wines that appealed most to the Millennials tasters. Favorite white wine of the evening was the Williamson Winery Joy Sauvignon Blanc ($28) from the North Coast.  It had a fresh grapefruit nose with some [...]

Distinctive chardonnays came out on top at the first SSU Wine Sense Club tasting of the semester.  Imagery Winery’s “2009 White Burgundy ($29)” received the most votes as the favorite wine.  A full-bodied chardonnay with a small amount of Pinot Blanc and Pinot Meunier in the blend everyone enjoyed the tropical fruit flavors and bright crispness.  Other Imagery wines tasted included a Malbec, Sangiovese and Sauvignon Blanc.  Imagery Winery, located in Sonoma Valley, is renown for its artistic blends and beautiful labels featuring a different California artist each year.  For more information see http://www.imagerywinery.com/.  The SSU WineSense Board had to [...]

Research studies have shown that in addition to dry red and semi-sweet white wines, another favorite category of Millennials is sparkling wine.  With this in mind, the SSU Winesense Tasting Club sponsored a “Battle of the Bubblies” evening and invited Korbel and Gloria-Ferrer to share some of their exciting sparkling wines.   Korbel Champagne Cellars Headquartered in the Russian River AVA, Korbel was established in 1882 and is the oldest continually operating champagne house in North America.  Head winemaker, Erica Mandl, providing fascinating commentary on the history of the winery, as well as production information on the 4 wines she [...]

Another sold out night at SSU’s Winesense tasting this week.  This time the lure was big reds offered by Ridge Vineyards of Dry Creek Valley and Topel Winery, located in southern Mendocino county.  Seven wines were served with some spicy and robust food pairings.  From Ridge Vineyards, the favorite of the evening was the 2008 Buchignani Ranch Carignane ($26).  This was a big earthy wine with dark red fruit and spice.  Everyone also enjoyed the grenache and zinfandels, but the distinctiveness of the carignane caused it to be a run-away favorite.  For more information, see http://www.ridgewine.com/.  From Topel Winery, it [...]

Most wine research confirms that the Millennials have been driving new growth in the US wine industry over the past 5 years.  Research also suggests that they enjoy red wine and sweeter white wines.  This latter fact proved to be true in an informal wine tasting experiment in Bus 305W this semester at Sonoma State University.  Forty-three Millennials tasted 6 white wines as part of our introductory tasting session this semester.  The wines included chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, riesling, gewürztraminer and muscat, and were tasted in order of increasing sugar.  At the conclusion of the tasting, before brands or [...]

When I arrived at SSU’s Winesense Tasting this week, I was surprised to see a note on the door saying “sold-out; no more seats available.”  This was exciting because it was a testament to the wonderful wines that were served that evening from the Sonoma Coast Appellation.   Over 50 Millennials crowded the room to listen to winemakers Darrin Low of Flowers Vineyard and Paul Clary of Clary Ranch.  Both wineries specialize in growing grapes that crave the cooler climates of the Sonoma Coast AVA.  Flowers is situated near the Pacific Ocean and is famous for its pinot noirs and chardonnay, [...]