But, West Sonoma County remains one of my absolute favorite places on earth, despite the traffic and terrible third world roads. The color is appearing in the vineyards and trees, and it is utterly beautiful! 2013 WindGap "Gaps Crown" Chardonnay. I liked this wine, but it was very "chardonnayish" and I have preferred a couple of other, weirder chardonnays lately, including Donkey and Goat and Campovida. Not complaining, just that Chardonnay is not usually my favorite grape.
2013 Sun Chase Pinot Noir. Now this, on the other hand, was a "wow" wine for me. Definitely fruit driven, with that lovely pomegranite profile I prefer in Pinots. But, really interesting strucuture (stems?) and astrong savory core that was fantastic. Already drinking well, but I bet it will be better still in two years.
2013 Chenoweth Pinot Noir. This was much stemmier to me. More red fruit. Still enjoyable, but much prefer the Sun Chase. A warmer site-just not as elegant right at the moment.
2013 Sonoma Coast Syrah. I really, really like Pax's Syrahs. This was all about black fruit, epic black pepper, delicious acidity and structure. Almost (almost) my favorite wine of the tasting. But the Sun Chase was fantastic, too.
BEFORE HITTING WINDGAP, I had stopped by a new winery for me, WOODENHEAD. Small production winery (3500 cases) located on Trenton Road near Swan (where Trenton Road swoops underneath River Road, for locals).
A big surprise to me. I had confused them through the years with a couple of central valleyish grocery store wineries. All about the acid and balance. They had a lovely, steely, savory Russian River Valley Columbard that makes me wonder why there are not more columbards rather than so many mediocre Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays (heresy!).
Anyway, they source their fruit from vineyards all over northern California, and they had a lovely 2011 HUMBOLT COUNTY Pinot Noir that was savory, earthy, low alcohol, refreshing acid, and that lovely, lovely pomegranite. Even their high octane Zinfandel retained freshness and was bright and with enough acidity to cut through the rich fruit! A nice place!
