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- peterson - 05-03-2003
The rules with flying and drinking is 8 hour of no drinking or the effects of alcohol before opperating an aircraft.
So after work to "stay legal" I have been tasting wines in the Rusian River area of Sonoma County with friends "making one of us each time be the designated driver" Looking for suggested fun tasting rooms in the area that can help build our pallet.
I enjoy the white wines and Pinot/Merlot lighter Reds. Anyone have ideas?
- tandkvd - 05-03-2003
Welcome to the board Pete. I am new to wines as well. I have found this forum to be indespensable (spelling?) when it comes to finding quality wines to try.
I drank Merlot only for about a year, but have been exploring many different wines latley. I have found the Spanish Tempranillo-based wines to be easy drinking with modreate tannins and acidity. And they pair well with many different foods.
My current favorate wine is from Australia. it is Rosemont Estates Grenache/Shiraz, you can find a post on this wine @ http://www.wines.com/ubb2/Forum23/HTML/000186.html. I say current favorate, because there is so much more to try.
[This message has been edited by tandkvd (edited 05-03-2003).]
- Innkeeper - 05-03-2003
For whites go to the flagship RRV platz Russian River Valley Vineyard. For pinot there are many stops including Frei Brothers, Marimar Torres, Rochioli, Martinelli, Bearboat, and Gary Farrell.
- winoweenie - 05-03-2003
Hi there Peterson and welcome to the board. I imagine you've done the rt. 12 run if not some of my favorite Sonoma outfits inhabit a 20 mile stretch. From Boyes Hot Srpings going north you have B.R. Cohn, Ch St. Jean, and Arrowood. All class acts. West out of Santa Rosa on the Guerneville Rd are a bunch of great wineries that take a little searching to find. Among them, Joe Swan, DeLoach, Dehlinger, and Scherrer. To save you time and frustration because of the hidden locations, suggest you buy one of those 3 buck winery guides that give you the location and phone #s. Velchomme aboard!WW
- peterson - 05-03-2003
On my way back from diving for abalone today I took a look at DeLoach Vineyards on Olivet rd in Santa Rosa.
Very down to earth tasting room staff. We started with Fume Blanc, very nice and light.
Then they had me try their Gewurztaminer with Wasbi peas that one of the staff had brought in with there lunch. What a great mix of the residual sugar and the spicyness of the wasabi. I might get in trouble with my wife, but I baught a case. They even gave me a discount 0f 33% when I told them I worked around the corner and had brought in my friends. The Pinot as really good also. My buddie Steve got a half case and a half of the Pinot and a vineyard designate Peletti Zin that was on special at 50% off for anyone that came in. They actually had about 4 veriaties that were in the Half off section.
The girls also told me the storie how the owners are a couple that had planned to retire from being a San Francisco Fireman and his wife a probation officer before the land with the 100+ year old Zin vines made them enough money to buy more and more land and open the winery in the 60's. I thought it ws cool that every day people could do well, most of the other tasting rooms I have been in so far were filled with lawyer made money and very commercialised.
- winoweenie - 05-04-2003
Cecil is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Makes very good to outstanding wines every vintage.WW
- wondersofwine - 05-05-2003
I've been seeking out some of the DeLoach single-vineyard zinfandels since tasting a horizontal of the 2000 vintage at Nantucket Wine festival last year. Found the 1999 DeLoach Barbieri at a wine shop in Washington, DC last weekend, so will be posting on it in the next month or two. (Also picked up another bottle of 1999 Ponzi Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, a Rosenblum single-vineyard zin, and a German wine on special (Niersteiner Bildstock, 2001, Rhein Hessen).
- peterson - 05-06-2003
You could call DeLoach for the single vintage wines and see if they could help you locate what you are looking for. I heard them talking to some other people the day I was in about shipping. It was interesting they said that some states it is against the law to ship to, something about laws that go all the way back to proabition.
- Thomas - 05-07-2003
Peterson, the anti-shipping legislation that you heard of stems from the Repeal of Prohibition, in 1933. In its ever-flawed and spineless wisdom, Congress was afraid to tackle the alcohol question and so, it passed legislation to allow the states the right to regulate alcohol however each state saw fit. This stupid act gave us the present situation of fifty states with fifty different views of how to buy, sell and tax alcohol (make no mistake about it, as much as we see wine as food, federal and local governments view it as a SIN and a wonderful source of revenue).
Shipping restrictions are the result of fifty states with fifty ideas on how to "allow" wine to cross borders. Alcohol is the only product in the United States that is restricted from free trade across state borders, in clear contrast to the Commerce Clause of the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But it will take a legal challenge and the Supreme Court to rule on it before that restrictive situation is lifted.
Congress' attitude toward alcohol in 1933 took it out of the hands of organized crime and then created a situation for states to become the criminals, or to at least get in bed with some.
Those who support keeping the status quo fall in two camps: the alcohol distributors who love state protection for their industry; the anti-alcohol groups who love any law that restricts access to alcohol--strange bedfellows indeed.
- wondersofwine - 05-07-2003
Peterson,
I live in North Carolina which is one that prohibits shipping alcohol directly to consumer (but allows you to bring equivalent of about 27 bottles across state lines in a car). A legal challenge has been mounted in NC and consumers won the first round. It's still prohibited while under appeal. Virginia, I believe, recently got a law passed that benefits the consumer.