Another segment of the series of tasting adventures from KB’s visit. This time? Siduri in Santa Rosa. We called ahead, as the winery is only open by appointment. Those who answered were very helpful in changing our time, since we arrived earlier than expected, and in giving directions when we got lost, which seems to be the pattern when the winery is located among warehouses and such (i.e. JC Cellars, Garretson) However, it was worth it. First we got a bit of history of the winery. Fellow southerners, Adam (formerly a wine buyer) and Diana (previously involved with gourmet food) put their heads together to create Siduri, so named after the creator and keeper of the wine of eternal life–taken from Babylonian mythology. The second label, Novy, comes from their family that also takes part in the business. One moment of success came when they took some Siduri barrel samples over to Robert Parker, complete with Post-it notes, and later got scores over 90 points.
I see why. We went through the tasting menu for wines from both labels and enjoyed most everything:
2006 Novy Keefer Ranch Chardonnay: Russian River Valley, non ML, neutral oak, quite crisp, clean, apple, and pear
2005 Siduri Hawke’s View Vineyard Pinot Noir: Willamette Valley, very good, nice & light, bright red fruit, some smoke and earth (took one home)
2006 Siduri Russina River Valley Pinot: spicier, fuller, darker fruit
2005 Novy Sonoma County Syrah: vanilla, cherry, cinnamon
2005 Novy Parsons’ Vineyard Syrah: also RRV, smoked meat, licorice, blueberry, earth (another taker)
2005 Novy Rosella’s Vineyard Syrah: Santa Lucia, love the nose, leather and coffee
2005 Novy Nebbiolo: Santa Ynez, very light color, raspberry, pepper, spice, so glad Jody opened it for us, as you don’t find this Italian grape in CA very often
We got to go on a short tour of the production facility, peering in at fermenting grapes. Meanwhile, the cellar crew was busy moving things about and cleaning out tanks. Which, by the way, were named after Dallas Cowboys. Guess you can take the wine lovers out of Texas, but…..