Anderson Valley Wineries

Mendocino offers friendly, informal tastings and fine wines

Though Napa and Sonoma get most of the attention, other counties in California have their winemaking charms, too.

One county that gets little attention is also one of the most interesting. 

Mendocino County lies north of Sonoma along the wild and cold Pacific Coast. It’s largely mountainous, with two areas ideal for growing grapes: a warm large inland valley and adjoining valleys stretched along the Russian River and cool Anderson Valley along the Navarro River close to the coast.

The Anderson Valley is better known, particularly for its cool-climate pinot noirs, chardonnays, gewürztraminers and sparkling wines. 

It’s one of California’s coolest growing regions, and winemakers there sometimes make their wines right on the edge of ripening.

The long valley, however, has climates from warm to very cool; the area closest to the Pacific is ideal for growing grapes for sparkling wines. Its Roederer Estate and sister Scharffenberger wineries producing some of the best such wines outside Champagne (and to my taste, just as desirable). Handley also makes excellent sparklers, too.

Aside from sparkling wines, the best-known winery is Navarro, a cult-like winery that sells out its wines directly to customers through a quirky mailing. 

A few wineries are a bit more buttoned down, like Duckhorn’s Goldeneye, but in general, Anderson Valley is home to, shall we say, a number of aging hippies whose wineries are a throwback to another era. 

That’s not too surprising, for the county’s largest crop is marijuana, and it seems that most people there just get by or else have wads of cash to buy Cadillac Escalades and other luxuries.

The wineries, however, are friendly and informal, and most make excellent wines. 

One, Maple Creek is actually on the way to Anderson Valley in the York Highlands; its sports painter-owner Tom Rodrigues is the host.

Couloir Roma's Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir 2009 ...

Coincidence that I am therefore in Park City talking about his wines!

The Couloir Roma’s Vineyard Pinot Noir is neither fined or filtered, practices which are used to clarify and stabilize a wine. The reason fining / filtration is so widely adopted can probably be blamed on consumers, as they generally don’t want to see a cloudy wine.

The process is often risky, as a winemaker runs the risk of green or stemmy flavors in the wine derived from the vine stalks. If you have ever chewed on a grape stalk you’ll know the flavor! However if you get it right, the wine will show complexity and uniqueness. Think of it like adding salt to soup; without it your soup will be dull and generally lifeless. This is why winemaker Jon Grant only uses a 50% whole cluster fermentation, so as not to “over season” the wine.

Only 145 cases of the Roma’s Vineyard Pinot were made (therefore expect this wine to sell out quickly).

Anderson Valley in Mendocino County certainly doesn’t have the Californian notoriety of Napa or Sonoma, but the wines can certainly go head-to-head in terms of quality.

Roma’s Vineyard is located at 1,850 feet on a mountaintop ridge. The vineyard was originally planted in 1990 for sparkling wine production, but a couple of years later was adapted for still wines. The vines are now almost approaching 20 years old.

Because Couloir is such a new and small operation, Jon employs Ardzooni Vineyard Management , a company that basically takes care of the vineyards he sources from. Ardzonni place a big emphasis on sustainability and organic farming. They also pick their grapes in the dead of night when it’s cooler, so that grapes are fresher, crisper and still full of life.

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