Summer in February

After a much needed month of rain, we are in the midst of a serious couple of days of fantastic weather. IT has been in the high 60's/low 70's since Friday and I am loving it!

This past weekend in Anderson Valley was beautiful, and the event was a lot of fun and very well done, kudos to the Anderson Valley for organizing such a fantastic event.

I was solo for the weekend so was pretty busy and unable to taste a whole lot of wines. We had very good response to the 2 Gewürztraminers we were pouring.

Some favorite wines, other than ours of course (!)-

Riesling- Chateau Grand Traverse (From Old Mission Penninsula, MI) love their Whole Cluster Riesling (mark my words this region will be THE premier region for Riesling in the US in 10 years, better than anything from CA by far.

Chehalem Corral Creek Riesling is also the example of the Willamette style.

Gewurz- Navarro is always on eof my favorites along with Claiborne and Churchill and Londer.

Pinot Gris- Had a nice example from La Crema, using Carneros fruit.

Muscat- Again Navarro, their 2006 Dry Muscat is so unique and interesting.

The event seems to be growing every year, both in consumer and in wineries involved. There were wineries from Alsace, New Zealand, Michigan, Washington, Oregon and California represented. Riesling has been growing in popularity lately and this may have been reflected in the larger turnouts. Hopefully some of that will rub off on Gewürztraminer!

We were treated to great and traditional Alsatian cuisine all weekend: including loads of charcuterie and excellent flat-bread.

The real treat of my stay was my lodging, and i am hesitant to spread this around for fear of not being able to stay there myself! Mary Anne Wilcox runs Holly Hill Farm and her new Hillside Cottage, where i stayed, and her Guesthouse are both very well appointed and comfortable places to stay in an area where lodging is scarce. The cottage has excellent modern but comfortable decor and all the amenities one could want. I highly recommend a stay there if you happen to travel that way.