Big Things Come in Little Packages
A statue of St. Francis of Assisi stands at St. Francis Vineyards. Franciscan monks were the first to plant wine vineyards in California in the 1770's.
Finding the small wineries that are driven by a passion for making great wine… no matter what the market trends may tell them.
Thursday was our first full day in Kenwood. After breakfast our host gave us a great tour of his home and property (pictures coming later) along with some history on its renovation back to its original craftsman style.
Soon after we pushed off, heading north - first stop St. Francis Winery and Vineyards.
St. Francis is a beautiful facility paying homage to its namesake from Assisi, Umbria. We tasted a nice selection of wines, enjoyed the views, the beautiful Italian-style architecture, and then moved along.
Continuing north towards Santa Rosa we charted a back country route that looped back south along Bennett Valley Road. This route is a must if you want to experience the Sonoma County countryside. Along the way we stumbled upon one of our destinations, Loxton Winery. Loxton is housed in a nondescript, industrial looking facility. In fact, before it was a winery the building was a garage for a local racing car team. At Loxton there are no marble floors, statues, or large merchandise spaces. In fact, production, retail, and merchandising are all in one space - literally, what you see is exactly what you get. This is small-scale winemaking at its best and the proof is in the bottle. We sampled a number of Loxton’s wines and what we tasted was a commitment to making good wine driven by passion not current market fashion. Chris Loxton, owner and winemaker, sweats the details in every phase of his craft, and it shows. His wines truly reflect the nuances of the vineyards from which he purchases his grapes. I believe the essence of his skills lie in his ability to get the most out of the fruit - to not over-produce
Look behind you from the tasting counter and you'll see staff members at Loxton Winery crafting their 2009 vintage.
the wine into something that it shouldn’t be. Loxton’s zinfandels defy popular trends - they are not overly fruity and the alcohol level has been well managed resulting in a wine that is flavor nuanced and food friendly. This is the zinfandel that I hoped to find when I came to Sonoma. I wasn’t sure if it existed anymore, but it does, rare as it is. It’s readily apparent that Loxton puts the beauty into the bottle and not the tasting room, which is great, because that’s where I want my money to go.
Next on our journey was Wellington Vineyards, literally the next driveway down from Loxton. Wellington, another small family-owned winery, holds dear the same wine making philosphy as Loxton (in fact, Chris Loxton worked at Wellington before branching out on his own). Small lots, hand-crafted wines, focus on the fruit, beautiful, elegant flavors. One of my favorites was their Noir de Noirs, an old vine selection of deep, dark fruit quality - so dark I spent the rest of the day with purple-stained teeth! But, it was so good I chose to bring one home.
Our last wine stop was Benzinger Family Winery. Don’t let the name fool you - it may be owned by the family but this place breathes corporate. I do give them credit for their commitment to biodiverse farming, but it feels as if they’ve taken this too far to the side of marketing chic. The wines were certainly good but I can’t help but think that part of what the customer pays goes towards financing the edu-tainment facet of the facilities.
The big guys in California wine country tend to get the attention, and that’s okay, but when I’m traveling from east to west I want to experience what the wine craftsman has to offer - what I can’t buy back at the hometown wine store. Loxton… Wellington… you two are the Davids in this wine world of Goliaths.
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