Really nice Vinography piece on the Anderson Valley: Poised for Greatness: Tasting The Evolution of Anderson Valley : Vinography
Something is going on in Anderson Valley, and it’s pretty damn exciting.
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Roy Piper had a wonderful post years ago that convinced me to try many wines from the Deep End AVA. So far, I haven’t found anything that wowed me. Maybe I’ll give it another try.
Trying to pull me back in again…
Guess they need to merge with the other one… since I am deficient in SCM pinots and am convinced I can convince you that AV has some real winners, we should arrange a blind tasting of a few when real life fully resumes again.
But these ratings of the pinots strike me as very much at odds with my experiences of the last decade. The order for me would be flipped around quite a bit.
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I found the ratings so homogeneous as to be useless. Notes were pretty grab-bag similar as well.
Love Navarro, Bearwallow Vineyard, Savoy Vineyard and I think the Roederer Estate l’Ermitage Brut is one of the better sparkling wine values in CA.
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New to the board but am quite fond of the Anderson Valley - would be happy to give wine/travel recs to anyone! Navarro is doing great stuff, Husch still produces a number of excellent wines as they are hitting 50 (both the entry level and their old vines pinot are great values in their own ways), and the predominance of family owned wineries generally leads to well-run, friendly tasting rooms
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Glad to see another fan of AV on here. That makes two of us now! We will be out in July again for our 10th straight year and will be looking forward to tasting more broadly like we used to pre-baby!
No luck getting out for Pinot fest in May?
Anyway, July’s a lovely time to be there. Usually much milder than over the hill in Sonoma county. If you haven’t been to handley, their wines are really shining the last few vintages. And Boonville Road wines have caught my eye - I need to get up and taste myself!
No…no…nothing to see here. All desolate and pretentious wineries without merit…and they speak funny languages as well (Boont??). Please stay south and west, go visit the chaos of Paso and enjoy the masses…nothing here in AV.
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We go there when it is too hot here. Also tends to coincide with the Roederer picnic that we really like to attend. Have loved handleys wines over the years although never found them to be singular. Met the little handley guy at the hotel last year! Saw something about Boonville road and was intrigued too (cole ranch Riesling — Phillips hill is making theirs from cole ranch now too!).
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Honestly no one except us weirdos who actually care about wine will ever make the effort to traverse 128! The first time I did it was almost my last…
Once got caught in a speed trap on 128, Boonville I think. Lovely drive. Too fun for me, it turns out.
I have a tremendous fondness for Anderson Valley which I’ve now visited 3 times. Of all of the California appelations I’ve visited (Sonoma, Napa, Santa Ynez, Paso and Santa Barbara) AV feels the most intimate and beautiful in its own way.
Make sure to visit Foursight as they make a lot of age worthy pinot noir. I might be confusing it with another winery, but Navarro seemed to be making 30 different wines and I didn’t quite find them to be memorable. They let us taste whichever wines we wanted to pick as well which was amazing, but we passed after 5 or so. I need to revisit as I trust a lot of recommendations on this board.
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Love the way you phrased this, Bryan. The scenery is stunning and you often feel like you have the valley to yourself…
We have visited and purchased from Foursight a number of times - Joe and family are doing great work. I haven’t had some of their earlier bottles but the zero new oak Pinot is always a favorite.
For Navarro: they do make a million things, but I personally return to what AV does best overall when tasting or purchasing, namely Pinots and aromatic whites. Their “ancient method” Pinot is among the best values in Anderson Valley, and the dessert wines are stunning. I had a 25+ year old bottle of their late harvest Riesling and it blew me away.
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Yeah Navarro does very well with aromatic whites. Muscat, Riesling, and Gewurztraminer are nearly foolproof picks. The AM and Deep End Pinots do age quite well. Had a 2006 deep end a couple years ago and found it the most complete Pinot I’ve had from them. And the Cluster Select sweeties are awesome. Have had late 90s and late 80s Riesling in the last couple years also that were very very good.