Bella Vineyards & Wine Caves
Sonoma County’s wine-country spans more than a million acres from the Pacific Ocean to the rugged Coast Range, it is truly an amazing and beautiful place to visit. Lately, it’s become increasingly famous for its premium wines, sharing the pedestal with Napa Valley for luxury cult collectibles.
But in Sonoma County, you’re just as likely to stumble across extraordinary wines being crafted out of a backyard setup, which creates an intimate setting in which to enjoy what each vineyard has to offer. Often, it will be the actual winemaker who’s filling your glass, with his or her faithful winery dog sitting nearby. We love that!
Bella Vineyards and wine caves are one of our favorites for some obvious reasons… like their name. You’ll find it at the end of West Dry Creek Road, a narrow, winding county road that curves along the remote hillsides, north of Healdsburg. What really makes Bella a special place to visit for two little pups though is that the tasting room is inside the barrel cellars, within giant caves dug out of the hillside. It’s nice and cool inside, especially on a hot summer day.
The Unleash the Beast Tour will take you deep into the wine caves, where you will learn the science and art of aging wine. Your guide will take you through a sensory station and reveal Bella’s dark secrets as you savor their wines, finishing up with their monster zinfindel, affectionately named, The Beast. To bad pups like us can’t drink wine, it sure did look like everyone was enjoying it.
According to Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate, Bella hit pay-dirt in 2012. Parker points out that the 2012 Barrel 32 is about as good as zinfandel can get.” Bella was also selected as one of Wine & Spirits Magazine's Top 100 Wineries of 2013!
Bella Vineyards cherish’s Sonoma County’s rich history by focusing on using the best fruit from some of the most sought-after vineyards. Lynn and Scott Adams and their family run the winery and are dedicated to handcrafting small lots. The wine makers believe in balance – blending complexity with opulence, nuance with boldness and mind blowing with distinctive.
The winery is located on Lily Hill, where the first vines were planted over 100 years ago by Italian immigrant Adamo Micheli and his young son, Angelo. Angelo and these young vines grew up together and he continued to watch over the land with his own children for the next few decades. Today, Lynn, Scott and their family watch over the vines and are lucky enough to have the soil and the sunshine as a regular part of their days.
My Dad told us that wines here are just delicious with amazing length and texture to complement the fruit and structure, whatever that means. All we know is that they create wines that are mouth filling and memorable based on all the ooh’s and ahh's we heard in the tasting room, plus they a super dog friendly.
Sounds fantastic right? It really was and we hope to run into you on OUR next visit to Bella, so you can see for yourself what we’re raving about. Oh and here’s a tip, bring a picnic lunch and stay awhile after your tour. It’s really nice to relax and play on their tree shaded lawn while you soak up the picturesque beauty of Dry Creek Valley!
Hope to see you soon!
Love, Bella and Lola!
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Bella's Big Adventure is the story of two Little Golden Retrievers whose travels take them all over the country. They visit places they've has always wanted to see and make friends along the way.
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Silver Oak Cellars Wine Tasting
Originally constructed in 1982 by the Lyeth family, the winery we’re visiting in this movie was most recently owned and operated by Silver Oak Cellars, who are now moving to their new Alexander Valley production facility which will open up in early 2018. We were lucky enough to be some of the last guests to visit this beautiful vineyard and tasting room before it changes hands.
Silver Oak Cellars is family-owned and dedicated to producing only Cabernet Sauvignon. Silver Oak was first established in 1972 by Ray Duncan and Justin Meyer. It is currently operated by Ray's sons David Duncan and his brother, Tim Duncan. Silver Oak has two wineries; one in the Napa Valley and one in the Alexander Valley. The Duncan Family also established Twomey Cellars in 1999, named after Ray Duncan’s mother, where they produce Pinot noir, Merlot and Sauvignon blanc. Until the new tasting room in the Alexander Valley opens up, they are pouring Silver Oak wines at the Twomey tasting room in Healdsburg.
Having reached cult status for its Cabernet Sauvignon, it occupies an important niche in California's wine industry. Silver Oak was the vision of Justin Meyer and entrepreneur and oil tycoon. Ray Duncan had purchased Franciscan Vineyards and approached Justin Meyer, whom he’d met through mutual friends, and asked him to plant and manage his vineyards and winery.
Justin agreed, and they started Silver Oak. Named after its location between Oakville and the Silverado Trail in Napa Valley, Justin and Ray’s vision for Silver Oak was to devote all their resources to producing a single wine. Justin's vision was to perfect and make a wine that was 100% Cabernet, no blending.
In 2012, when a beautiful and historic property in the heart of the Alexander Valley became available, David and Tim knew they had to act quick. With breathtaking views and excellent soil profiles for growing high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon, they knew it would be easy make this place their new home.
For more than one-hundred years this new vineyard has been known as one of the finest in Sonoma County. After careful study of the property, they planted more than 70-acres of Cabernet Sauvignon in its outstanding volcanic soil. The winemaking team did extensive research to design the winery, all in pursuit of exceptional cabernet.
The design theme for the new winery is “Framing the Vineyard.” Featuring breathtaking views of the 113-acre estate, the new tasting room will sit on a knoll overlooking the vineyards and winery. From the tasting room, you will have the opportunity to be escorted through the vineyard to the winemaking facility for a unique birds-eye perspective on their winemaking process.
Applying the concept of “reduce, reuse, recycle” to this winery, they are reducing water usage by utilizing a membrane bioreactor to recycle water used during production. The siding on the buildings will be recycled from old growth redwood fermentation tanks. They are also using natural light to minimize electricity use, and solar panels on site will provide the winery with power.
We think its great that they are still making some of our Dads favorite wine, but are now using ecologically friendly techniques to save money and our planet. This is going to be one of our first stops on next years visit to Sonoma’s Wine country and we look forward to seeing you here too!
Enjoy your adventures and we’ll see you soon!
Love, Bella & Lola
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Bella's Big Adventure is the story of two Little Golden Retrievers whose travels take them all over the country. They visit places they've has always wanted to see and make friends along the way.
Comment and like our videos, we always love to hear from you!
We try to post every week on Tuesdays, so please follow us here on Youtube or on one of our other communities at:
Venge Vineyards - Calistoga, California
The Venge (ven-ghee) family has farmed vitis viniferra varieties in Napa Valley for nearly a half-century. The family's viticultural roots flourished in 1976 with the purchase of a 17-acre vineyard in the Oakville District that was planted to Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Nils' son, Kirk Venge, gravitated to winemaking at an early age. He proved to be as talented a winemaker as his father, making wines in his own style, with a vision to build his own legacy in the valley. In 2008, Kirk achieved his lifelong dream and acquired full ownership of Venge Vineyards from his family. Today, Kirk continues the Napa Valley heritage, focusing on select vineyard sites that produce fruit worthy of bearing the Venge family name.
To see my review of Venge Vineyards and pictures check out California Wine Tasting Adventures:
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Laird Family Estate Wines
Visit Laird Family Estate's quality wines are made with the help of consulting winemaker Paul Hobbs and winemaker Julian Gonzales.
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Ridge Zinfandel: Iconic Producer Making Amazing Zinfandel
As we keep on moving with the 50 Glasses of Wine project, it's time to discuss Part 2 of our Zinfandel education, focusing on the iconic California producer, Ridge.
Ridge has been a winery since 1962 and is one of the landmark wineries that has helped shape American wine. While wine got its start in the United States in the mid-to-late 1800's, wine is a relatively recent phenomenon here. Prohibition ostensibly shut down the wine industry for 13 years and the Great Depression helped keep fine wine from emerging. It wasn't until the early 60s that fine wine was being rethought in the US.
Ridge was one of the pioneers that made, and still makes to this day, remarkable fine wines.
What I really like about Ridge is their attention to detail and their transparency. You can see an example of this in every bottle they make as Ridge is perhaps the only winery in the US that lists all of their ingredients on the bottle label. Ridge wants you to know that for the most part their wines consist of hand harvested grapes, naturally occurring yeasts, oak from barrels and sulphur dioxide.
For someone like me who is particularly interested in what goes into the wine I consume, I love this. No guesswork. Just a transparency. Which is refreshing.
But it isn't just the labeling that's great. Ridge flat out makes great wines. Why I've chosen to highlight them for this blog segment is that they are an amazing Zinfandel producer. I can comfortably say that I've never had a bad bottle of Ridge. I just like some better than others (like their Paso Robles).
If you love Zinfandel than you already know about Ridge and the great wines they make. If you haven't yet become a Zin convert, start with Ridge - you won't be disappointed.
As always, until next time, Cheers!
Welcome to Cornerstone Estate Winery
Jerry and Wanda Kopanski founded their charming, family owned winery in 2002. They consistently produce premium wines using their own fruits. Cornerstone focuses on limited productions, resulting in small batches of VQA wines.
Cornerstone has been the recipient of 10 medals at the International Wine Competition in Finger Lakes, New York, and 2 bronze medals at the Canadian Wine Awards for their 2007 Cabernet Franc-Merlot VQA and their 2008 Strawberry Festival Wine. Not to be missed is their 2005 Fine Port which won Best Value Fortified Wine at the 2008 Toronto Wine and Cheese Show. Also look for their new 2009 Chardonnay Musque, which was hand picked and sorted to perfection.
Jerry Kopanski has a well-established agricultural background. Jerry was born and raised on a farm. He attended the University of Agriculture and graduated as a fruit grower specialist. In addition to the Cornerstone vineyards, they also have an extensive fruit tree farm including peaches, cherries, apples, plums, nectarines and apricots.
In 1999, Jerry ambitiously purchased a fruit farm in Beamsville, Ontario; where he painstakingly converted it into a working vineyard. In 2002, he began turning his farm's grapes into a variety of wines. Jerry's winemaking business quickly progressed and, in 2004, he built a brand new facility to increase wine production; and iIn 2005, Jerry proudly opened his new winery to the public.
Jerry Kopanski is married to his wonderful wife, Wanda. The couple live in the Beamsville Ontario area with their three children, who are all currently studying at Brock University. When you visit Cornerstone, you are likely to meet the friendly owners, who are always pleased to discuss all things wine and guide you through an enjoyable tasting of their fine products.
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Ginger Martin Presents | 160 Campbell Creek | Oakville
Welcome to 160 Campbell Creek – An exquisite Oakville Estate. Unparalleled luxury awaits at this prestigious home built in a secluded gated community, minutes from Yountville, CA. Eminently sophisticated and elegant, this incredible home offers 2 master bedroom suites, a home theatre, a gourmet chef’s kitchen, and a formal great room ideal for entertaining. Incredible Napa Valley views make the outdoor living spaces just as inviting as the interior spaces. Amenities also include an impressive wine cave, an outdoor living room, infinity edge pool & spa, covered patios, and two detached Guest Suites above the 2 separate 2-car garages. This Estate is a masterpiece of enduring character and luxury for the ideal Napa Valley lifestyle. - See more at: