Dry Creek Vineyards

​There’s an old adage, ‘be careful what you wish for, your wishes might come true,’ that sticks in my mind when I think about the first winery we visited on our latest adventure in Sonoma.  Why?  Well, it was cold and rainy on our first visit for the annual barrel tasting – something they order up every year.  So, naturally, I wished for warm, sunny weather on this trip, and my wish was granted – in spades.  You see it was very sunny and very warm – well, very hot is the proper term.  Unfortunately, our first stop was at Dry Creek Vineyards, located in the Dry Creek region of Sonoma (duh!).  Unfortunately because there is not a lot of shade in the Dry Creek facility, and other groups had it.  Hence, the only place they could put us was on their patio with small umbrellas providing the only shade.  Pretty uncomfortable.  Beautiful facility though….

​Fortunately, the wine was very good.  Dry Creek is one of the better producers of wines made from the Zinfandel grape, and they have a very nice gang of Zins that they offer, as you can see on the lists below:

​The visit was also very informative.  Our server filled us in on the story of Meritage, a term used to describe wine blends similar to those produced in Bordeaux.  These blends are usually Cabernet Sauvignon-based (left bank of Bordeaux – think Chateau Margaux) or Merlot-based (right bank of Bordeaux – from areas such as Pomerol and St. Emillion).  As the story goes, unable to call their wines “Bordeaux Blends,” some California winemakers decided that they needed their own name.  After years of reviewing potential names – or maybe it was minutes, not really sure because by the time we got to this part of the story I was fully baked – they came up with the name Meritage.  The name, by the way, is protected.
I did not purchase any wine from Dry Creek.  Given the wines we encountered on the rest of the trip this was a great decision on my part.