As some of you may know, Sarah and I recently returned from an anniversary trip to Sonoma and Napa. We had a wonderful time and drank some outstanding wine.

As a result, I thought I would highlight the top five wines we tasted during our trip. A couple of things about me as a wine drinker before we begin. I am a bit of wine snob. I will not drink most of the mass market labels that are out there. I also love finding smaller vineyards that might not distribute to the East Coast. For some reason, I enjoy these wines more. Maybe it’s because I know that someone (or some family) have put a lot of effort into the grape growing, harvesting, fermenting, and bottling process. The same cannot be said for the mass labels that sell for a couple of bucks in the grocery store.

So here are the top 5 that we tasted during our trip (feel free to ask for other favorites that we did not have on this trip, I am happy to share :)):

1. 2007 Kunde Family Estate Viognier

For those of you who are not familiar with the Viognier grape, it is used to produce a light, white wine that has numerous hints of fruit. It is wonderful for a hot summer day and matches well with seafood and light pastas with cream sauce. We enjoyed the 2007 Kunde Viognier at the Girl and the Fig in Sonoma. It matched well with my black cod and Sarah’s grilled cheese sandwich. At about $24 a bottle (higher in restaurants) and with a screw top, it would be very easy to take on a picnic.

2. 2006 Harvest Moon Zinfindel Russian River Valley

For us, our visit to Harvest Moon was a repeat stop from a trip to Sonoma in March 2006. At that time, we tasted and loved Harvest Moon’s Randy Zin. Named after the winemaker Randy Pitts, the Randy Zin is a smooth, fun wine that is drinkable now or can be held for a couple of years. Zin’s can be very big (with lots of tannin’s) and are paired well with meat an dark chocolate. This time, we bought both the 2007 Randy Zin and the 2006 Russian River Valley Zin. Here are the tasting notes for the Russian River Valley Zin.

Pale in color and light in body, this blend of 100% Zinfandel showcases classic Russian River Valley Zin with bright red-fruit aromas, a lively mouth feel and a medley of cran-cherries and tart raspberries intertwined with just the right amount of toasty wood on the finish. Look forward to enjoying this wine from early 2008 forward.

3. 2006 Luxton Vineyards Syrah

Luxton was our best find of the trip. This is a small winery operated by Australian Chris Luxton that specializes in Syrah (Shiraz in Australia). Dr. Luxton grew up on a vineyard in Australia and brings his knowledge to these outstanding wines. This wine is $28 a bottle and is available only at the winery (or their website). I think that he can explain the wine better than I can:

I like the blending exercise involved in assembling the Hillside Syrah. The goal is to make a wine that is better than the individual parts and to bring out the best facet of each lot. I want the final blend to be a complex and seamless expression of what I think Syrah should be. For this 2006 version, the main components are 46% from Sonoma Mountain’s Rubaiyat vineyard, 10% from Sonoma Valley’s Parmelee-Hill vineyard and then from the Russian River Valley we have 20% from the Dos Aguilas vineyard (that I helped plant) and 16% from the Archer vineyard. The blend has wonderful color, shows some of the peppery and black fruit of Syrah and has a long and seamless finish and excellent balance. This is a wonderful wine with food. 376 cases produced.

4. Wellington Vineyards 2006 Grenache Sonoma Valley Estate

The Grenache grape is one, I am told, that was until recently used to blend with other grapes. We have enjoyed Grenache since the owner of the Wine Garage in Calistoga, CA suggested one to us about 5 years ago. We had this bottle at Cafe La Haye in Sonoma the first night of our trip. We picked this wine in an attempt to pick a single wine for my halibut and Sarah’s steak. While it might have been a little heavy, overall the flavors matched well with both dishes and the chocolate dessert we shared. It has some cherry, raspberry, plum, and pepper overtones.

5. Goosecross Cellars

This might be our single favorite vineyard in either Sonoma or Napa. If that is the case, you might ask why it isn’t it number 1? Basically, it isn’t number one, because I could choose a single wine they make that I like the best and I wanted to highlight individual wines as much as possible. Currently, we have four bottles of Goosecross in our wine fridge: a 2004 Viognier, a 2007 Chardonnay, a 2007 Lake County Sauvignon Blanc, and a 2006 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Each was outstanding during our tasting and we are looking forward to trying each one again.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. It is my goal to post short reviews of bottles we have in the future. In these posts (which will include when we drink the bottles mentioned above that have not already been consumed) I will try and include where you can purchase these wines, their cost, what we ate with them and my general thoughts.

Enjoy!