Stryker

‘05 Rockpile Vineyard

Cabernet Sauvignon

$44.00 a bottle

I was very excited to find another winery that made Rockpile wines since my favorite wines come from this appellation. To my surprise Stryker winery in Alexander Valley makes a few different varietals from this appellation. This is definitely my kind of winery. The winery is located in the heart of the beautiful Alexander Valley. Their winery deck has some incredible vineyard veiws. You can definitely find serenity here. A couple weeks ago I was able to visit Stryker and meet for the first time one of my twitter friends Brian, who works there. It was great to finally meet him and he was very generous in letting me try all of their Rockpile wines. It was no surprise that after tasting all of them that their 05 Rockpile Cabernet Sauvignon was my favorite. Stryker’s Rockpile Vineyard is located 25 miles west of Lake Sonoma and 10 miles east of the Pacific Ocean at an elevation of 1900 feet. This high elevation and shallow red rocky soil stresses the vines and produces a grape so intense and rich with flavor. This is why I love RockPile wines so much. The aromas of this cabernet are of pepper and tobacco. First tasting of bell pepper and spice. This wine definitely has that genuine earthy smooth cabernet finish. Huge structure with this wine. Very hardy and screams to be paired with a great steak. This 05 Stryker Cabernet comes highly recommend. Stryker also makes other great RockPile wines which include a Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot.

J. Keverson

Alton Lane Vineyard

07’ Russian River Valley

Zinfandel

$35.00 a bottle

J. Keverson winery is located in the heart of Sonoma County wine country in Healdsburg, California. J. Keverson winery is a small winery producing only 1300 cases a year. Making chardonnay, pinot noir, sangiovese, and zinfandel. This small winery all began several years ago with four friends and a game of bocce ball. These four friends John, Kevin, Scott, and Doug would meet up for bocce ball games and drink wine. Their love of good wine lead these four to venture together into the wine making business which all started in a garage. This foursome soon learned that they were actually very good at making wine and within a matter of time outgrew the garage.
A few weeks ago I was able to visit J. Keverson winery for the first time and taste their wines with the wine maker John Hazlewood. Again I am not a big zinfandel fan but I instantly fell in love with his Alton Lane Zinfandel. This 2007 zinfandel was a gold medal winner at the 2009 Sonoma County Harvest Fair. The aromas of this wine are wonderful! Very floral with lots of deep berries and spice. At first tasting lots of berries but very dry not sweet or jammy. Finishing with a very elegant creamy finish, very smooth with low acidity. There are very few zinfandels I like but this J. Keverson Alto Lane Zinfandel comes very highly recommended. This 2010 Sonoma County Harvest Fair Left J. Keverson winery with 9 medals one being a best of class with their 08 Starkey’s Court Zinfandel. This wine is a definitely a must try!