We were looking for some new wines tonight to go with some Gluten Free pizzas loaded with sauce, manchego cheese, olives, and organic pepperoni. The first one we uncorked (actually unscrewed– we are not cork snobs) was apparently rated an 89 by Wine Spectator.

It’s an Aussie blend 60% Shiraz and 40% Cabernet that we got for $12.99 at the Edgewood Road HyVee in Cedar Rapids. They claim on the label that their high-elevation wine estate produces small clusters of grapes with dark “inky” color (hence the name).

It is no secret that we are fans of big, bold spicy reds, and the Inkberry Mountain Estate fills that bill in spades. Aromatic and complex fruit with some pepper.

We rank this wine a resounding “drink it!”

bottles of wine, I can really say that I have only had 2 bottles of what I had

considered wine that had gone bad and had actually been “corked”. Drinking

a sip of corked wine is something you will never forget once it has happened to

you, trust me on that! It doesn’t mean that the cork has slipped, moved, let in

damaging air (because all corks can do that) but in fact it means that the cork

has been attacked by fungi in the presence of chlorine used in the manufacture of

wine corks. Bluntly, it tastes like hell! You will spit and throw it away or return it

to the place you bought it, if recently purchased, and want to ram it up one of the

assorted orifices of their body. It’s bad.

What I want to relay is what the cork can do to your stored wine, subtlety. You

can detect something different but you can’t put your finger on it. It happens to

everyone who likes a certain wine, buys a supply of it for your home, and then

something happens and the next bottle doesn’t taste the same as the last ones.

What happened? Did my taste or memory of how it was supposed to taste change?

Possibly, but more than likely, the cork messed around with the wine and affected

the taste from the last bottle you tried. Years ago, there was a brewery in

Dubuque, Iowa called the Dubuque Star Brewery. It was an old, very small facility

and it had a reputation, other than being dirt cheap, that the beer never tasted the

same in any two different bottles. Well, that can happen to a wine that is bottled

and stored with a natural cork (tree bark for God’s sake) stuck in its top.

The cork is porous as it has veins and fissures running through it and even though

it is squeezed fairly tight in the neck of the bottle, it can still shrink allowing

movement, saturate and let fluid permeate it causing leaking and let air (oxygen)

into the wine letting it change in flavor in a bad way. Have you ever gone into a

huge barrel room in a winery? With all those wooden barrels, what is the first thing

you smell in the sealed barrel room? Wine! What is the color of the barrel in the

middle of its side around the “bung” plug made of wood or cork? Red wine stain.

That wine is breathing during the barrel fermentation. A wine bottle is a small

barrel with a natural stopper – cork. It will, at some time, be susceptible to all the

nasty things that can happen to natural cork. For that reason, when you store wine

in a too warm of a place at home (my favorite horrible place that I see people store

wine on the top of a warm, vibrating refrigerator) you will see the wine age quicker.

It will have pressures that are not to be considered normal and the wine will not

hold and mature as it should in cool dark place like a cellar.

People that store wine with a cork in it standing up in a cupboard is also a real

problem sitting there waiting to happen. Wine is heavy, air is light, the cork dries

out and you have bad wine. Don’t do it. Sunlight is bad too but that is another

addition to be attacked later.

What is the bottom line? Buy wine to drink within a reasonable time. If you drink

it soon, you can darn near store it any place and any way you want with little or no

chance of damage or premature aging. If, however, you are going to buy a case

and want to drink it over the next few months, store it in a dark, cool place on its

side like an internal closet or wardrobe. Even in the refrigerator is better that on

top of it! If you don’t want it to change as fast but store it longer at home, buy

good wines with screw caps. Don’t knock it – they really, really work! Ask the

Australians!

Vitoria. It is located just north of the fine wine region of Rioja, where most of the

great reds are grown using the Tampranillo and Granacha verities of grapes. I

arrived there in late afternoon and was greeted by a very fun and interesting guy

and a couple of his co-workers who insisted that we go out for meal at 8:45PM,

which is really late for this old “poop” to eat anything. We drove across the city

to a favorite spot of his and were seated at table in the back and not speaking

any Spanish, I let him order for the 4 of us. They asked if I had ever had the

opportunity to enjoy the local wine, rioja? Not ever having been introduced to it, I

told him no, but I was really looking forward to trying it. He asked me to pick one

from the wine list and I really smiled and pushed it back to him with the admission

that I had no clue as to what I was looking at. He graciously accepted the duty

and ordered a magnum that was from a local bodega which did not export wine

out of the country. (Oh Great! I’ll never get to taste anything like this again!)

The meal of calamari, prawns and Spanish thin cut cured ham was wonderful but

the wine was magnificent! I had never, ever had anything even close to it. They

could tell by my expressions that I was instantly in love with it. My host spoke

absolutely flawless English so the Rioja wine region stories began to fly fast and

furious. I learned where the region was, the types of grapes, the cheap prices and

all about the “bodegas” or wineries that were located only a stone’s-throw from

where we were dining. It was a great evening and I was totally hooked on rioja.

Over the next two evenings, we went pub crawling at the “tapas” bars, eating

wonderful inexpensive hot Spanish food and each pub had cheap glasses of rioja.

It was all fantastic. On the final day together, after all the meetings, I was taken

for a restaurant that we had actually eaten at the day before. I thought it a

bit funny that in a city as big as Vitoria, we would return to the same place for

lunch. We were taken in and then I was lead down three flights of stone steps

in this old building to the owner’s “private wine cellar”. Oh my God! What was

this place? There were probably 500 different cells, each with 10-20 bottles of the

finest Rioja wine in them in the country. Again when asked which one I wanted

to try, I politely declined and stated that I wanted to rely on their experience and

knowledge of this fantastic wine and they should pick it. They chose 2 different

bottles from the endless racks of wine and we were brought all sorts of “starters”

of fish, vegetables and crackers to have with the wine, which was absolutely

amazing. I thought that was great and a good way to have a light lunch, but I was

not finished! The lights came on in the next room off the cellar and we moved into

a completely lavishly set table and were set down to a 5 course meal. The food

was out of this world and the wine just kept flowing. It was an amazing “once in a

lifetime” experience.

When I returned to the UK I was skeptical about being able to find a good “Rioja”

or if I could afford it if I did find it. Soooo! Back to the little pocket wine guide by

Ned Halley. Guess what? I looked under the section of “Spain” and there were

several Rioja’s listed. Off to the store I went and picked up a couple for only £4 -

£7. I opened the first one at home for my wife and I and it was simply wonderful.

Another new wine adventure! We have since found 2-3 vintages that we really

enjoy for very cheap prices. The wine rack is filling up!

wine store that I would give up on French wines forever! I really felt that way

too, and did not want to break my resolution. I had been reading my little pocket

guide “The Best Wines in the Super Markets 2010” by Ned Halley and he is really

listing a few French ones that I felt now obligated to try. Hmmmm! What to do???

I went back to Tesco (still my local handy super market) and spotted the French

red from St Emilion. It was rated a “10” and the Tesco corp. bottled it under their

name “Finest St Emilion 2007”. The write up stated that, “Cunningly contrived new

era claret of epic weight and concentration with toffee hints of new-oak ageing is

also elegant and poised, alive with vivid fruit. Fabulous! £8.99

I was always taught that if it looked and sounded too good to be true, it probably

was! I was wrong! This wine was absolutely wonderful! An entire new taste to me

and both my wife and I really liked it. I bought more and we like it enough to keep

it stocked at home.

Now that I had some trust in the fact that France may have some good wines, I

looked at a “10” from the list of white wines at Tesco. I found one called “Tesco

White Burgundy 2007”. “Lots of lemon-gold color in this convincing apple-pie

Maconnais; pure uncorked Chardonnay of great character. Cheap! £5.89

Again, it went home with me to try, with a bit of skepticism with the country, the

price and the screw-cap, and once again, I was wonderfully surprised! It was really

good. I’ve since stocked and served this to many guests with the same review.

The toffee apple taste and the not too acid, not too sweet – just right taste is a

winner with everyone who tries it.

I am recanting what I declared about the French wines earlier in my journey to the

UK, but still am skeptical about the expensive reds I thought I had to purchase to

be a good tasting wine. The fact is that there are tons of good wine out there at a

very reasonable price. Taking advice from others on personal wine tastes is risky

and usually never agrees with what we like ourselves, but this little guide is for the

common person with a “mildly discerning pallet” that goes along with the last book

I read, “Life’s Too Short to Drink Bad Wine!” I agree – therefore I press on.

months so it was basically starting over setting up housekeeping, finding barbers,

dentists, grocery shopping and of course an entire new world of wines to purchase.

US wines are almost non-existent on the UK shelves and they are loaded with tons

of French, Spanish, New Zealand, Italian and Australian varieties. Where do you

start? How much should they cost? Nothing is familiar!

I’d tried a couple of wines in the super markets, usually a pinot noir, and it was just

OK. I spent time in a small town in the “Midlands” north of Birmingham and while

there, I spotted a small wine/liqueur shop and wandered in. The wine I had been

buying at the grocery was running around £5 - £9 ($8 - $10) so the prices in this

shop were quite a bit higher. I expected this as well as the quality to be quite a

bit higher. I visited with the establishment owner at great length about my love of

pinot noir in the states and he strongly suggested one or two from France as they

do make the best wines in the world! (According to him!) I bought a bottle for £21

and trudged back to my hotel room, procured a glass from the bathroom, pulled the

cork and poured a glass. The color was great, the nose was OK and it tasted like

the worst cheap pinot I had ever had. The vow was, “never French wine again!”

Soon after that fiasco, I wandered into a large book store in downtown Brighton

and found a section on wines. I picked up a copy of Ned Halley’s “The Best Wines

in the Super Markets 2010” and started to thumb through it. It looked just like

what I was looking for as my budget is more tailored for the supermarket costs and

their large variety rather than the costly boutique wine stores in England. It was

set up by store and then broken down into reds, pink, white and sparkling brands

further grouped by country as well. I bought it, headed home and started to read.

Once into it, I realized it was no good to me unless I actually tried these wines for

myself. He rated them on a 10 point scale where 7-8 were good enough to have

people try, 9 was very good and certainly one to give a go at and the 10’s which

were few, are really great, in his estimation. I circled the reds that had 10’s in the

section marked “Tesco” which was the closest large supermarket close to me and

went there for a try of a couple of these wines. I only found one, an Aussie red,

but it was only £5.95, so I bought it and off we went home to give it a try.

It was wonderful! Great nose, fruity soft start and a velvet finish and only £6!

Eureka! I had struck gold! This is the price range I could afford, easy to get and

enjoy. I then took the magic little book and found all the 10’s (of which there were

28 of the 120 wines he reviewed) and circled them with plans to check out all the

local market chains in the area to try anything I found to see what we really liked.

I circled reds and whites and started to sample many of them. I soon found out

that my taste and the taste of the author were pretty much the same.

I’d recommend this plan to anyone who enjoys wine, ends up in the UK for

any length of time and does not want to waste time and money. It’s fun!

There are few times in life, mine anyway, when you get the chance to drink a cabernet that is 24 years old.  Now most things that I have read about the taste of old wine is probably not good unless one; you know exactly what you are drinking and two; how that wine has been stored over its many years of bottled life.  Many articles that I have read warn about developing a taste for “old wines”.  They are definitely different in structure, flavor, texture and color.  

I hark back 30 years ago to when my wife and I had a rack of wine, (6 bottles on top of the china cabinet), in our dining room.  

(Andrew now has this 6 bottle walnut wine rack made by his dad holding wine in the living room) 

It was clearly displayed in the “good light” and all six were chosen for the brightly colored foil, each one different, so it looked really “neat”.   We were moving from that home and in packing up those old bottles we decided to try one that had been given to us by some friends.  They had stopped in a “winery” in Minnesota on their vacation years ago.  It was a red, that’s all I remember.  Wine is supposed to get better with age, right?  I pulled out the flakey rotten cork which disintegrated the minute I stuck the corkscrew into it.  I destroyed the cork and had to strain the chunks of cork with a tea strainer from the drawer in the kitchen that housed all the utensils and gadgets that we hardly ever used and should probably be thrown away.  While performing this rather disheartening task, I noticed the smell coming from the “brown” liquid I was trying to remove the “pieces” out of.  It reminded me a lot of the medicine that my Mom used to pour on any of my open cuts that burned like hell when I was a kid, but was always reminded that “it had to be done to clean and disinfect the wound”.  Pew! 

I poured out an ounce or so in a glass, brought it up to my lips slowly took a little sip.  Holy Crap!  It tasted worse than it smelled!  The stinky remains went immediately down the kitchen sink and I vowed to never try old wine again!  Yuck! 

Many years have passed and my appreciation for good wine has grown, as well as my curiosity of all great wines that are said to be candidates for laying down for aging.  First of all, I could never afford to buy a great old wine to try anyway.  That brings me to the fun part of this story.  We are friends with a retired couple from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who spend 3 months renting a unit in our condo complex from January to March each winter.  We’ve become very close friends and share a common bond in our passion for good wine, especially at affordable prices.  A really cool sidelight to this relationship is that their daughter is a very successful head wine maker with the William / Selyem Winery on the Russian River south of Healdsburg, California.  She had originally interned with Mondovi and has held chief winemaking duties at Freemark Abbey and Clois du Bois.  While at Freemark Abbey, she had sent her parents a bottle of 1985 cabernet, writing on the label in pen, “The Good Stuff”, when she sent it.  He had saved it all these years (24 to be exact) and brought it to Florida with them this winter to share with my wife and me.   

Now, admittedly, I was a bit worried about several things with this wine.  Was it stored properly?  Would it be “corked”?  What would I say if tasted really bad?

They brought it over one evening and I carefully removed the foil and screwed the corkscrew into the old cork, but did not see any previous leakage or badly discolored cork.  I slowly pulled it out.  Oh Crap!  Two thirds of the top of the cork had split away from the bottom of the cork and came out with the corkscrew!  What remained in the neck was dark stained but looked to be solid and did not crumble into the bottle.  I carefully screwed the cork screw through what remained and very gently and slowly pulled it out.  It came out clean and did not leave any cork pieces in the bottle.  Whew!  What a relief! 

The smell was of wine, not sour or vinegar, with a hint of “medicine” or slight bitter aroma, but not offensive,  Now was when all my recent reading on what to expect in viewing, smelling and tasting “old wine” kicked in and what I should expect.  I poured a very small portion into a large balloon glass and gave it to my guest for him to taste it first.  He sipped slowly and certainly a bit apprehensively, but quickly reported that most assuredly tasted of wine and was “not too bad”.   

Now it was my turn to taste it.  With a small pour for myself, I swirled it and carefully smelled it again.  It still was a pleasant aroma with just that hint of alcohol.  I sipped it and held it on my tongue in my mouth.  It was actually very smooth and the taste was very good – different – but very good.  I carefully decanted the rest of the bottle and was cautious to pour carefully to leave all the sediment in the bottle.  The four of us each took a small pour into our glasses and shared a toast and all of us enjoyed the “old wine tasting” experience.  We studied the color, the nose and the smooth taste.  The wives both agreed it was good but would rather share a bottle of point noir, which I dutifully opened for them to enjoy. 

Then it happened; the conversation was literally flying while reminiscing their daughter’s past in the wine making business, so not much more of the wine had been tasted of  several minutes.  I swirled my glass again and inhaled another long aromatic pull from my glass, tasted it again and held the mouthful in my mouth for a long time.  Wow!  It had changed!  I guess this is what the experts mean when old wine is opened and allowed to breath and “open up” letting the oxygen mix with the wine.  It was amazingly wonderful!  What a fantastic experience!  There was another full glass left for my friend and for me, and we gladly finished the remainder, savoring the taste as each sip became better to the very end. 

I will probably never get a chance to enjoy an old bottle of great wine like that again, and I guarantee I’ll never forget it!  What a fun evening a great wine and great friends.  I can’t thank them enough for the enough for the experience.  I’m sure we’ll continue to share good wine and great times with them for years to come.

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

This is the 18h installment find the 1st one here

We have had several different styles of wine glasses in our home over the 38 year of marriage and until recently, we have never paid much attention to what we were drinking out of.  We do have the red wine (balloons) ever since my friend pointed out, “You need to drink reds out a glass like that and not the skinny ones!” We had had the white wine glasses since we first moved here.  I admit that since purchasing the balloons, we really enjoy drinking the reds from them rather than the other glasses. 

Last spring, when my wife and I attended the Wine Spectator’s “Grand Tour” in Las Vegas, we were each handed a glass to use for the tasting event.  I noticed the name “Ridel” was etched on the base.  As I have mentioned in an earlier writing, we thoroughly enjoyed that tasting event, so we naturally opted to take our glasses home with us to Florida to use as “extras”. 

It always amazes me as to what I can find to read about in wine books and magazines.  I recently read an article about the “Ridel” glass and its very unique characteristics.  It explained the microscopic irregularities in the interior of the surface of the glass that enabled the better break-up of the wine molecules to add oxygen when you swirl it in the glass, The perfect shape of the cabernet designed glass to aid in capturing the full “nose” of the wine as you taste it, the size of the bowl and length of the stem, all making it easier to handle and drink from to get the most flavor and sensations from the wine.  Then I priced the set of two glasses in a local store and realized they were almost $50.00.  Holy Crap!  Why would I spend that much for two glasses no mater what they did to enhance the wine? 

Funny thing though, we started to drink out of the complimentary “Ridel” glasses from the “Grand Tour” and not the balloons anymore.  Then it happened!  I broke one against the granite countertop.  Talk about an explosion!  There were little chards of glass all over the kitchen and the dining room as well. It blew up like a grenade! Both of us agreed that this was good crystal.  Now was when the little arguments started.  My wife would say, “You always get the “Ridel” glass!  I want to drink out of it!” 

A few days later came another amazing comment from her.  “We should probably buy a pair of those good “Ridel” cabernet glasses.”  I never thought I’d ever hear her say that!  Of course, I went right out and shelled out the cash for a pair of the “Vinium” cabernet/shiraz shaped glasses.  We love them and both of us acknowledged that they are very much superior to all other glasses and if one broke, we’d be right back for another one!  No more of that argument!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

Traveling for a large company as I do, takes me to some really strange, wonderful and interesting places.  On just that type of a 3 day trip to do “all-day” meetings I ended up in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the fall of 2007.  I stumbled onto a local winery when I was unconsciously thumbing through the rack of pamphlets and brochures for the local area near the elevator at the hotel, mostly out of boredom, waiting for it to come back down to the lobby.  One caught my eye as it was a winery/tasting room/restaurant not far from the hotel and meeting facility. 

I mentioned my little “find” to a friend at the meetings as he also is always in search of well priced, new wines to try.  He agreed that after the meetings that day, we would find our way to the winery to do the tasting and have some fun touring the area. 

The trip was short and we had little trouble finding the faux “old mission” styled building.  We walked in and saw rows of bottles – all New Mexico wines.  I really did not know that New Mexico produced that many varieties.  I wondered if we’d be tasting cactus juice or aloe vera wines!  Much to my amazement we sat down and looked at the list of wines that we could sample and there we’re all my old favorites; cabernet, merlot, zinfandel, chardonnay, etc.  We could pick 8 wines for $15.  We sat at a private table and decided to get the same wines so we could compare our perceived taste of each variety.  We did 2 white and 6 reds. 

I think it was the 3^rd sample, a reserve merlot, that when we tasted it we looked at each other with total shock.  This stuff is really good!  We could not believe the extremely lively, smooth taste and the long mellow finish.  It sat at the top of the list of the wines we tried that night (which were all good wines, by the way).  We then checked out the price and we were blown away again!  It was only $15.50 per bottle! 

We were on a tight time schedule that night and had to get back for evening meetings, but promised each other that we would come back the next evening for dinner and a bottle of two of that great merlot.  Believe me; the second trip was better than the first.  Great food, great wine, great company; that’s what it is all about! 

I’ve since bought the new release (Sinclair 2006 ‘Reserve Merlot’) from their web-site and the 2006 was even better than the 2005 that we tasted on that trip last fall.  New Mexico wine – who’d of “thunk”?

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

This is the 16th installment find the 1st one here

I travel for a living with a major company and I often end up in Las Vegas for national trade shows.  I had just returned from one of my many road trips for the company and was sitting down with my wife and sharing a great bottle of pinot noir that Friday evening.  She told me that she had debated telling me about a flyer she had opened that was in the mail from the “Wine Spectator” advertising the Las Vegas “Grand Tour” wine tasting event in May.  I said, “What a coincidence!  I have a show in Las Vegas that same week, so let’s go!”  She then informed me that it was $200 per person if booked now and $260 per person at the door.  I figured that would be the end of that conversation, but she actually suggested we go.  I about had a heart attack!  Wow!  It can’t be true!  Now, my wife always seems to find an excuse to get to Las Vegas, and this was perfect!  We ordered the tickets over the internet that very night. 

The “Grand Tour” was at the Venetian Hotel on a Saturday night and, of course, we were there early.  I saw a map of the floor layout sitting on an easel by the door as to which wineries were pouring by booth number and where they were located in the room.  I took as many notes as fast as I could on whom and where I wanted to try that night.  We wanted to get in there as fast as we could and got in line so that when the doors opened, we’d be ready. We impatiently stood in that line for 45 minutes and then it started to move onto the event floor.  As we entered the last doorway, we received our official book representing all the wineries and our complementary “Ridel” glass.  

The first two tasting stops were “top drawer” pinot noirs that I had only been able to read about, since they were in California, very exclusive and not available in Florida.  It was like dying and going to heaven!  I’d never tasted any wine in my entire life that wonderful.  I actually got to visit with the owners who I had seen in the magazines and read articles about over the last few years.   

After two or three more stops, my wife suggested that we eat some of the fantastic food before we got ourselves in trouble.  (All the “snobs” were spitting- NOT ME!)  We loaded our little plates and sat down with two other couples about our age.  Naturally, we started to talk about which wines we had tasted already and which ones we’d classify as the “best ones”.  This made the rest of the evening fly by with a reason to test my tastes against theirs in cabernets, syrah and many, many more.  We managed to cram twenty-one different wineries tasting’s into the three hour event.  Though my wife and my tastes are very similar, we did go our separate ways at times and it was sad when it was all coming to the end of the evening.  We both admitted that it had been worth every penny of the cost for the event and then to my surprise and delight she said, “I think we should do this again!”  Now I know I’d died and gone to heaven!  We’ll be back!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

This is the 15th installment find the 1st one here

A couple of years ago, my nephew and his lovely bride were to be married in Palo Alto, California and my wife and I were planning to attend.  Naturally, I took a few extra of my vacation days to travel to “wine country” seeing that we were so close and June was a great time to be there.  We had hit on the fact that we both really like the “Russian River Valley” pinot noirs and would like to visit wineries in that area around Santa Rosa and Healdsburg for a few days and really enjoy ourselves.  Great idea! 

All of the trips that my wife and I have ever taken for personal vacations have been mostly planned (always planned) by her as to where we would stay, eat and visit local attractions.  She announced that this wine trip was up to me to plan and set up the itinerary!  OK, I can do that! 

I went on the internet and located the wineries in and around Healdsburg, the Russian River valley and Santa Rosa.  I plotted out the trip based on their tour times, prices and made reservations for tasting wherever I need to.  I came up with 14 different wineries to possibly visit in 2 and ½ days.  I figured we would not make it to all of them but we’d give it a shot and see what happened, so long as we had a good time. 

We arrived at the first winery in the Russian River valley in the early afternoon.  It was beautiful there and we were lucky to have a tour through a small “hand crafted” winery where a young man took the time to really explain what they did, what we were looking at and also shared some great wine with us.  We actually made it to 3 more tasting rooms that afternoon.  I looked over at my wife and she declared, “I need a greasy cheeseburger and some rest, NOW!  I obeyed! 

The next day we paced ourselves a bit better and did some driving through the magnificent countryside and stopped a couple different wineries in the morning, had a great lunch and did a couple more tasting stops in the afternoon and one in the early evening in the town of Healdsburg itself.  All the wines were fantastic and the people were gracious and fun to talk to.  We spent the evening in the park at a “bluegrass” concert in the town square with the locals.  What a great day! 

The next morning, we left and headed through a few more wineries in Santa Rosa and on to Sonoma toward the San Francisco Airport for our return trip to Florida the next day.  What a beautiful trip!  I had no idea what amazing structures, vineyards and facilities there are in the wine producing region of the Sonoma and Russian River Valleys.  The trip was wonderful, the wine was great and, would I recommend it to anyone else?  You bet I would!  Would I do it again?  I will, and my wife will too! 

PS We made it to 12 of the 14 wineries on my list!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.