It’s busy in Sonoma’s Wine Country during the summer months. The weather is exceptional and the landscape is gorgeous. Tasting rooms can get crowded this time of year, especially over the weekends.

We’ve been making it a point to visit wineries mid-week. It gives us more of an opportunity to meet an owner or winemaker and talk more in depth with staff.

We headed out Westside Road to visit Quivira Vineyards and Zichichi Family Vineyards.  Westside is one of the great wine roads with fantastic views around every turn. There’s a faster route to these vineyards but not one as lovely a drive as Westside.

Quivira’s tasting room is surrounded by beautiful gardens. You can self tour them and view an amazing mix of seasonal flowers and vegetables as well as an animal here or there. I’m sorry to say that the photos I took somehow disappeared from my phone. I had to borrow these from their website.

 We had a great tasting with Jeremy Anderson, Quivira’s Tasting Room Manager. Three of their current wines stood out for us. The 2018 Rose was particularly great. It’s an organic wine, predominantly Grenache with small amounts of Counoise, Mouvedre, Sryah, and Petit Sirah grapes blended in. Quivira’s 2016 Anderson Ranch Zinfandel and 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon OTP were also hits for us. The Cabernet is spot on Dry Creek Valley and the Zin will be even better with a little more cellar time.

I’ve posted about Zichichi Family Vineyard before. They’re best known for selling out their estate wine as futures before its even bottled. In the past, their tasting room offered only barrel tasting. The barrel tasting/ selling futures continues, but in addition they are offering bottled wines they are producing from non-estate grown grapes.

Midori Longo was our Zachichi host. We engaged in a long conversation about the wines, learned a few secrets, and found the barrel tasting to be very delicious. We purchased futures in the 2018 Estate Zinfandel, Estate Old Vine Zinfandel and the Estate Petite Sirah. These will be bottled in March 2020 and ready for pickup shortly after.

Thank you Midori for the tip – To always ask if the winemaker has made anything new, any small batches of wines that are available? You may be in for a surprise!

Salud!