SONOMA, Ca. — I spent the long Labor Day weekend hanging around the Sonoma Valley, in theory to take in the annual Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction, but more importantly to touch base with one of California’s most misunderstood wine appellations.
We tend to get lazy in our language when we talk about Napa and Sonoma, the neighboring wine communities that together have laid the foundation for California wine throughout the world.
Napa Valley is an appellation, with numerous sub-appellations such as Stag’s Leap, Howell Mountain and Rutherford. Sonoma is a county, home to many of California’s most important appellations, including the Russian River Valley, Alexander Valley and Dry Creek Valley.
Not to be left out is the Sonoma Valley, which is but one slice of the Sonoma wine pie. But a juicy slice, indeed. A number of years ago (15 to be exact) the Sonoma Valley vintners defected from the main body of Sonoma County vintners and held their own auction within weeks of the larger Sonoma wine auction.
No one knew at the time whether or not the Sonoma Valley gang would be successful, but it should have been a no-brainer. With the likes of Hanzell, Laurel Glen, Matanzas Creek, Arrowood, Ravenswood and a host of other prominent vintners in the fold, it couldn’t fail.
This year’s event was moved from its original venue at the historic Sonoma Mission Inn to the roomy spread at Cline Cellars, but the Sonoma Mission Inn retained one of the primo events, the “Palate” dinner on Friday evening that paired dishes prepared by several local celebrity chefs with vineyard-designated wines from the Sonoma Valley.
I particularly enjoyed this event because it paid homage to a handful of truly exceptional vineyard sites, and this is the real meat and potatoes of what the Sonoma Valley is all about.
Even though the look and feel of the Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction is casual and homey compared to the glitz of the bigger Sonoma and Napa auctions, the Sonoma Valley vintners raised about a million dollars for charitable causes in their small part of the California wine world.
Not bad for an appellation that is so often misunderstood!
Photos: Scenes from the Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction’s “Palate” evening at the Sonoma Mission Inn.
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