Page Mill Winery Tasting Room

We were long over due to pick up the futures that we bought from Big White House so we popped over to Livermore for the day. Our first stop was Stony Ridge where we replenished our stock of sparkling Malvasia Bianca that we depleted over the holidays. Since the kids were sleeping, we forewent a tasting and just bought the wine.

After picking up our Big White House futures, (and tasting) we decided that we had time for one more tasting, so we headed to Page Mill.

Almost a year ago, we were in invited to Page Mill's re-location event by a friend of ours that does some financial work for the owner. We were unable to make it at the time, and had been meaning to drop by and check it out.

What is a relocation event? Well, the winery is old enough to have once been located in Santa Clara County (on the eponymous Page Mill Road to be exact) When Santa Clara County was known for vines rather than code lines. The owners decided that the best use of the original location was residential rather than agricultural, hence the move to the Bay Area's other wine growing region.

The winery is not marked well from the road, so even though we knew where it was, we still drove past it and had to turn around. It's behind someone's (we assume the owners) home. The parking lot was poorly marked and a muddy mess, but don't ding them for that as the unimproved nature of the drive adds to the charm. The Winery building itself has lots of character.

The tasting room is well appointed, with almost a Victorian atmosphere. There is a good collection of dust covered bottles, and a half open curtain showing dimly lit aisles of casks.

There was no tasting fee.

The wines were good as well. Dane (the wine maker) seems to like bringing fruit forward into the nose of his grapes; a style of which I heartily approve.

The visit was completely spoiled by the rudeness of one of the staff in the tasting room - one Gary Brink. This man needs to take a pill. The issue here is that we bring our children tasting with us. Gary did not appreciate us for this. We were not the only ones in the tasting room with children, but we were the ones that Gary not only gave the evil eye to, but also chastised.
Gary's rudeness was Dane's loss as I would have likely have not only bought some of his wine, but would have returned again and again to try and buy more. A word to any winery owner out there: If you make your tasting room kid hostile, then you will not sell any wine to their parents.

The Verdict:
I liked Dane's wine. I liked everything about his winery, from the history on his web page to the buildings and decor. I like to support the clients of my friends. I do not like Gary Brink and will not visit this winery while he is working there.

Rios-Lovell Tasting Room

Rios-Lovell is the last winery that SG and I visited in Livermore. We thought that we were on our way home, when we passed it on Tesla Rd. We decided to stop because it's a winery that's a favorite of SG's friend Meg, and we have a bottle, untasted in our cellar and we would be bummed if we tasted that wine and then wished we'd stopped.

The building the tasting room was in was an attractive Mission style adobe. The pours were good size and they had 12 wines on the tasting list.

The goodness stops there.
The tasting glasses were tiny mouthed vessels that you couldn't fit your nose in.
During the first pour (A sparkling wine that the pourer called "Champagne") we were forced to listen to a pitch on their wine club. In case you are interested, their wine club sucks - only a 10% discount for a 24 bottle a year commitment.
The next bad sign was their wine list - they were all over the map. Rhone; Burgundy; Bordeaux, Zinfandel, Italian, Spanish, Port, Sherry, Sparkling. Jack of all styles master of none.
Then they switched pourers on us midway through.
All of this would be acceptable if there wine was any good. Which it wasn't. Some were not bad, and one was OK. We bought the OK one, and then they still charged us a tasting fee.

The Verdict

Not worth the stop.

Cedar Mountain Tasting Room

SG and I returned to Livermore last week. We were checking out a camping spot at De Valle Reservoir, and of course couldn't resist stopping at a tasting room (or 3).

Cedar Mt was the first we stopped at. Actually it was the second; the first, Garre, also had a deli, and since it was lunch time we thought a tasting and lunch would go well together. But Garre's tasting room and their deli are not open at the same hours. What a shame; as even if their wines sucked, it would have been worth the stop since so few winerys serve food. Due to the proprietors bad planning we deigned to patronize the place and moved on down the road. Garre's loss was Cedar Mountain's gain since we bought wine (we always buy wine).

Bad first:
The tasting room at Cedar Mt. was reminiscent of a double-wide. The restrooms were porta-potties. Not looking good. The lighting inside was poor, so I had to approach a lamp to properly judge the colour of my pour.

Now the good:
The interior had photos of the winemaker as a little girl in New York's Finger Lakes. This was the only attempt at history. The vines surrounding the tasting room were young, but in a few years will provide a nice surrounding to taste in. There was a picinic area with Bocce courts. Too bad they didn't have a deli :-( The barn where they make the wine was picturesque (and one of the reasons we stopped).

The Verdict

Out of the 4 wineries in Livermore that I have stopped at, Cedar Mountain's tasting room ranks second. This isn't saying much though, as I would not make a trip out to the end of Tesla Rd to specifically visit them.

Murrieta's Well Tasting Room

Given the proximity of the Livermore Valley to the Bay Area, it's actually pretty amazing that it's not a more touristed wine region. Indeed, until recently I had never been tasting in the region. Our visit to Murrieta's Well coincided with a look at some property out on Mines road in the Livermore AVA. The property turned out to not be what we wanted, but rather than waste the trip we thought we would stop in at a winery, and Murrieta's Well was the first one we stumbled across on our way out of the canyon that Mines Road runs up.

Murrieta's Well is actually a Wente property. Now, I'm not a fan of Wente (best known for their White Zin), and had I known that Murrieta's Well was a Wente property, I probably would have driven past. That said, Murrieta's Well is Wente's premium label and the wines are not what you would expect from a bulk producer like Wente.

The tasting room is great. There is lots of history surrounding the site (They named it for the artesian well where the legendary Joaquin Murrieta and his band of desperados watered their horses), and the setting is glorious. A new rustic building built into a hillside surrounded by vines.

The pourer we had was knowledgeable about the wines he poured for us, and even was familiar with the European regions that the grapes originated in. Unfortunately on the day we arrived, they were not pouring their Zin, which comes from an 85 year old vineyard, nor their "Zarzuela" Which is an Iberian grape blend that would have proved interesting.

There was a $5.00 tasting fee, but it was waived upon purchase.

The Verdict:

Out of the 3 Livermore wineries that I have visited, this tasting room was the best.