beautiful Cline Cellars
Our good friend, John, is a huge fan of Cline. He’s a member of their wine club too. Located just down the road from Gloria Ferrer, some of the WC crew who hadn’t already been, got a chance to experience the place recently. Actually, we’d had their Ancient Vines Zinfandel and Mourvèdre with John, so we had an idea of what to expect. Those wines were luscious, fruity with earthy depth that lingered in the mouth.
The winery itself consists of a series of less grand buildings than you might see at other Sonoma wineries. Here though the smaller scale was elegant. Nestled around a series of pools and artificial lakes, surrounded by weeping willows, the place was very charming. Aside from wine, Cline boasts a small zoo of various dramatically plumed pheasants and we even saw a sign warning us to stay out of the water because of the alligators! We didn’t see them, thank heavens!
The Cline founder, Fred Cline, is a descendent of the Jacuzzi family along his mother’s side. In fact, Jacuzzi and Cline are across the street from one another. Originally located in Oakley in Contra Costa County, where most of the “ancient vines” still stand, Cline moved his eponymous winery to Sonoma County in the early 1990’s. In Sonoma they grow some of the more traditional grapes for the Carneros region, things like chardonnay and pinot noir. They’ve also been developing several Rhône varietals like Syrah, Viognier, Marsanne and Roussane.
happy holidays from Cline
The tasting room was the right size to feel welcoming and comfortable. Our tasting room guide, “Russ,” was delightful. They offer any five tastings of their regular bottlings for free and will pour from their reserve, single vineyard bottles at a dollar a taste. We tried several of both kinds and found most of the wines quite good.
2008 Sonoma Coast Viognier, Sonoma Coast: This was a transparent pale yellow, fragrant with lots of floral scents. It was light and refreshing with notes of peach and apricot.
2008 Cashmere, California: This is a blend of Mouvèdre, Grenache and Syrah, apparently named because it tastes so smooth that it’s like cashmere. The wine was a purple red. We found notes of tar and tobacco with a good structure and long finish. We loved this wine and ended up getting a couple bottles.
2007 Ancient Vines Carignane, Contra Costa County: This was a dense purple with chocolate on the nose. It tasted of leather and chocolate. We liked it a lot.
some tasty Cline bottlings
2007 Ancient Vines Mourvèdre, Contra Costa County: This was purple, too. It tasted of blue stone fruit with a long earthy finish. Compared to the last two, Hegui thought it was “sweet.” Perhaps he meant that it was more fruit-forward.
2007 Syrah, Sonoma County: This was purple colored with an earthy tart finish.
2007 Cool Climate Syrah, Sonoma Coast: This dark purple wine had blue fruit with an almost bitter lengthy finish and a slight tartness.
2008 Zinfandel, California: This was a dark red fruity wine. Pleasant.
2008 Ancient Vines Zinfandel, California: The vines are between 75 and 100 years old! Russ showed us a pic. They’re very gnarled, growing in quite sandy soil. This wine was dark red. We tasted caramel, red fruit and a bitter earthy finish. Yum!
2006 Sonoma Zinfandel, Sonoma County: This red charmer from purchased grapes grown in Alexander Valley, smelled of vanilla. It was fruity with a long vanilla finish.
2007 Big Break Zinfandel, Contra Costa County: This wine was quite fruity and juicy with a long finish.
2007 Heritage Zinfandel, Contra Costa County: This is a blend of three single vineyard zinfandels; 50% Live Oak, 28% Big Break and 22% Bridgehead. It was dark red and smelled grassy. We detected mineral and some metal. It was very smooth with a long finish. I really liked this one.
modest and elegant Cline Cellars tasting room
2007 Small Berry Mourvèdre, Contra Costa County: Russ recommended aging this wine for a few years. As is, it was dark red with a long tar earthy finish.
2006 Los Carneros Syrah, Carneros: This was purple to black in color. It smelled of leather and wax. The finish was long with black pepper notes.
2006 Late Harvest Mourvèdre, Contra Costa County: This is a sweet wine for dessert. It was brownish red with strawberry and cherry notes and a long finish. Not too sweet. We’re not that into dessert wines but this was very tasty.
Overall Cline Cellars is worth a visit. The standard wines are all a bargain at less than $20 a bottle. The single vineyard reserves range between $26 and $40. There are a lot of wines to try and most are very good. The staff is friendly and the property itself is quite nice. We walked away with about a half case between us and we’d have gotten more if we didn’t have to renew the car insurance next week.