Our last stop on our Sonoma wine tasting tour was Petroni Vineyards It is just off the main square on Broadway, the main street leading into Sonoma. They share the space with the Wine Hardware store, which carries all sorts of wine racks, wine fridges, decanters and wine accessories.
Petroni is an Italian style winery; they produce 8,000 cases annually. They have a limited distribution – the owner owns the North Beach Restaurant, an Italian restaurant in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. They sell their wine there, and they sell by the glass at a few places in Sonoma, but otherwise, they just sell from the tasting room.
Inside the shop is a tasting bar with a flat screen TV mounted above the bar; they use it to show their customers a video about the winery and the vineyards. Our server mentioned that it was a really slow day – we were their second customers that Monday. I need to get that gig! Only a couple sets of customers in a day! I could totally get caught up on all the reading I am always wanting to do! Of course, not so great when you are trying to operate a business.
She took us through their line-up beginning with the 2011 Chardonnay, which was good, but I don’t remember anything more. Then we moved to the 2012 Rosato di Sonoma – it is a Rosé blend of 50% Sangiovese, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Syrah – it was very good when we tasted it day, with flavors of strawberry and watermelon and a light floral taste. Sadly, when we had it again a month later at home – the floral taste overpowered the fruit flavors and it wasn’t as good.
Next we tried the 2011 Pinot Noir – it is an earthy, cherry flavored wine with lots of spice. It was excellent. The 2008 Rosso di Sonoma blend is a heavy and tannic blend of 75% Syrah, 20% Sangiovese, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. It was my least favorite of the tasting, but certainly not a bad wine. The 2008 Syrah was up next – this wine was very good, with nicely balanced tannins and flavors of blackberry and spice.
The 2007 Brunello di Sonoma was an amazing wine – Wow! It was fermented on the skins for up to 40 days, and then aged in 20% new French oak and 80% used French oak barriques (a standard 59 gallon oak barrel) and puncheons (an 80 gallon cask) for 18 months. This wine is pricey though, at $60 a bottle, so a taste of it will have to be enough for us.
The last wine that we tried was their 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine was an excellent example of what a cab should be; not heavily oaked. Our server told us that the winemaker believes in using some neutral French oak, to avoid covering up the characteristics of the wine; it is aged for 18 months in 50% new and 50% used French oak. I loved the fruit forward balanced nature of this wine, but couldn’t buy it at its $70 price tag.
Petroni makes their own olive oil too; during our tasting we also got to sample their olive oil with crispy bread sticks. The salt of the bread sticks and the oil were fantastic – it was a great accompaniment to the wine. We really enjoyed our visit.
Wine and History Visited 