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A visit to Sonoma, California isn't complete without wine tasting. And in downtown Sonoma, it's hard to do better than Bedrock Wine Company, which has its tasting room in the historic General Joseph Hooker House, located at 414 1st St East Street. Behind Bedrock is Master Wine Maker Morgan Twain-Peterson, who started Bedrock Wine Company in 2007 with grapes from his family’s Bedrock Vineyard and Teldeschi Ranch, and has since then grown to encompass additional vineyards.
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Bedrock Wine Company Tastings
Bedrock Wine tastings are by appointment only from 10am-3:30pm 7 days a week. Each tasting, which costs $45 per person includes tastes of 5 wines, and one tasting fee is waived per purchase of two bottles of wine. It's also possible to add a cheese/charcuterie plate for $30.
We arrived in time for our 2:30pm tasting, and were welcomed and led to the lovely outdoor patio, where there are three tables for two, as well as our table for 4-5 tasters.
These were the wines we tasted:
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We opted to share a cheese plate (opting for only cheese and no charcuterie), which was fantastic, with a nice variety of aged and a few fresh cheeses, as well as marcona almonds, olives and plenty of crackers.
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All of us enjoyed Bedrock's Under the Wire Sparkling Chardonnay, even though my husband and I don't normally care for champagne or even anything carbonated. This one was crisp and refreshing, with very fine bubbles.
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Next was a Sauvignon Blanc, which I enjoyed, with more character than many Sauvignon Blancs since it's lightly aged in new oak barrels.
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The first red wine, the Carignan, was unusual, a kind of love-it-or-hate-it. The medium-bodied Carignan grape, with rough tannins, is normally used as a blending grape, so it's unusual these days to find it as the majority of a wine. It was a little on the tannic side for me, but my husband really enjoyed it.
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My second favorite wine was the Bedrock Vineyard Heritage 2021, arguably Bedrock's signature wine, with about 70% Zinfandel. This was one of the two bottles we purchased.
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The final red of the official tasting was a Syrah, which was the favorite of one of our relatives who tasted with us, so this was the other bottle we purchased.
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Both of the two staff who explained the wines to us were fantastic: knowledgeable and happy to answer all our questions about the wines and vineyards, but very chill. They even added a sixth wine for us to taste, this superb Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 which is the best I've tasted in recent memory, very full bodied and smooth. It was also the priciest of the wines we tasted, at $65 per bottle.
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The Verdict
We loved our tasting experience at Bedrock Wine Co., particularly the Heritage (primarily Zinfandel), Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Given our short one night stay in Sonoma, it was wonderfully convenient, since the tasting room was a mere 5 minutes from our hotel in downtown Sonoma.
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