The winery looks like a giant living room with racks of wine barrels for decoration; the centerpiece is a 20 foot screen connected to a maze of speakers that encircle the room, and a mass of amps, disc players, tuners, mixers – Geez, it’s a wonderland for the electronically infatuated.

We continued sipping from a few of David’s 96s while listening and watching the Eagles, then we cranked up the volume, and danced to Tina Turner. Soon we were all ‘Rollin’ on the River’.

Tina Turner's new dancers

The energy was incredible, and we were all invigorated. Pat and
David are most gracious and hospitable folks – and while many winery people are polite and tolerant of visitors – they seem to enjoy it as much as we did. Several bottles and a load of futures were purchased, then we were on our way to the other side of the valley.

Rabbit Ridge

Erich Russell had planned to be in Santa Barbara that day, but changed his travel plans in order to meet with us. He is a soft spoken man, which is an interesting contrast to the rapid growth and success of the winery. These folks produce an amazing array of wines, and their production has soared to over 100,000 cases. The tasting room staff will usually pour anything they happen to have open.

Erich was a generous host – leading us through a tasting that included several bottles we had brought, along with many of his current releases. He then ran out to thief a couple of barrel samples for us. (The 97 Shiraz was killer.) Once again, unsuspecting civilians were drawn into our "private" tasting.

Russell and Victoria keep an album that contains wine labels – inscribed by the winemakers and participants – from many of their dinners and other tours and events. We chose a favorite from each of our tour stops to be included in the album. The overwhelming choice from RR was the piece of duct tape Erich had slapped on the barrel sample of Shiraz, and lettered with marking pen.

With the temperature rising, and a full morning of tasting behind us, we headed into Santa Rosa for lunch, and satisfied Russell’s hankering for a childhood favorite – Round Table pizza. It was a good choice – simple food and plenty of it to buffer a day full of Zinfandel. We enjoyed some World Cup soccer on the big screen TV, then headed for the town of Sonoma.

I enjoy Joel Peterson’s company. He’s an intelligent and thoughtful man, but also has a sharp wit and is quick to laugh. He has a vast knowledge of the great wines of the world, having participated in tastings from a fairly young age. His wines, particularly the Zinfandels, have great character, intensity, and ageability. As you can see from the list, we had a rare opportunity to taste through an impressive array of older and newer Zinfandels, along with other wines. The 84 Dickerson was a special treat, showing fascinating spicy aromatics. We also had a chance to taste several vintages from this property, which put to rest a certain wine guru’s notion that this wine is losing it’s intensity.

Joel Peterson

The demands on his time are tremendous, and we were very fortunate to have him spend so much time with us, especially with a newborn son at home! The highlight was undoubtedly the 97 barrel samples, which were rich, lively, intense – uniformly wonderful. Certainly we each had our favorites, but overall, the vintage promises to be very exciting, particularly for Ravenswood Zinfandel.

I snatched up my allocation of the 96 Cooke (which is now available only at the winery or through their mail lottery) and the Old Hill, then we headed back to the Holiday Inn. Just enough time for a short nap, a shower, and on to dinner.