Gopfrich
Tasting Room/Location - 8
Setback from the road in the middle of the valley, the quaintness of this tasting room creeps up on you. On the outside, it’s a large, simple, blue building that is easily recognizable as a winery. Park at the edge of the porch and you start to sense that there’s more to it. Step on the porch, under the trellis of grapevines and the charm is apparent. Step inside to a modest tasting room where there is a bar that is rarely used. Instead, Ray prefers to sit you down at table in the middle of the room, bring out his best stemware, and charm you with his wine. I don’t rate this TRL high, but the real question for me is, “Would I want more out of it?” Not at all; it has just the right amount of charm.
One thing you need to know about this place, though, is that Ray IS the tasting room staff and, as such, asks that you make an appointment for a tasting. Now, I know how fluid wine tasting can be (no pun intended), but don’t be afraid to commit to an hour in your day; you’ll be sorry you missed this stop. Ray’s pretty flexible, too; he’s taken appointments from us with as little as a half hour notice. Out of respect for Ray, I don’t condone that, but I mention it to highlight that you could find ways to fit it in to your day pretty easily.
Staff - 9
It's always a pleasure to see Ray and Bonnie. You can't get a more intimate tasting experience than to be interacting solely with the grower/winemaker himself. Quiet, unassuming, and very charming, Ray Gopfrich is the quintessential boutique winemaker in Dry Creek Valley. Truth be told, Ray sells 90% of his grapes to other winemakers, which is why the available quantity under his label is so limited. It doesn't matter, though, as long you remember to make his place an early stop.
Wine - 9
Ray makes wine differently than the preponderance of vintners in the valley. First, he varnishes his barrels, limiting both oxygen and moisture from creeping into the wine. Right or wrong, this is his technique and I’ve never been disappointed with the results.
Second, as I recall, Ray prefers to bottle by gravity-filling. Most wineries either own or rent bottling equipment that has an arguably deleterious effect (albeit temporary, some say) on the wine. By gravity-filling the wine, the molecular composition is largely undisturbed. There might be five vintners in the entire state of California that bottle this way (Twomey is another that I know of).
Gopfrich makes several wines, to include merlot, zinfandel, syrah, and the occasional cuvee’. Once in a while, you’ll enjoy his cabernet sauvignon, and his relations in Germany provide him with amusing white wines. If you want to know what to look for at his winery, though, there’s never going to be anything better (consistently) than his syrah. It’s a simple measure of consistent quality when you can identify verticals in your cellar and Ray’s syrahs are among the rare ones in mine. To top it off, club member or not, you’ll be impressed by the price point of all his wines.
Club
The Umlaut Society – See the Gopfrich website for more info. http://www.gopfrich.com/
Siduri
Tasting Room/Location – 5
There is almost nothing to say about the location of this tasting room. I’ve been a few really small and new wineries, but a select few who have setup shop in the warehouse district. It’s a pretty bare bone space, with three large areas: one for processing the grapes (initial crush and fermentation), one for the climate controlled barrels, and one for the stacks of cases of wine. Tasting often occurs in the first space, sometimes among the crush bins and stainless steel fermentation tanks. Let me say that there’s little charming about the fruit flies swarming around your glasses and pour bucket in the fall.
Staff – 10
Now that we’re done with the unpleasantries, let’s talk about the first thing that makes this place special. Our first, and almost every subsequent experience, has left us with more knowledge about their wines, their winemaking process, and most amusingly, the winemakers. In the handful of times we’ve been there, we’ve been engaged by Adam, the co-owner (with his wife) and winemaker, to explore the breadth and depth of his wines.
If not for the knowledge that Jody brought to the first experience, our return trips might have been less frequent. If you have the good fortune to have him pouring your wines, not only will he tell you great things about the care for the vineyards and the winemaking process, but he’ll tell you the whole story that is the genesis of Siduri wines (and later Novy Family Wines). I could recount the story for you, but you really need to hear it from him, through his Texas (and ever so slightly effeminate) accent. The charm in this winery emanates from the staff.
Wine – 10
How can you not rate the wines a 10? With the massive breadth of wines, the ratio of good-to-fair ratio is unparalleled. Moreover, this is a winery that you brag to your friends about. These are the wines that you use to impress your friends. These are the wines that you create tasting events around (verticals, vineyard designates, etc.). What more could you ask for? Better pricing? Sure, but not much better. And when it comes down to it, what’s 10% here or there? Well, it translates into volume, but they don’t seem to have a problem with that. I recently emailed Adam to see if he could locate a 2006 Simpson’s Vineyard Syrah. Not a chance. He barely had any 2007s left. There is no library, only good sales.
