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Westside Road winds and meanders its way through Sonoma County’s wine region, on some stretches moving East-West and along others North-South.  In all of its directions and gyrations, Westside Road takes its travelers past some of the best wineries in Sonoma’s impressive wine region. The Westside Wine Trail, as it’s also known, starts in the town of Healdsburg and ends in a forest-like setting near Guerneville.  One of our favorite wineries on this route is Porter Creek Vineyards, an easy place to miss if you happen to turn your head at the wrong moment …or blink.  Unlike many wineries in the area, Porter Creek does not have a huge tasting room building, visitor center, deli, or cafe.  They have a small shack.  It is a damn fine shack, we have to say, but still a shack.

The drive from Westside Road to the shack is along an unpaved dirt road.  After parking, this is the first thing we saw on our way to the shack.

This is the second thing that we saw.

No big fancy tasting room or winery property.  No paved road.  Organic farm with free-range chickens.  Hopefully you’re starting to get an important point about Porter Creek: they have a strong commitment to sustainable farming.  This commitment is not a marketing ploy but rather a long-standing one held by this family-owned winery since it purchased the land in 1977.  George Davis, the patriarch of Porter Creek Vineyards, combined his commitment to sustainabilty with a strong desire to remain true to the grape varietals planted in the vineyards.  His son Alex Davis, the current winemaker, continues his father’s commitments and in one important area – sustainable certification – is raising the bar even higher.  Porter Creek’s Aurora-certified vineyards are being transitioned to Demeter biodynamic certification.  For farming and/or sustainability geeks, here’s what that means:  Organic vs. Biodynamic

If you don’t care how your wine is made, that’s okay too.  We don’t drink Porter Creek – and it’s not on the menu at 3-Michelin star The French Laundry – just because it is organic or biodynamic.  Porter Creek makes fantastic wines that happen to be certified organic and, soon, certified biodynamic.

When we finally entered the shack there were only two others tasting wine, a rare treat as we are usually elbow-to-elbow with fellow tasters when we go to Porter Creek. But it was early in the day and during the week so we beat the weekend crowds.  Our cousins from Spain joined us for the tasting and we were excited to hear their reactions to our California wines.  We were met by Steve who took us through one of the most entertaining and comprehensive tastings we have experienced in a very long time.

Porter Creek has a fantastic selection of both white and red wines, including a splendid Rosè made from Zinfandel grapes.  We tasted everything on the tasting menu and another three or four wines thatare not part of a typical tasting; we must have looked interested – or at least thirsty!

All of the Porter Creek wines share a similar approach to winemaking: let the wine reflect the varietal as well as the place and conditions in which the grape was grown.  Oak is used to enhance the flavor of the wine but not to manipulate the final product.

Our Spanish cousins were pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the wine as well as the tasting experience.  In their home country they tend to drink “local” wines and have never been exposed to Somoma County or Russian River fine wine.  The balance, sophistication and refinement of the Porter Creek wines were obvious to them and they were able to overcome their Spanish wine snobbiness.  They readily admitted that these wines were on par with the best wines they have tasted.

We have been to Porter Creek before and we will go again, hopefully soon.  In the meantime we bought quite a few bottles to replenish our cellar at home, and a few bottles made the long trip back to Madrid with the cousins.

John & Irene Ingersoll

August 10, 2017

• blogging
• Winery Visits