Petaluma Tasting Rooms: Adobe Road Winery

We moved to Sonoma with one goal in mind: to become the ultimate wine hipsters. Well, two goals: to become the ultimate wine hipsters AND drink a ton of wine from the best wineries in Sonoma. And eat a lot of good food. Fine, we have a lot of goals. Enough about our goals. We’re scouring Sonoma County for the best little known, small run wineries we can find in order to achieve the greatest virtue of hipsterdom: telling you all about the really cool places we love that you've never heard of. We’re doing this for you. Trust us.

One of the great things about living in Sonoma is that you’re never more than a few minutes from a winery, wine bar or tasting room. For our year in Sonoma we’re living in Petaluma, and we’re making it a point to visit every tasting room and winery within the city limits. The Adobe Road Winery tasting room is right in downtown Petaluma, so it’s a convenient place to take a break from running errands to train your palate.

Like most stand alone tasting rooms we’ve seen, it’s nice enough. They’re currently located in the Great Petaluma Mill shopping center. There’s a bar in the main room and an alcove with some leather chairs. This is a temporary arrangement while their new tasting room is under construction. That being said, you’ll get no complaints from us about the decor. Perfectly pleasant, but nothing special. We make a point of this because some tasting rooms have amazing settings.  Enough with the pleasantries. Let’s get down to business.

We tasted five wines. Here are our notes.

2014 Knights Valley Semillon: Light peach & kumquat on the nose. Pear, low-key caramel, butter and lime zest on the tongue. Bit of pepper on the finish. Full bodied & creamy. A good white wine, but nothing to write home about. Yes, we’re old enough that that turn of phrase rolls off the tongue.

2013 Sonoma County Rosé: Strawberry, lavender & green on the nose. Blackberries, currants, a touch milk chocolate and orange zest on the tongue. This is a much bigger & spicier wine than the nose would suggest. Remember this the next time you do BBQ. All we could think off was brisket and ribs. This was definitely the standout of our tasting.

2012 Red Line: This is Adobe Road’s signature red blend. Cherries, vanilla, thyme & oak on the nose. A ton of cinnamon right off the top, then blackberry jam & pepper. There’s a hint of something like apple pie on the finish. This is a somewhat distinctive wine, mostly because of the intensity of the cinnamon.

2014 Cabernet Franc: Long-time skeptics, we’ve come around on Cabernet Franc in the last couple of years. Wines like this are why. Stewed prunes, red meat & pipe box on the nose. You ever had an uncle that smoked a pipe? That’s what we’re talking about. Cherries, raspberries, vanilla & oak on the tongue. A bit of nutmeg & baking spice on the finish. Light and clear in the mid palate. Medium body with noticeable tannins. Would be a great food wine. Think Carolina BBQ. Man, we’re all about BBQ today. Must be the wine.

2012 Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford, Napa Valley: We don’t know the reputation of Rutherford Cabernet’s. It’s probably pretty damn good. We’ve loved every one we tasted. This one is no exception. Black cherries, dark chocolate, and something a little like beef-lamb shawarma on the nose. Yeah, we said shawarma. Chocolate covered cherries, vanilla & baking spice on the tongue. Some pepper and chalk on the finish. A little bit of hazelnut lingers mid palate long after the wine is gone. Very smooth. There's a creaminess to it as well. We’re not sure we’re we’d rank this among the Rutherford Cabs we’ve had, but it’s very good.

The Adobe Road Winery tasting room offered some big, tasty reds along side a beast of a Rosé. If you stop in for a taste and only have time for one, make it the Rosé. We’d also recommend skipping the Semillon unless you’re a big fan of whites. There’s nothing remarkable there. The reds we tried were all good enough that we joined their wine club at the end of the tasting. That’s a pretty strong recommendation in our book

By the time you read this the Adobe Road Winery tasting room might be in their new location. You can read all about it here. You can learn more about their wines at https://www.adoberoadwines.com/.