Sonoma Coast Wineries: Azari Vineyards
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.
Our family had just moved to Petaluma when we discovered Azari Winery. We asked the great oracle Twitter if there were any wineries in Petaluma we should visit, and it spoke to us. This is what it said:
We’re not ones to question the will of the internet. We immediately made plans to visit that weekend. So what if we hadn’t finished moving in and all our clothes were still in suitcases? There was going to be pizza and goats to entertain the kids. That’s all we needed to hear.
Azari is exactly the kind of winery we’re looking for. A tiny little place w/ a small production run that delivers the unexpected. They’re only a few minutes outside of downtown Petaluma, but things transition from typical american suburbia to dirt roads and farmland in the blink of an eye. You definitely have to pay attention or there’s a good chance you’ll miss the entrance. When we arrived, Cyrus Azari was there to welcome us to their Midsummer Magic event. Wine was flowing, pizza was baking in their wood fired pizza oven, and paella was just about to be served. It can’t be overstated how warm and welcoming it was. There was even, we shit you not, a guy off to the side playing Spanish guitar. The whole vibe was very chill, very family and very Mediterranean. It’s a perfect place to while away an afternoon.
During the event they poured one Azari wine and one Corkscrew wine. Our notes after the entirely thumb-free photo gallery :
The first wine we tasted was the 2010 Azari Pinot Noir. Blackberries, rosemary & hints of dry vegetation on the nose. Blackberries, cranberries and black pepper on the tongue. It has a nice long finish with echoes of dark fruit. Interestingly, it reminded us a lot of some of the top tier Sonoma Sangiovese we’ve had. It has a very Old World feel to it. We probably don’t have to say this explicitly, but it’s a really nice wine.
The second wine we tasted was the 2014 Corkscrew Chardonnay. White peaches with the merest suggestion of butter on the nose. Ripe oranges & honeysuckle on the tongue. Lemon, lemon zest & pepper on the finish. Full bodied, crisp and refreshing. This is a perfectly good wine, but doesn’t stand out in any meaningful way.
The ambiance and the wine are both worth the trip. We probably would have hung out all afternoon if not for our cherubic little burdens. A glass of the Azari Pinot Noir left us VERY curious to try their Cabernet and Shiraz. We’ll be making a return trip with friends, and without our kids, in the very near future.
Azari Vineyards is in the Petaluma Gap region of the Sonoma Coast AVA. Check them out at http://www.azarivineyards.com/. Do it. Be cool wine hipsters like us.
