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Open: 10:30am-4:30pm
Appt required? No
Last barlinwine.com visit: 2011 (September 29, 2011 Itinerary)
Directions:
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Tasting:
The Porter Creek tasting room is located in a tiny house-like structure off of Westside Road in the Russian River Valley. Upon entry to the room, your first sight is of Diego, the Great Pyrenees dog who consumes fully 1/3 of the available floor space in the room. I kept waiting for him to look up and smile, call me Atreyu, and tell me he'd just taken me 10,000 miles to the Southern Oracle.
We were greeted warmly by the lone person working, a super-friendly gent wearing thick-rimmed black glasses that gave him a half-hipster/half-geek persona. On closer inspection, I realized he was a spitting image of Zachary Quinto, better known as Sylar from Heroes (or Mr. Spock from the recent Star Trek movie). He was in his friendly, non-villain Gabriel Gray persona today, and his super-powered mind was brainwashing me into trying a bunch of wine. I accepted the invitation.
We started with a Chardonnay, but like many of their neighbors, Porter Creek’s specialty is Pinot Noir. We tried their Fiona Hill Pinot Noir -- my personal favorite -- along with their Hillside "Old Vine" Pinot Noir (a designation popular with Zins but not one I'd previously seen for Pinot). We moved from there to a Carignane and a Zinfandel. The wine was mostly good, but what stood out here for me was the atmosphere. This was one of the most welcoming wineries of our trip. Another couple arrived at the same time as us with their dog, and the woman stayed outside with the pup. Gabriel offered to take wine out to her, do their tasting outside, or have her and their dog inside. The winery was 100% devoid of pretentiousness or sales pressure – not once did Gabriel Gray transform into Sylar -- and it was fun to spend time in a place, enjoy the wine, enjoy some 150 lb. canine company, and walk away with an appreciation of the wine and tasting experience. Top marks for atmosphere and, as Steph would say, “cuteness factor”. A stop I would recommend.
We were greeted warmly by the lone person working, a super-friendly gent wearing thick-rimmed black glasses that gave him a half-hipster/half-geek persona. On closer inspection, I realized he was a spitting image of Zachary Quinto, better known as Sylar from Heroes (or Mr. Spock from the recent Star Trek movie). He was in his friendly, non-villain Gabriel Gray persona today, and his super-powered mind was brainwashing me into trying a bunch of wine. I accepted the invitation.
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| Tasting Room Sylar on the left... |
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| ...Zachary Quinto / Sylar on the right. I'm not crazy! |
We started with a Chardonnay, but like many of their neighbors, Porter Creek’s specialty is Pinot Noir. We tried their Fiona Hill Pinot Noir -- my personal favorite -- along with their Hillside "Old Vine" Pinot Noir (a designation popular with Zins but not one I'd previously seen for Pinot). We moved from there to a Carignane and a Zinfandel. The wine was mostly good, but what stood out here for me was the atmosphere. This was one of the most welcoming wineries of our trip. Another couple arrived at the same time as us with their dog, and the woman stayed outside with the pup. Gabriel offered to take wine out to her, do their tasting outside, or have her and their dog inside. The winery was 100% devoid of pretentiousness or sales pressure – not once did Gabriel Gray transform into Sylar -- and it was fun to spend time in a place, enjoy the wine, enjoy some 150 lb. canine company, and walk away with an appreciation of the wine and tasting experience. Top marks for atmosphere and, as Steph would say, “cuteness factor”. A stop I would recommend.
Recommended wine: The wines overall weren't spectacular, but I thought at the time that the 2009 Fiona Hill Pinot Noir was really good, something that was confirmed when we had a bottle of it once we got home.
Ratings (out of 5):
 WINE | 4.00 |  TASTING ROOM | 4.00 |
 ATMOSPHERE | 5.00 |  VALUE | 4.25 |
 OVERALL | 4.31 | ||
I love that you went to Porter Creek and loved it. It was one of my favorites after being recommended to us by taste room bartender at another winery. The dog is so great, the wine is good, and the sales pressure is so low. I think I had to ask for information about their wine club. Our host didn't look like a Heroes character, but he was so pleasant to spend some time and we loved the dog so much that we didn't want to leave.
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