Woodenhead (4.06)



Open: 10:30am-4:30pm, Thursday-Monday

Appt required? No

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2012 (April 15, 2012 Itinerary)

Directions:


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Tasting:
We followed up a slow tasting experience at Joseph Swan with one that was amazingly efficient at Woodenhead. I’d been to Woodenhead previously on one occasion, but it was near the end of a heavy day of tasting and I was interested to reevaluate their wine. The tasting room is on the corner of River Road and Trenton Rd. in Russian River Valley. Multiple signs ward off buses and limos from even trying to deposit their cargo at the tasting room.

The tasting room itself is perched on top of a small hill and offers a great view of the surrounding area. There is a large L-shaped tasting bar as well as a deck off of the room overlooking the valley where visitors can sample wine or potentially picnic. For tasting, Woodenhead offers three campy-named tasting options for $10 each: “Pinot Love”, a sampling of 5 Pinot Noirs; “Zintensity”, a run through 4 Zinfandels; and “Something for Everyone”, offering a Pinot, a Zin, a Syrah, and Carignane (“carry on?”). The tasting fee is refunded with the purchase of a bottle from the flight you try.

Steph and I decided to split a Pinot Love and a Zintensity. Where Joseph Swan had us wondering if we’d been forgotten, the woman pouring at Woodenhead set up two glasses so we could taste through each flight faster, and managed to remember exactly where we were in our tasting despite catering to 2 or 3 other groups by herself in the room.

For the Pinot Love flight, we tried the 2009 Le Bistro Pinot Noir blend, the 2008 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, the 2009 Cameron Vineyard (RRV) Pinot Noir, the 2008 Humboldt County Pinot Noir, and the 2007 Wiley Vineyard Pinot Noir. Prices ranged from the low $30s to around $60 for the Wiley. My two favorite wines were the Wiley and the Cameron, with the Cameron edging out as the overall favorite. But at the price point, I think there is better Pinot to be had in RRV and so we passed on taking any with us and moved on to Zinfandel.

“Zintensity” started with the 2007 Guido Venturi Vineyard Zinfandel from Mendocino, a wine I remembered liking on my previous visit. On this trip, though, it was overshadowed by Zinfandel #2, the 2009 Braccialini Vineyard Zin. Where Guido was your typical jammy Sonoma Zin, the Braccialini from Alexander Valley showed better complexity and was a better wine for my money. Our final two wines were the 2006 and 2007 Martinelli Road Old Vine Zinfandel. While the 2006 was good, the 2007 was shockingly bad. Overall, the Braccialini was the winner for us and we left with a bottle.

We arrived at 1:05 and by 1:22 we had tasted 9 wines and purchased a bottle. To add to my appreciation of the service, we weren’t charged for our extra tasting either. Ultimately the wine is what brings me back to tasting rooms, and there weren’t any superstars at Woodenhead. But everything else surrounding the visit was positive, and so this is a place I’d recommend to folks looking for a way to try a lot of different wines in a low-pressure setting that also features a better-than-average view.


Recommended wine: The 2009 Braccialini Zinfandel was our favorite of the nine wines we tried. Overall, I think I enjoyed the Zins more than the Pinots here.

Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
3.75
TASTING ROOM
4.25

ATMOSPHERE
4.25
VALUE
4.00

OVERALL
4.06

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