Trattore Vineyards

There is a new wave of ways to get the best wines for the best price; the internet. By taking to the internet, wineries can offer their wines to the consumer at affordable prices despite the shipping costs. Make no mistake, when you buy a wine in a store, the shipping, handling and all the other costs have been added in, so you are paying for shipping one way or another. Most of the boutique wineries are way too small to be handled by a distributor, so they sell their wine on the internet in the true American small business manner.
We stumbled on to a dynamite internet winery located in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma County; Trattore Vineyards at www.trattorewines.com. Dry Creek Valley is one of the nation’s best grape growing districts, so you know the fruit is top draw. The winemaking is done in a hands on manner, more or less as they did it in the old days and not in a computerized factory operation. Often, these wineries can concentrate on small batches of lesser known (at least in this country) grape varieties and make blends that the “bigger boys” have no time for, thus offering the consumer a greater selection, rather than being stuck with “the usual suspects.”

Trattore Vineyards Dry Creek Valley 2010 Roussanne ($24). OMG what a wine! roussanne, roussanne, where have you been all of our lives. It has been a very long time since we last sampled a wine made from the Roussanne grape and that one was French and rather undistinguished, The Trattore Vineyards 2010 Roussanne is a profound journey into what a great wine should be like. The color is a light golden which is the least impressive feature of this wine; from there is goes straight to superlatives. The aroma is big, open and very obvious in displaying pineapple, Bosc pear and Fuji apple. Tropical fruits dominate the flavor and continue on to an incredibly long and, for a white wine, super fruity finish. If you have been a little timid about ordering a wine from the internet, this wine and Trattore Vineyards will cure you of that.

Trattore Vineyards 2010 Dry Creek Valley Viognier ($24). We hope that we have not overdone the superlatives with the roussanne but here we go again. There will be no long winded dissertation on the rarity of the grape and its difficulty to grow, but rather homage to the great wine that is made from it. The Trattore Vineyards 2010 Viognier is golden in color with an intensely floral aroma, accented by apricots mixed with orange blossoms. It has a similar mouth feel as does a chardonnay but the flavors are stronger and more pronounced. Apricot, mango, pineapple, anise, mint, guava, kiwi and tangerine abound in the flavor. The finish is also loaded with fruit and ends in an incomparable creamy mouth feel. This wine is a great escape from the familiar white wines and we must admit that we are very partial to this variety.

Trattore Vineyards 2009 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel ($29). Since the Trattore whites were so outstanding, we had to look at their reds. Zinfandel wines are available in all sizes, types and price ranges, but, remember that you get what you pay for. The Trattore Vineyards 2009 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel is a medium bodied, deep purple colored wine that strays away from the usual zinfandel raspberry aroma and presents a whole series of aromas not usually associated with the variety. The wine prominently displays the aroma of blueberries backed up with cherry and chocolate. The fruits follow through to the flavor with the addition of the typical Dry Creek Valley earthy background. The finish is outrageously long, fruity and will probably remain in the memory well after the wine has been finished. This is not a wine to miss and is a pleasant relief from all of the “Taste alike” zins that are all over the marketplace.