Northern California Wineries: Iron Horse

I started this blog with the idea of talking about champagne houses in Northern California and I realized that I’ve spent more time on food and other types of wines than on champagne.  So back into champagne.  Two of the best champagne vineyards in Northern California are in Sonoma County and both are American-owned.  I’ll cover Iron Horse in this post and J Winery in a subsequent post.  They are totally different, but both produce excellent champagnes.

One of the best ways to describe Iron Horse http://www.ironhorsevineyards.com/ is by noting that the name of its wine club is the Corral Club.  Iron Horse is out in the country and it emphasizes its rustic ambience.  There is no fancy tasting room.  In fact, the tasting room is not even fully enclosed.  I’ve included a picture of the tasting room.  But the winery site and the grapes grown in Green Valley make superb wines.  Iron Horse is on a ridge looking east toward Mount St. Helena.  The view is spectacular.  The road to get to the winery eventually turns into a partially paved, partially dirt road, lined with tall palm trees at the last and the parking lot is dirt, too.  So it would appear that this is a pretty low-key operation.  Not really J 

Iron Horse produces champagnes that consistently score in the 90s in the major wine media.  As with other good American champagnes, it has been served at White House dinner parties.  There are usually five or six champagnes available for tasting at the winery.  And, on most days, they are served accompanied with popcorn.  Popcorn and champagne are an amazing fit.  What you usually can’t taste at the winery is Joy.  Joy is Iron Horse’s newest champagne, available only in magnums and in limited quantities, and named after Joy Sterling, the CEO of Iron Horse.  This is a lovely, yeasty champagne.  All of the champagnes are estate-bottled, made from Iron Horse’s own vineyards in Green Valley and are made in the French-style. 

Iron Horse also makes other excellent wines.  I particularly like the Rued Clone Chardonnay, the Natural Yeast Chardonnay and the Thomas Road Pinot Noir.  They also have their own chef, Christopher Greenwald.  Corral Club members can attend a number of events throughout the year, including a cooking demonstration by Chef Greenwald, and the food and wine pairings are always excellent. 

One warning about Iron Horse:  Unlike a lot of other vineyards, the tasting room closes early – 3:30pm usually, so you have to make sure you keep that in mind.

~ by bubblytrail on January 18, 2008.