Northern California Wineries: J Winery

If Iron Horse’s ambience is rustic, J Winery’s http://www.jwine.com/ ambience is modern and sophisticated.  The J Tasting Bar and its Bubble Room are located in a modern concrete and glass building in Healdsburg that shares the same parking lot with the Rodney Strong Vineyard, making it ideal for stopping in for a quick taste of the bubbly just before going over to Rodney Strong for a jazz concert during the summer Rodney Strong Concert series.  The building was originally occupied by Piper Sonoma, the American brand of the French champagne house, Piper Heidseck, so champagne is in its blood (just a note that Piper Sonoma no longer has any tasting room in wine country).  However, the wonderful wall sculpture behind the Tasting Bar was put in place by Judy Jordan, the owner of J.  A picture of the Tasting Bar is here.  By the way, Judy Jordan is the daughter of Tom Jordan, who built Jordan Winery in Alexander Valley, an award-winning cabernet vintner. 

J produces excellent champagnes and was originally known mostly for the champagne, but has diversified into many other varietals – viognier, pinot gris, chardonnay, pinotage and pinot noir.  They also produce an excellent pear liqueur and a dessert wine. 

J also has the best wine and food pairing in Sonoma County in its Bubble Room.  It used to have the best wine and food pairing at its Tasting Bar in the main room, but the winery has just recently decided to discontinue that offering.  The Tasting Bar will still be serving flights of champagne and the other varietals that J offers; there just won’t be any food to go with.  It will be interesting to see if this does anything to reduce the large crowds that usually are a distinct disadvantage to visiting J on the weekends.

The food and wine pairings will still be available in the Bubble Room year-round and the J Terrace outside near the pond in the warmer months.  Reservations usually have to be made for the Bubble Room and the J Terrace.  This is not an inexpensive tasting because of the fine food that is presented with the tasting flights, but it is well worth the visit.  The champagne flight (currently four wines) is served with caviar; the other flights (a pinot noir flight and a white flight – pinot gris, chardonnay and viognier) are accompanied by various wonderful canapés and hors d’oeuvres designed to bring out the wines.  The chef, Mark Caldwell, is really an artist.

This winery also has a good wine club with a great holiday party – music, food and plenty of wine.

~ by bubblytrail on January 20, 2008.