Rhone Rangers Summer Celebration This Sunday in Sonoma - Get $15 Off Your Ticket with this Code

This weekend taste, taste, taste–and eat–in a convenient Sonoma location with lovely green gardens and enjoy wines from what are CLIMATE SMART grape varieties. Rhone varieties grow well in hot, dry places–a huge plus as the climate continues to warm.

From the organizers: 

"Enjoy an afternoon wine tasting in the cabana garden at Cline Family Cellars in Sonoma, with 30 Rhone Rangers from throughout the USA!  

Discover new favorites from Clairette Blanche, Picpoul Blanc, Cinsault, and Vaccarèse to the more well-known Rhone varietals Viognier, Grenache, and Syrah, PLUS white and red-Rhone blends."

Menu



Includes light bites from Delicious Dish and Live Music with Highway One

Herby Castelfranco Olive Tartlets

Pickled Watmaugh Strawberry 

Iberico Ham Caprese Skewer

Lemon Fried Chicken with Corn & Tomato Salad

Charcuterie

Who's Organic at the Rhone Rangers Event This Sunday

Featured wineries come from Sonoma, Napa, El Dorado, Lodi, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara County, Ojai, Oregon, and Texas.

Among the 30 wineries participating in this Sunday's event, these seven have wines from organically grown grapes:

• Alta Collina

• Extradimensional Wine Co. Yeah!

• Lasseter Family Winery (100%)

• Ridge Vineyards 

• Tablas Creek Vineyard 

• Troon Vineyard (100%)

• Winery Sixteen 600 (100%)

Several also have organically grown wines in boxed formats – how eco can you get! 

Discounts

Enter Promo Code SUMMER and save $15 on your wine tasting ticket.

Tickets are regularly $87.00. Order here.

Tis the Season for New Whites–Assyrtiko from Napa? Or how about Fiano?

For organic, biodynamic and regenerative wine grape veteran Mark Neal, white wines are what’s new.

Neal, a major organic expert who’s converted close to 1,000 acres in Napa to organic viticulture, has been making Sauvignon Blanc, like many in Napa, and added a Mediterranean grape–Vermentino–which originated in Sardinia but is now popular in the Languedoc-Rhone region. 

His Cabernets, grown his Howell Mountain site and his family’s Rutherford site, have been one of Napa’s better kept secrets for years. But now his whites could achieve notoriety, too. 

He’s doggedly refined a technique he started trying out in 1997 of stacking vines–growing two different grape varieties in the same row–a red on top and a white underneath–giving him a bigger sandbox to play in. These climate-resilient whites are the result.

Now he’s releasing the new fruits of his unique trellising system with two new whites.

If you‘ve visited southern Italy, you may have tried the medium bodied Fiano, a popular grape there where it’s often paired with fish. 

If you’ve been to Santorini, the racy white, Assyrtiko, may have graced your table. 

Now you can try Neal Family’s first vintages of each. 

I’ll let his email fill you in on the details. 

“Our 2024 Rutherford Dust Fiano has ancient roots in Italy’s Campania region and thrives in our cool, coastal-influenced Napa Valley microclimate. The 2023 vintage opens with honeysuckle, jasmine, white peach, and sandalwood aromas. On the palate, it’s medium-bodied and broad, with notes of ripe white peach, honeyed pear, lemon, and orange peel, a vibrant, complex white that shines solo or with seafood and poultry.

Harvested: 9/17/24

Fermentation: 100% barrel in French & European 500L puncheons

Maturation: 7 months, 20% new oak

Alcohol: 13.7%

Production: 264 cases

$42/bottle

Mark’s passion for Assyrtiko was sparked on a trip to Santorini in the summer of 1980. Years later, this vision took root in Napa Valley. Our 2024 Rutherford Dust Assyrtikobursts with lemon, mandarin, grapefruit, orange blossom, yellow peach, apricot, and honeydew. The palate is powerful yet refined, finishing with a distinct saline, wet stone minerality—a nod to its Greek origins.

Harvested: 9/26/24

Fermentation: Stainless steel to barrel

Maturation: 7 months in 225L barrels & 500L puncheons (20% new)

It’s worth noting that Neal’s not alone in seeking out these Mediterranean varieties to grow. Long time organic growers and vintners at Napa Wine Co.’s Ghost Block are also planting some Assyrtiko. 

Climate is not waiting, so these seem like smart moves.