by Charles Neave
It’s not every day that The Wall Street Journal names a wine one of the twelve most memorable, so last September, when their tastings column talked about “A Winemaker’s Dozen” and said that “good wine is a product of personal passion” the good people at Christopher Creek Winery – and especially owners Fred and Pam  Wasserman – couldn’t have been more in agreement.
The wine the Journal chose to single out for this honor was the Christopher Creek 2003 Russian River Valley Petite Sirah. As if mere mention was not enough, they went on to describe as “smooth and beautifully made, like a soufflé of blackberries and bittersweet chocolate” and “simply amazing.” High praise but not all that unexpected to those who have made their way to the Healdsburg area in Sonoma County and have visited the winery’s casual tasting room.
The tasting room is inside a rugged barn-like building that also serves as the lab, barrel room, all-purpose storage area, winery office and home to the metal fermenters and the various bit and pieces of other machinery that you need to turn ripe grapes into great wine. The building is up a hill and a little out of the way (though really just a stone’s throw from busy Highway 101), which is all the better if your one goal is tasting wine.
The winery’s tasting room a comfortable if not overly spacious spot, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in charm. “It’s a nice size for a dozen people to taste, but we’ve been known to fit 18 people in on weekends,” allows winemaker Chris Russi with a laugh. But then everything at Christopher Creek is about the quality of the operation, not the statistics. And if things do get a little crowded there is always the option of taking your glass and one of the resident (and very friendly) dogs and going outside. Then you can taste as you look out over the hills and vineyards and, off in the distance a ways, the pastures that serve to remind you that much of the wine country is still very rural farm land. This is underscored further by the nicely-aged weathervane on the roof peak that depicts a cow. After all, to some degree this is still cattle country, though grapes have become more prevalent in recent years.
Wines available for tasting include such perennial favorites as their Chardonnay, Viognier, Russian River and Dry Creek Zinfandels, the Russian River Syrah, the Reserve Syrah and also their Petite Sirah and beginning this month, their Dry Creek Finlay’s Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. And what better place to taste them than in the building where they were made, where the people appreciate the effort and dedication that went into making them, and where the cows graze off in the distance.
The tasting room at Christopher Creek Winery is located at 641 Limerick Lane about three miles southwest of the town of Healdsburg. They are open to the public every day from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. or by appointment. For more information you can call them at (707) 433-2001 or go on the web at www.christophercreek.com.

Related Information

• Christopher Creek Winery
• 28th Annual Barrel Tasting Weekend - Russian River Wine Road