Hook & Ladder Estate Sangiovese 2010

In April we decided to do something we hadn't really done before - go wine tasting in Sonoma. Crazy, huh? We often go to wineries in the Santa Cruz mountains and the Santa Clara valley, those are basically our backyard. We've been to Paso Robles and Carmel Valley and the Santa Lucia Highlands, but aside from stopping at St. Francis, Sonoma wasn't a place we'd ever gotten around to. Preparing for a tasting trip in Sonoma is daunting. There are tens, if not hundreds, of wineries you can visit, either that are open on weekends or you can call ahead for an appointment. I asked some friends for advice, and they suggested a place in Russian River Valley. We weren't really impressed with it, but I'd seen good reviews for Hook & Ladder, which was right down the street, so we decided to go there next.

One really nice thing about Hook & Ladder is that they offer free tastings. They had several wines available, and they were happy to let us try as many of them as we wanted. That's pretty rare these days, when tastings can sometimes cost $10 or $15 and they only let you try 3 or 4 wines. The tasting room is decorated with firefighter t-shirts from around the world. We met a couple on vacation from Florida who came to this winery specifically because one of them was a firefighter.

The Hook & Ladder Sangiovese is good.  The nose is just lovely, like a new leather wallet. Also some smoke and fruit that reminded me of darkness. The taste was a little jammy at first but that softened up after a while. On the heavy bodied side for the varietal, but with a short finish. Sangiovese is an Italian varietal, so we had it with spaghetti and it was a nice pairing. Before every sip of this wine, I continued to really enjoy that nose. This is a nice table wine. I think we paid about $25 per bottle.

As for Sonoma, we went to a few places in the Russian River Valley and Dry Creek Valley, and here's a list of some we liked the most:

• Iron Horse - they specialize in sparkling wine
• Truett Hurst - we really enjoyed their wine and they have a lovely garden and creek view
• Russian River Vineyards - good pinot noir, they offered a lot of wines to taste