posted 10-19-2008 09:17 AM            

Ledson Winery - the magnificent chateau caught our eyes from the highway - we had to stop. It was worth the stop to see the mansion, but the wines were nothing to write home about.

Next was Landmark. One of the owners is a granddaughter of the John Deere clan so there was plenty of JD memorability around. The wines were just okay.

On our list to stop each time we are in the valley is Chatteau St. Jean. Jean is my wife's name so we stop. They did have some excellent wines, the 2003 Reserve Merlot really stood out and I don't care for most Merlot's. There were several wines here that we enjoyed. Normally we don't visit the big box wineries, but have found out that some of them have wines only available at the winery that are very excellent. Here at St. Jean, you need to do the reserve tasting.

We stopped at the Family Wineries tasting room representing five wineries: Deerfield Ranch Winery, Mayo Family Winery, Noel Wine Cellars, Nelson Estate Winery and Meredith Wine Cellars. The tasting room was managed by Shaun who was fun and very knowledgeable. A petit sirah was our choice of the litter.

Another favorite place to stop is B. R. Cohn. The wines are all excellent and the tasting room features music, videos and pictures of the Doobie Brothers, who Mr. Cohn has represented since the 70s.

Our last stop was at a new winery for us, Muscardini. We came away with some Chardonnay, Zinfandel and Syrah, all very tasty.