This past weekend Erica (pregnant with twins at 35 1/2 weeks) and I decided to head to Dry Creek Valley to visit our friends at Hawley Winery for their annual party.     

Hawley Winery & Vineyards is located ~1000 feet above sea level on the Eastern side of Bradford mountain overlooking Dry Creek Valley.   John has been heard to say that in order to make good wine, your grapes must have a beautiful view.   His winery certainly does have a beautiful view and his wine is pretty darn good as well. 

I first met John Hawley about 6 years ago when i was taking a night wine class and we had a "Field Trip" that brought us up to his winery.   I tasted the Viognier and swore that I would be back every year and havent missed a year since.    Since my first visit, he has added a Sonoma County Viogniers as well as several reds to his portfolio.  Both Viogniers are excellent expression of Terroir and I highly recommend both of them at under 25$ they are a great summer Quality Price Ratio (QPR) wine. 

Now back to the Party!!!

The Hawley clan typically pour upwards of 10 wines, serve great tri-tip, teryaki chicken & grilled prawns























show off Dana Hawley's beautiful paintings
























and this year they added live music in the form of a bluegrass trio that really made the place feel like a party.  (sorry guys, I didn't get the name of your band)













I come to buy the the Viognier, and to taste the reds .  Every now and then I find one that surprises me.   This year, I tasted the Ponzo Zinfandel and my oh my the sweet juice that made this luscious, sinful zin must have had an unbelievable view.   The blueberries that I tasted were like fireworks in my mouth.  For the first time in a long time, I was excited about a zinfandel again.     I highly recommend this wine.   At $26/bottle it's also a good buy.

































Erica sat in the sun and enjoyed the view and the music while I wandered through the crowd reintroducing myself to acquaintances that I see here once a year and taking a few snapshots of the bottles and the vineyard.





















The Merlot vines were just beginning to leaf and that threat of frost we had earlier in the week was nothing but a distant memory.     


  



























I dropped off a bottle of Dacalier Premiere Rose with Paul Hawley and we chatted about the things from wine to motorcycles to movies.   If you don't know, Paul is also a movie maker and they have a great independent movie called Corked.   You should check it out.   Part of it was filmed at the Hawley Winery.

After a few hours, of chit chat, wine tasting, gnoshing on great food and soaking up the sun, we picked up our annual 6 pack of viognier and a couple bottles of Ponzo Zin and  pointed the GMC south towards home.

Thank you Hawley Vineyard for another memorable visit.  I look forward to many more visits in the future and many more vintages of Viognier.

For more information on Hawley Winery click the link.

Cheers,

-dave