Wine Press
California: Sipping Sonoma flavours
Doug Nalle likes to talk wine. A winemaker of 40 years, he embodies the Sonoman qualities of independence, free-thinking, and innovation.
The Dry Creek Valley winery, built on his wife Lee’s family’s land in the heart of Sonoma County, is a monument to doing things differently.
Nalle’s (rhymes with ball) wine is made under a 2m-thick rosemary-turf roof…
Nalle Winery—the North Bay Bohemian
If the label looks familiar, it might be because nearly every time a glossy magazine publishes a story about Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, a bottle of Nalle lurks amid the lineup of usual suspects. The winery, although camouflaged under a thick mat of rosemary bushes, is hard to miss, rising above the vineyards like some kind of New Age bunker.
From getting creative at art camp to bottling your own Zinfandel, here’s how to make your whole life as YOU as it can be.
You don’t need a winery (or a relation named Coppola) to be a winemaker. Here are the next best things, according to O, The Oprah Magazine—
What To Drink on Thanksgiving
While zinfandels are by nature rich, spicy, and mouth-filling, the market is flooded these days with monster-truck zins—dense, high-alcohol wines that, whatever virtues they may possess, tend to crush any food that gets in their way. Happily, there are still some producers who believe that table manners matter and who make zinfandels in a more genteel style—wines that will flatter the bird next Thursday rather than flatten it.
Zin’s sweet spot
Zinfandel is in many ways California’s most prosperous immigrant – an imported grape of modest origins that made it big in the New World. At the end of its journey to California, Zinfandel found a natural home in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley. It’s not a large appellation but Dry Creek claims the highest concentration of first-tier Zinfandel producers of any region in California. Its climate and soils are peculiarly suited to the variety, and now that generations of family farmers have honed their understanding of the grape, it’s clear that Zinfandel is not only the most important grape in Dry Creek Valley’s history, but also the key to its future.
‘Itinerary of tastings’ by June Wormsley
We visited another eight wineries on Sunday, including one that was not participating in Passport this year. Nalle Winery is operated by son Andrew, father and husband Doug and wife and mother Lee. Their wines appeal to everyone in the group and we all purchase here.
Old-Vine Wines: The term may be mushy, but the real thing is classy
The words old vines on the label usually translate to big price at the checkout stand. But for wine lovers in search of extra nuance, a bit more length and concentration in their wines, these oldsters are worth chasing. There is something ineffably grand about opening a wine made from vines planted 50, 80, 100-plus years ago.
Zinfandel: Is Bigger Better?
Today’s high-octane Zins seem to garner critical acclaim in direct relationship to their alcohol levels. Is the style suited to the substance? Three of Wine Enthusiast’s editors sound off.
View from the Cellar
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Nalle Zinfandel Wine Like a Member of the Family
“Wine shouldn’t be pretentious, but it doesn’t mean you can’t be serious about quality,” Nalle says. “We believe in cutting the pretentiousness out but giving people a serious, high-quality wine.”
Gourmet Magazine
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92 Points – Wine Spectator – 1987 Nalle Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley
A mouthful of pure Zin-ful pleasure. Extremely youthful, exuberant, firm texture and bustin’ out all over with raspberry, vanilla and floral complexity. Long and almost elegant on the finish. Best yet from Doug Nalle.
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