Sierra Foothills, Central Valley, Lodi

Everyone knows California wine, right? You have Napa, Sonoma, Santa Barbara, but what about the Sierra Foothills, Central Valley, Lodi regions? I didn’t even know there was such a place until last night!

Last night’s wine tasting helped me familiarize myself with some of the “deeper tracks” of California wines. Michael Murray of Gordon’s taught the class and presented 5 different wines from the respective regions.

We started with two white wines and a red wine: 2007 Bogle Sauvignon Blanc, 2007 Terre Rouge Enigma, and 2000 Terre Rouge Mouvedre.

The Bogle Sauvignon Blanc was a great “starter” wine. It was bright and vibrant with citrus flavors; a pretty standard Sauvignon Blanc. I liked it, but I didn’t love it, ya know?

The Terre Rouge Enigma was much more my style. It was rich and full-bodied with interesting, even exotic, fruit flavors. Yum!

The Easton Amador Zinfande had a nice and fruity, raisin-y flavor with a spicy, even zingy kick to it. It’d be a wonderful wine at a summertime BBQ.

Along with our wine tastes, we had some crackers and a couple of cheeses (goat and Fontina).

Wine tasting buddies: Beth and Mal!

On the second round of pours, we tried another Zinfandel and a Zinfandel blend.

The 2006 Ravenswood Lodi Zinfandel was less fruity and more complex than the Easton Amador. All of the flavors seemed to linger on my tongue. It was a really good wine!

The final wine of the evening was 2006 Bogle Phantom, which may have been my favorite red of the night. The Phantom was a blend of Petite Syrah and Zinfandel, and it was heavy, intense, and a little sweet. It was definitely my type of wine!

After the wine tasting, Mal and I went in search for our new favorite beer: Bourbon County! We fell in love with it at the Black Beer Affair last month. Bourdon County is a fairly expensive beer, so it’s definitely a special treat when we buy it. We’re saving it for this weekend!

While wandering around, I stumbled upon a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Matanzas Creek! I visited the winery back in November, so I was excited to see one of their bottles at Gordon’s.

All in all, another great event at Gordon’s! And, it was fun to go out on a “school” night!