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Posted March 2006
A Virtual Visit to Imagery
Estate Winery
By Thom
Elkjer
The tasting room at Imagery Estate Winery is a multimedia experience
of the best kind, because it involves all your senses. In addition
to an abundance of wine varieties – many available only in the
tasting room – there is both fine art and wine label art to fill
your eyes, and the sound of intelligent wine education to please
your ears. You can also heft some bocce balls before or after
you raise a glass to taste wine, or take a picnic outside into
the sun or shade.
My preferred pastime here is checking out the winery’s progress
with grapes such as Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot,
which most wineries blend away into Cab and Merlot. Here they
are bottled on their own, as are relative unknowns such as Barbera
and Lagrein. Of course you can also sample standard varietals
including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Sirah, Syrah and
Zinfandel. At the same time, Imagery is not afraid to create
its own offbeat blends, including the two whites reviewed below
and some knock-out reds.
Most intriguingly, the winery is now drawing on biodynamically
grown grapes from the Benziger family’s Sonoma Valley vineyard
holdings, so if you’re curious about where the wine industry is
heading in terms of viticultural practices, be sure to ask when
you visit. The tasting room is in Sonoma Valley, on Highway 12
a few miles north of the town of Sonoma (open daily until 4:30
in spring and 5:30 in summer; 877.550.4278 or 707.935.4515). Here
are some wines to look for:
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Imagery White Table Wine Sonoma County
“Wow Oui White Bordeaux” 2004 ($24): they could have
called it Sauvignon Blanc, but what fun is that? Especially
when you’ve got this Muscat-kissed pink grapefruit of
a wine brimming with floral aromas. The soft texture
and dark finish keep things in balance, enabling the
wine to stand alone or stand up to an astonishing array
of foods. |
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Imagery White Table Wine North Coast
“White Burgundy” 2004 ($27): this blend of Chardonnay,
Pinot Gris and Pinot Meunier joins the growing list of wonderful
white blends coming out of California wineries these
days. Full of flavor, body and texture, firmed up with
good wood, and crowned with a long, luxurious aftertaste
worth savoring. |
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Imagery Barbera Sonoma Valley 2003
($35): Rich, dark and sweet, with a core of anise
and black licorice running down the juicy, sappy center,
this bears little resemblance to the dried cherries of
Italian Barbera. So if you take some of this home, saddle
up for steak and string fries or lamb chops grilled in
rosemary, and make sure you have a second bottle handy. |
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Imagery Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Valley
Sunny Slope Vineyard 2002 ($47): I wanted to just
keep sniffing. In the mouth it’s a cedary, forest-floor
version of Cabernet, with the plummy sweetness on the
back end rather than in the foreground. The wine is clearly
built to age a few years before the tannins soften and
the flavors integrate, so stash a few bottles now for
a memorable dinner party down the road. |
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