Emily

When I sold the business in 1986 a friend of mine recommended applying at Alioto’s #8 in San Francisco where Nunzio Alioto had hired a Master Sommelier Ronn Wiegand to train a sommelier. The philosophy behind this is that years ago when I organized it by country, many people never bought, or found the smaller country wines like a Chardonnay from Golan Heights, Chile or Africa. There have been quite a few, but the ones that really stick out to me is Tom Metz-who was a sommelier on a cruise ship, and became a good friend, who talked me into applying for my first sommelier job at Alioto’s #8 in San Francisco Ronn Wiegand MS MW who was a calm and patient tutor as my first teacher Nunzio Alioto MS for his wealth of knowledge, and seriousness, he was always testing you Michael Bonaccorsi MS for being a great role model, who set a great example Reggie Narito MS for coaxing me to take the Court of Master Sommelier program, in which he continually tested me, pushed- me, and encouraged me to keep going, and not to give up. We also have a selection of 12 wines using the Coravin system where the guests can have the opportunity to try as little as 3 ounces of some extremely high-end bottles of wine and learn about them from the sommelier.

Within minutes I had a delicious glass of Thomas George Estates Sparkling Rose in my hand and Ernie (my niece who took an adventure with me to Healdsburg for the weekend! ) I’m so excited I haven’t done a cave tasting in years so was super excited for this. The interior of the cave looked like a Restoration Hardware  (possibly because the interior is all Restoration Hardware) meets a spectacular cave with endless bottles of fabulous wines. We weren’t the only ones loving this winery, Ernie was all smiles running around the cave, getting tons of attention from the team at Thomas George Estates.

With all the amazing wine I get the opportunity to drink I thought it would be fun to share a running list of the most interesting, exciting and fun wines I’m crushing on at the moment. Their Pinot Noir wines are beautiful with earthier, with an old-world style and amazing body, flavors, and tannins which I’m guessing will make this very great to age. Winemaker Cabell has quite an extensive winemaking history at well-known wineries such as Kosta-Browne, Dumol,  Flanagan Wines, as well as his own brand he currently makes wine for Works & Days in addition to Coursey Graves. No surprise this is another Winery producing stunning Pinot Noir and Chardonnay Wines and upon arriving I was welcomed by this lovely Sparkling Rose of Grenache.

The vibe feels similar to a Restoration Hardware store (which I love) with high lofted ceilings, a bit of the elevated barnyard vibe with spectacular views of the Alexander Valley steps just outside for guests to enjoy. The family was first working in cattle and wheat, then prunes and in 1963 they partnered with UC David who suggested they try planting Cabernet Sauvignon in the Alexander Valley region. Robert Young Estate Winery was one of the first growers in this region to grow Cabernet Sauvignon, look at the Alexander Valley now they’re known as the premier region in Sonoma County for Cabernet Sauvignon! The second Chardonnay I tried, which I adored (even more as the Alexander Valley Chardonnay was quite lovely), was the Clone 17, named after Robert Young’s proprietary clone developed for the family by UC Davis in the 1980’s.