Pinot and Pizza at Twomey Cellars

This past Saturday, Nancy and I and our wine buddy Dave decided to take a little road trip. We drove up to Healdsburg for the Twomey Cellars Pizza and Pinot Spring Release party. Twomey is part of he Silver Oak family and has two tasting rooms, one in Healdsburg and one in Calistoga. While Silver Oak makes the Cabernet Sauvignon, Twomey makes Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Merlot.

We had heard about the Twomey Release party via Twitter and it sounded like a fun thing to do. The weather was great and it is a nice scenic drive up through the wine country. We arrived a little after noon and were greeted with some souvenir wine glasses to taste with and to take home. We immediately headed for the tasting bar and were rewarded with the 2011 Sauvignon Blanc. This is an estate wine even though it doesn’t say so on the label. Some of the vines it came from are grown right in front of the winery.

The 2011 Sauvignon Blanc was very well made, no residual sugar, good acid, plenty of fruit and other flavors and no grassiness like New Zealand wines. I am not a fan of grassy Sauvignon Blanc so I like most California ones. This was an excellent wine to start the day with and will be great drinking while sitting in the backyard this summer. While we were enjoying the wine and talking to the pouring staff they brought in some of the pizza from the wood fired oven to try. It was a Spring Foragers Pizza made with Fiddle Head Ferns, Ramp Pesto, Mushrooms and Burrata Cheese. It was excellent and paired well with the wine.
After some time visiting in the tasting room we went outside to the patio and lawn area for Pinot Noir and more pizza. I took a few pictures while Nancy and Dave got a glass of the 2010 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir and the Short Rib Beef Bolognaise Pizza. Twomey had brought in a wood fired pizza oven and their chef Dominic Orsini made some fantastic pizzas. This oven was really hot, it cooks a small pizza in less than a minute.

After I took a few pictures I went and got a glass of the 2010 Russian River Pinot Noir and we sat down at a table on the grass to drink our wine and have more pizza. Servers kept circulating with different kinds of pizza and you only had to get up when you wanted more wine.

The first thing I noticed with the Russian River Pinot Noir was the nose. It was big perfumed fruit, all kinds of berries, just an incredible smell. The flavor was great and followed the nose. Each of the Pinot’s are made by winemaker Ben Cane. He is from Australia and has made wine around the world. His style is more like Burgundy but distinctly from the areas the grapes come from. The wines are all well balanced and he keeps the alcohol levels in the 13% range.

All three Pinot Noir were very good. The 2010 Russian River Pinot Noir had a huge nose and great berry flavors. The 2010 Anderson Valley Pinot was a little lighter wine with great complexity and strawberry, raspberry flavors. The 2010 Sonoma Coast Pinot started off a little subdued but really opened up as it sat in the glass. The longer it sat the more complex it became. Nancy and I both chose the Sonoma Coast as our favorite.

We spent a couple of hours at Twomey tasting each of the wines more than once and having several slices of pizza. We also spent a lot of time talking with the winemaker, the chef and other employees. Everyone was so friendly an knowledgable. It was really a great way to spend a sunny afternoon.