Santa Rosa’s St. Francis Winery & Vineyards.
Cover photo: Courtesty of Daedalus Howell
Even if penitence isn’t your gig, there’s a Sonoma County winery where you’ll certainly want to bow your head and say, “Bless me father, for I have zinned.”
Welcome to St. Francis Winery & Vineyards, Santa Rosa’s mission-style oasis of wine off Highway 12 in Santa Rosa. Named for St. Francis of Assisi—the namesake of hotels, hospitals, a pope, and a city he left his name in if not his heart—is also the de facto patron saint of local winemaking, thanks to its estimable efforts of a crackerjack team of winemakers and their way with “America’s Sweetheart Grape.”
Winemaker Katie Madigan, who personally oversees production of St. Francis Winery’s top-selling Zinfandels (Chris Louton focuses on the Bordeaux varietals), continues the winery’s long tradition of creating top-tier wines from Sonoma County grapes. One such wine—The Old Vines Zinfandel, Tres Viejos, Sonoma County, 2022, from the Artisan Collection—was on offer during a recent visit to the winery’s tasting room.
To get there, stroll past the statue of the aforementioned saint and through the arched passageway, which is below the bell tower. Time it right, and you might hear the sonorous note of the 1,000-pound bronze bell that chimes every hour, keeping time for anyone within earshot in the valley—which is everyone. If you survive, eardrums intact, you’ve earned the privilege of tasting a splash of the old vine zin.
Inside the tastefully appointed and expansive tasting room, visitors are encouraged to belly up to the bar and engage in conversation with one of the winery’s expert wine educators. A splash of the Tres Viejos Zin came compliments of wine educator Christina Baumann, who helped identify the flavors swirling in my glass.
“These are going to be the darker fruits definitely. I get more black cherry and dark berry on the palette, and some dark chocolate, just a nice peppery spice integrated throughout,” she observed.
What’s interesting to keep in mind is that the grapes whose juice became this wine were sourced from vines that are anywhere from 50 to 100 years old. Keeping vegetation alive this long, let alone producing a high-caliber varietal, is a small miracle as surely your houseplants can attest.
“The combination of these three different small production single vineyards is a winner,” Baumann added. Agreed.
Artisan Collection
That St. Francis’ mission statement is printed on the back of their employee business cards is testament to their commitment to the art of fine winemaking. It reads, “St. Francis Winery will consistently produce luscious, elegant, fruit driven wines that best interpret the richness and distinct varietal characteristics of Sonoma’s unique diverse terroir.”
Place is everything. Scratch that—wine is everything, but it has to start somewhere. And the purpose of the Artisan Collection is to spotlight certain vineyards and what they bring to the wine.
“We’re very blessed here with our estate vineyards as well as the long-term relationships with the incredible growers with vineyards that are in the prime AVAs and locations for growing phenomenal fruit,” says Rick Bonitati, president and CEO. “The Artisan Collection was really a way to express those individual sites that are also part of the blends of our nationally distributed wines.”
Moreover, it proved a means for the winemakers to showcase the compelling flavor characteristics of those individual sites, or microappellations. To that end, the 2022 Tres Viejos (Spanish for “Three Old Men,” a nickname of sorts for the Old Zin vineyards from which its fruit is sourced), draws from three American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in Sonoma County known for producing signature zins.
The Alexander Valley AVA is situated in the northeastern part of Sonoma County along the Russian River and enjoys a Mediterranean climate characterized by hot, sunny days and cool nights. Likewise, the juggernaut Russian River Valley AVA, which is centered on the eponymous river (and accounts for more than 16% of the total planted vineyard acreage in all of Sonoma County), has a consistently cooler climate thanks to coastal winds. As oenophiles might assume, the area is prime for growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but it also grows some desirable old-vine Zinfandel. Finally, in the southeast portion of the county is the Sonoma Valley AVA, where the oldest vineyards were originally planted with zin long before the cabs and chards for which it is now also known.
In the meantime, St. Francis Winery & Vineyards is committed to honoring the land that provides them with so much. The winery tends over 400 acres of Certified Sustainable estate vineyards in Sonoma Valley and the Russian River Valley. Moreover, sustainability is not merely a buzzword, it’s business as usual. The winery runs on solar power, takes care of the land it farms, and remains proudly family owned. Naturally, this is all to be expected—after all, St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of ecologists.
411
St. Francis Winery & Vineyards
Tasting Room & Hospitality Center
(707) 833-0242
100 Pythian Road at Hwy 12, Santa Rosa
10am–5pm daily by reservation