Wine Traveler visits the Dry Creek Inn - Healdsburg

Healdsburg’s Best Western Dry Creek Inn recently opened a completely new section to its inn. The section is Tuscan style and has 60 rooms that are quite a step up from the older rooms. The room we stayed in was spacious and equipped with a gas fireplace, flat screen TV, jetted tub, and wireless Internet access. Outside our sliding door were a patio, spa, and an outdoor fireplace. The weather was so cold we could not take advantage of the outdoors but we sure did love the gas fireplace.

The new section contains the Krug Event Center, a fitness room, and a large room where breakfast is served to guests. The Krug Event Center (no relation to the Charles Krug Winery) is a facility for business conferences, weddings, and the like.

Every thing was wonderful about our stay, especially the price. We paid $90 for our room. But, there is one major mistake in each room like ours that is sure to make guests unhappy. Our first thought was what a blunder, what a nightmare! The problem is there is no way to turn on the shower without getting sprayed with cold water. The shower is tiny by any standard but in order to turn on the hot and cold water you must be in the shower. Unless you have unusually long arms, there is no way around this. We asked the management about it and he said it would be taken care of soon. Wow, what a gaffe.

Healdsburg has become quite the popular wine town and you can bet that these rooms will be hard to come by on weekends beginning in the spring and through the fall months. Winter is a good time to find deals here. Lodging in Healdsburg is expensive and it is extremely hard to find a good value in this town. Perhaps the addition of this section to the Dry Creek Inn will ease the crunch and bring the prices back to a reasonable level. I am not holding my breath.

The Dry Creek Inn is located on Dry Creek Road just east of the Dry Creek Exit off Highway 101 in Healdsburg. It is one mile from the main part of town and there are many wineries within east driving distance.

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Wine Traveler Visits Stryker-Sonoma Winery

Stryker is fairly new winery in the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County. The first impression when you walk toward the entrance is the elegance. The owners obviously spared no expenses. The building is a beauty nestled among the vineyards of the Alexander Valley. The tasting room is a large and spacious open room. Picture windows behind the tasting counter fill the tasting room with light and gorgeous views of the vineyards.

Best of all, the elegance of Stryker extends to their wines. Stryker has a good selection of estate vineyards, like their old vine Zinfandel just outside the door. But many of their wines are produced from grapes purchased from specific vineyards, like Speedy Creek in Knight's Valley. Stryker makes a large number of different wines. They have around 15 different labels of wines and most of them are made in small size lots. In total they make as much as 20,000 cases annually.

The wines we tasted on our visit were all tasty but two absolutely blew us away. The first was a Sangiovese with a screw top. The price is $25 for this delicious full-bodied Sangiovese. The second wine was a Petit Verdot from the Speedy Creek Vineyard in the Knights Valley. This is a 100 percent Petit Verdot and it has layers of juicy flavors throughout. The price is $32.

If you like to enjoy a picnic lunch, we highly recommend Stryker. Their picnic area is among the best and most attractive in the Alexander Valley.

Stryker is located on Highway 128. See Google Map for directions.


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The Wine Traveler Visits Mauritson Wines

You can’t miss the big olive green barn structure as you drive along Dry Creek Road near Healdsburg. This is where the Mauritson Family makes their wines. Although one of the newer wineries on the Dry Creek Road, the family has been around for as long as anyone in the Dry Creek Valley. Before becoming a winery, the family farmed vast acres of vineyards and sold grapes to many a vintner in the Dry Creek and elsewhere. All of this started back in 1884. In the 1990’s the Mauritson family decide to make their own wines. Clay Mauritson is the wine maker while the rest of the family tends to the vines and other winery business.

This is one of the very few wineries where I am a wine club member. The reason I joined the wine club at Mauritson was to get my hands on the wines from the Rockpile AVA. There are only about 160 acres of vineyards in Rockpile and the Mauritson Family happens to own 34 of those. As a wine club member, you have first shot at buying these wines and there is a six-bottle limit of each label that you can purchase. At a futures party, we barrel tasted the Rockpile wines and they all seem like they will be very good.

We took a wine tour of Rockpile last summer and were amazed that it is possible to grow grapes there. First of all the location is deep into the recesses of the Dry Creek Valley. From the top of Rockpile you can see Lake Sonoma deep down in the valley. By the way, the Mauritson family once owned tons of acres there but the Government pulled “Eminent Domain” on them so the Army Corp of Engineers could build Lake Sonoma. The Rockpile area is above the summer fog line so it gets lots of sun. The hillsides are very rocky and dry. A fierce afternoon wind, along with the dry soil, stresses the vines to grow deep into the rocks. The results are grape clusters with small berries and thick skins and thus the opportunity to produce wines that are very rich and complex with flavors.

Somehow the Mauritson Rockpile wines are very smooth despite the high alcohol content, usually around 15%. The Mauritsons make three or four vineyard designated Rockpile wines, such as Cemetery or Jack’s Cabin Zinfandel. They also make a rich Petite Syrah and next year will be releasing a Rockpile Malbec for the first time.

The staff at Mauritson is one of the friendliest around. It is like one big happy family. The Mauritson winery is a delight to visit.

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