Editor Pick
Dutch Henry Winery - wine tasting
- February 19, 2001
- Rated 4 of 5 by
food&fun from Truckee, California
We first discovered Dutch Henry about 5 years ago, looking for small wineries that make pinot noir. It is a family-run winery, making only about 3000 cases a year of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Rose, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zinfandel. The pinot noir is so popular that the 300 cases they make sell out very quickly. The "tasting room" is a folding card table set up in a corner of their barrel-aging barn. Where most wineries have a sales staff running the tasting room, here your wine will be poured by the owners, Kendall Phelps (the older guy) or Scott Chaffen, who is the winemaker. Both are justifiably proud of their wines, which were even written up in the Wall Street Journal as being some of the top wines from small California wineries. They will ship and mail order, and they have a wine club that entitles you to discounts. When we first started buying their wines, the pinot was about $15/bottle. It, and the others, have crept up to the $25-35 range. If you really like their wine, you can join their Wine Club for discounts and automatic shipments of new releases. This is a fun place to taste just because it is so down-to-earth. You will probably be greeted by any or all of their three dogs. I particularly like the mellow Airedale. We arrived one rainy day when the sign said they were closed. Nevertheless, Scott Chaffen seemed eager to open a bottle for us, and poured himself a glass as well. Then he pulled out a "wine thief" (like a turkey baster) and pulled some out of the barrel for us to see how the next year's wine was developing! Try asking for that at one of the big wineries...
From journal A Taste of Napa