As appeared in “It’s Time For Wine” by Monty and Sara Preiser on 8/20/2009.

New Finds and Interesting News in 09

PART ONE of THREE

One of our best received series of columns each year deals with the new wineries we have discovered and recommend during our summer spent in California. For purposes of this article we use the term “wineries” in the broadest possible sense, meaning that while we include the traditional facility, we also include wines that have an independent label and are custom produced at a facility not owned by the wine’s producer. In other words, the vintner owns a wine, but not a brick and mortar winery. S/he merely rents the winemaking facility.

This year we have found some real beauties we will mention about below, along with a word or two about some of our favorite bottles of wine from each.

Sodaro Estate:

Some wineries sit on gorgeous properties but cannot produce wine to match. Others craft a wonderful product without a showcase winery at all. Sodaro Estate, however, has it all. The panoramic scene will grab you as soon as you arrive, and will influence you throughout your tour with Kari DiFabio (appointments necessary) and the subsequent tasting of two special wines at prices that are stunning.

-2005 Felicity Cabernet Sauvignon ($40): Bright red cherries and black plums brilliantly burst on the mid palate. There may be some 2004 available, but we preferred the 2005.

-2005 Sodaro Estate Cabernet Sauvignon ($65): We think this wine reflects the more & more recognizable Coombsville characteristics of big fruit &  “dirt” on the finish. The approachable tannins want meat, especially with hints of clove & peppercorn throughout.

This week Don Sodaro announced his company Hanford Hotels, Inc will be transforming its Holiday Inn property in Costa Mesa, CA into The Hotel Hanford.  Along with the new name, plans are underway for a $7 million restoration of the inside and outside of the hotel.

The full article as featured on the front page of the OC Business Journal may be viewed on the Hanford Hotels, Inc website here: http://www.hanfordhotels.com/press_room.html

A new video tour and tasting at Sodaro Estate Winery is located on our MEDIA page. Click to view this short clip featuring our Winemaker Dawnine Dyer and our Director of Sales & Marketing, Kari DiFabio.

Auction Napa Valley benefits local Napa charities including health care organizations, youth services, and low-income housing.

Bid on Sodaro Estate Winery - Lot 483 HERE

Details:

Don and Deedee Sodaro invite you and five guests to join them and their award-winning winemaker, Dawnine Dyer, for a private luncheon among the hillsides and alluvial terraces of the winery and vineyard. As a special gift, the winner will be presented a limited-edition, specially etched double magnum of our 2005 felicity Cabernet Sauvignon. Less than 10 of these ornate large-format bottles exist. Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience a side of Napa Valley that few ever have! To be scheduled for a mutually agreeable date.

Don’t wait around to receive your wine

Sodaro Estate Winery is now offering 2-day and Overnight shipping on all wine purchases.  Go to www.sodarowines.com and check out our new shipping options and pricing.

Because the expansive panoramic view from Sodaro Estate Winery is so dramatic, it is often the most prominent feature in our guests’ initial observations of our unique property.  That is of course until the massive doorway of our dual-chamber wine cave opens.  Set within its ocher rock walls, which were formed by an ancient volcano, lies the nerve center of our winery operations.

The following excerpt appeared in the New York Times a few years ago after the completion of our wine cave construction, and offers some interesting history behind this fascinating feature.

The Industry: Cellar’s Market

By MATT LEE and TED LEE

Published: March 6, 2005

It was a few minutes after 7 in the morning, and Georges, 31, a project engineer for Glen Ragsdale Underground Associates, one of a handful of firms in the area licensed to dig wine-storage caves, was driving to a job for the motel magnate turned winery owner Don Sodaro. Georges pulled off the Silverado Trail onto a narrower road, past vineyards and horse farms. A wild turkey crossed in front of him, and he slowed the truck to a crawl.

”See that hill?” Georges asked, pointing to a golden bluff dotted with oaks. ”The tunnel’s inside that. The big appeal for a winemaker is that you can have a very large structure and it’s discreet — you can hide a lot of wine in there.”

Until recently, the only wine caves in the Napa Valley were the few dug in the 19th century by Chinese laborers using pickaxes and shovels. But thanks to Napa County’s zoning ordinances, more wine entrepreneurs have taken to digging underground, and the valley’s cave business is booming.

Invisibility is one component of a wine cave’s appeal, but there are other advantages to storing wine in the earth. The temperature, a more-or-less constant 57 degrees, eliminates the need for expensive heating and air-conditioning systems; and the humidity of a wine cave hovers around 85 percent, a fact Georges claims saves eight bottles per barrel of wine each year that would otherwise be lost to evaporation in above-ground warehouses. (At Sodaro’s cave, a relatively modest 3,000 square feet capable of storing 210 oak barrels, such savings would amount to 140 cases of wine a year.)

Georges’s team had been digging the Sodaro tunnel for three months, and the walls of the cave had been coated with their first layer of shotcrete. The crew leader drove the roadheader, scouring away at the cave wall — an ocher rock that was formed by an ancient volcano.

Read the full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/magazine/06INDUSTY.html?_r=1

The sun is shining and the fresh smells of summer hang in the air.

We’d like you and five friends to join us for a private luncheon overlooking the beautiful rolling landscape of the one-of-a-kind Sodaro Estate Vineyard.  With plenty of wine and food to go around, you will be hosted by owners Don & Deedee Sodaro, and joined by our Winemakers Bill & Dawnine Dyer.

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This Day is For You

You work hard.  Come relax and enjoy good food, good friends, and a view you have to see to believe.  We’ll drink wine, have some good laughs, and give you an inside look at winery life that few ever see.

A Special Gift

When our day together comes to a close, we’ll present you with a limited edition Double Magnum of our 2005 felicity Cabernet Sauvignon.  Less than 10 of these bottles are in existence.

How to Win

On May 22nd, the Napa Valley Vintner’s E-Auction will open.  Simply bid on Sodaro Estate Winery’s lot, and keep up with ongoing results until the auction closing on Friday, June 5.  All proceeds go to non-profit organizations in the Napa Valley.

For more information, go to the Napa Valley Vintner Website at http://www.napavintners.com, and check back with us as the event gets closer.  We’ll have specific log-in information available for your convenience.

We can’t wait to meet you.

Find us on Twitter, gchat, and more.

Sodaro Estate Winery may draw a lot of passion from its rich heritage, but that doesn’t mean we’re not looking towards the future as well.

Want to know what we’re thinking? Find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sodarowines

Want to chat? Talk to us conveniently and casually on gchat: sodarowines

Want to receive updates without constantly checking our webpage? Subscribe to our feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScionSays

Cheers!

On Saturday March 21st, the Pacific Coast Wine Festival will be held at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach, CA.  Don and Deedee Sodaro have donated a case of our 2004 felicity Cabernet Sauvignon to be auctioned off for the benefit of the Pacific Symphony.

Sodaro Estate at Pacific Coast Wine Festival

For more information, log onto http://www.pacificsymphony.org/anypage.php?cpid=227