Sbragia: Unbelievable Views of Sonoma and Some Delicious Zin

About 6 weeks ago I visited Sbragia Family Vineyards (pronounced SBRRAH-jahh).

I went with some trepidation, after a friend who works for Foster's, a major wine conglomerate, told me that she could help arrange a tasting for me since it was part of their "family of brands."

Having worked at a gi-normous, hulking winery in California for several years, the offer had a loaded meaning for me. There were a few "family wineries" that said Hulking Winery had acquired and these were just corporate extensions of their big-ass adoptive parent. It bugged me because these formerly independent properties always had a very slick feel to them, post-takeover. They had marketing stories. They sold lots and lots of commercial products (tchotckes) inside the tasting rooms. It was all just too polished. I was worried Sbragia would be the same story.

But I also had hope for Sbragia. It was recommended by some Facebook fans and given that I'm all about what YOU want to know about, I was excited to go explore. That said, I didn't follow up on the offer from my friend and instead just did a drop in to see what it was really like.

Here's the weird thing about Sbragia. I found out that although Foster's does do marketing for the company (and it is kind of too slick for my taste), it really is a family affair. The brand was started in 2002 by Ed Sbragia, who has been the head winemaker at Beringer Estates for 30+ years (before you get too judge-y on Beringer, their low end stuff is bad and they make an assload of White Zinfandel, but their higher tier stuff is amazing. They are one of the oldest operations in Napa and their small lot Cabernets are awesome). Ed started Sbragia as a side project and then recruited his son to make wine with him. His son is a third generation winemaker, as Ed's dad, Gino Sbragia, was also a winemaker.

Four years after launching and using Beringer's equipment to make some smaller lots, the Sbragias bought a tasting room high on a hill with an amazing view of the Dry Creek Valley from Lake Sonoma Winery. Since that point, Sbragia has grown to 8,000 cases, making 13 different wines from five varieties (Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon).

When MC Ice and I arrived it was pouring rain (my leopard print flats were drenched and I looked like a drowned rat -- hence the lack of pictures of me inside this place!). That said, the unbelievable view of the Sonoma Dam and the Dry Creek Valley were a draw for many -- the tasting room was packed. It's a huge space, with a very corporate feel, but despite that, the people working there were quite courteous and helpful. The place wasn't fun per se -- it was not boutique or especially warm -- but the staff was attentive and the people we dealt with managed the chaos around them really well. I don't know if I'd go back, but then again, maybe I would since on a sunny day we could soak in the sun outside on their huge deck and enjoy the insane views of the valley!

Sbragia's big flagships are Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon. They do no blending -- everything is vineyard designated and several of the vineyards have 50+ year old vines.

Even though Ed Sbragia is a master with Cabernet because of his experience at Beringer, we were in the Dry Creek -- an area famed for Zinfandel, so we tried Sbragia's three Zins and their best Sonoma Cabernet. Although the staff touted its merits, I really didn't want to be drinking Napa Cab when I was in Sonoma -- I felt like it was disrespectful (Sonoma people generally dislike Napa folks, BTW. Just bring up the fact that you were in Napa to the tasting room peeps. You may get a comment like, "Oh, I'm so sorry!" As I said when I discussed Napa, you've got to choose wisely or you'll understand firsthand why the Sonoma folks say that!).

The Sbragias are proud of their heritage, as you'll see from the names of the wines...

Wine 1: Italo's Zinfandel
Where It's From: Alexander Valley, Sonoma County, California
The Grapes: Zinfandel and Petite Sirah (I don't know the percentages, but it's at least 75% Zin!)
Vintage: 2007
Price: $28

This wine is from an old vineyard that the Sbragia family bought right after Prohibition, in the 1930s. Gino Sbragia and his brother Italo, started a winery that quickly failed. Needing to support his family, Gino went to work for a winery in San Francisco. Italo bought him out and lived and worked on the property his whole life.

The vineyards are located in the Alexander Valley, northeast of the Dry Creek Valley. It's a pretty warm area, which means grapes get very ripe and generally have high alcohol (remember that ripeness=high sugars and sugar converts to alcohol in fermentation). This is the second vintage of this wine, whose vines certainly have deep roots (pun intended).

Color: For a Zin, this was a pretty light color -- more light ruby than the rich maroon or crimson that I normally would expect in a flavorful, jammy Zin. The color indicated this could be a lighter style wine.

Smell: The wine had some really nice components. It was smelled like a berry pie -- baked blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries combined with warm cinnamon and nutmeg spice hit me instantly. There was a rich black pepper component too. It was shaping up to smell like the kind of Zinfandel I like and expect from Sonoma.

Taste: It tasted just like it smelled. I felt like I was munching on a warm berry pie -- the baked berries flavors were complemented by nutmeg and cinnamon. That delicious black pepper component stuck around on the finish. The wine had a hot feeling from the 14.3% alcohol too, but on a cold, rainy afternoon, it was welcome!

Drink or down the sink? Loved this Zin. You will rarely find me singing the praises of a jammy, unabashed, big fruit wine, but in Zinfandel, this is what I like and expect. I don't need much in a glass of Zin but big fruit, warm spice, and black pepper. Check. Check. Check. This is a great bottle of Zin.

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Wine 2: Gino's Vineyard Zinfandel
Where It's From: Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, California
The Grapes: 85% Zinfandel, 10% Carignane, 5% Petite Sirah
Vintage: 2007
Price: $28

Named after Ed Sbragia's dad, the five acre vineyard is 52 years old and the mix of grapes is an homage to the blend Gino used to make.

Color: A rich, dark center with a lighter pinkish rim, I expected more flavor from this than the lighter colored Italo's Zin.

Smell: I smelled a lot of oak on this wine instantly. There was an essence of warm, cooked berries, but the overwhelming smell was from oak -- vanilla, leather, and spice. It was similar to the Italo's Zin but with less fruit and more oak.

Taste: A very fruity Zin but with a soft finish. The wine was more like a cherry rhubarb pie with a little spice, than a rich berry pie. It was slightly less ripe and fruity than the Italo's Zin. There was a little bite on the finish and just a touch of bitterness and astringent tannins.

Drink or down the sink? A good wine, but I prefer the rich, ripe, abundant fruit in the Italo's Zin. The bitterness and bite from the Carignan and the Petite Sirah in the blend took away from the richness of the Zin. For me, Zin is all about the big fruit and spice and this wasn't quite there. That said, this was still a delicious wine and really well made. __________________________________________________________________

Wine 3: La Promessa Zinfandel
Where It's From: Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, California
The Grapes: 100% Zinfandel
Vintage: 2007
Price: $32

La Promessa means "the promise" in Italian. Ed Sbragia says the vineyard represents the promise he made to Gino to keep winemaking alive in the family. The vineyard is right next to the Winery, in a very hot part of the Dry Creek Valley.

Color: The wine was a saturated maroon and very viscous. 15.4% alcohol will give you very thick, gloppy legs on the sides of the glass, as the alcohol separates from the water and runs down the sides of the glass very S-L-O-W-L-Y. Clearly the alcohol was going to burn my esophagus!

Smell: A totally different wine from the previous two, this was all about non-fruit flavors for me. It had a burnt quality to it -- like charred oak. There were distinguished smells of maple glazed ham or bacon. The wine smelled like cooking fat and like balsamic vinegar, but not as if the wine had turned -- I think this may have been an alcohol-like smell that I interpreted as vinegar.

Taste: A unique wine, it tasted to me more like a liqueur than a fruity Zinfandel. Brandy and a peppermint schnapps essence mingled with some astringent, mouth-drying tannins and high, hot alcohol to produce a wine that had less distinctive flavor, but lots of layered texture.

Drink or down the sink? La Promessa was more like a brandy to me than a Zinfandel. It's definitely a style of Zin that many people like. I'm not really one of them. I thought this lacked the balance of the other wines -- there was virtually no fruit, just prodigous alcohol. Not my style. I think this wine was just ok, and not as good as the previous ones. __________________________________________________________________

Wine 4: Monte Rosso Cabernet Sauvignon
Where It's From: Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, California
The Grapes: 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc
Vintage: 2007
Price: $50

This is an interesting wine from a vineyard I've had the luck of visiting many a time. Monte Rosso, meaning "red mountain," is named so because the rocky, iron-rich soil is a reddish color. Located high in the Mayacamas Mountains (900-1200 feet), which separate Sonoma in the west from Napa in the east, the vineyard is coveted and although owned by the Louis M. Martini Winery, the fruit is sold to a number of producers who generally make outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon. This is Sbragia's 7th vintage of this wine and the only Cab we tasted.

Color: The wine was black plum colored. The dark maroon stained the glass on the swirl. It looked like a big, juicy, fruity wine.

Smell: There was a distinct fruit compote aroma. It was like stewed dark berries but also had a bit of orange rind smell to it with a touch of black pepper. The oak brought out leather, mocha, espresso, and bitter chocolate. It seemed complex and delicious from the smell.

Taste: The wine was complex. Blueberry notes with warm spice were prevalent, but this insanely distinct chocolate pecan pie flavor dominated...in a good way. The wine had a little tobacco note and a smokiness that as great. The tannins weren't blockbuster, which was good, but they were certainly noticeable and provided a good foil to all the fruit and nut flavors.

Drink or down the sink? Drink. This is a good wine. It has nice complexity, so it makes you think about what you're drinking but it also has some of the simple pleasures that you can expect from a California Cabernet -- big fruit, chocolate, and spice. For $50 it's a great deal and although it didn't set my world on fire, I think it's enjoyable and something you could serve to friends on a cold winter night and be very satisfied!

All in all, although I wish it were a little more intimate in feel (and that the weather had been better!), our experience at Sbragia was great...and as I said, if you don't like the wine, you'll at least LOVE the view!