Twomey
Wine tasting with a touch of class
Do you ever go somewhere and come out of it thinking, “Now that was classy!” And I don’t mean the raised-eyebrow, sarcastic-shake-of-the-head kind of classy which is really anything but. Nor the overstuffed, pretentious, trying-to-impress-you kind of classy either. I mean really, truly classy, the kind that pays attention to all the little details and is comfortable enough in its own skin to put you at your ease as well.
That’s exactly how our tasting at Twomey was the other day.
Twomey’s Anderson Valley tasting room, at the old Lazy Creek vineyard. Photo courtesy of Twomey.
We stepped out of the car into the gorgeous sunshine of an unexpectedly fine winter afternoon and headed over to the spacious covered patio where the winery had set up the majority of their outside tastings. We were running rather late for our reservation because we had unfortunately missed the sign on Hwy 128 and almost made it into Philo before realizing we had gone too far, but the host still greeted us warmly and welcomed us to our table. They had us set up just inside the arch leading out to the well-established gardens below, where we could see other folks tucked into charming corners of sun and sipping on their wine. We settled in and perused the tasting cards with the name of our little party printed on them. There was a small pitcher with fresh-cut narcissus in the center of the table, and the crisp light coming through the transparent walls of the awning sparkled along the lineup of delicate glasses that the host had already poured for us with each of the wines we were going to be sampling.
A lovely line-up indeed!
Now if you aren’t familiar with Twomey, this offshoot of the Silver Oak family of wineries has been maturing their single vineyard focus and passion for crafting the finest wines they can over the past 20 years. Based in Healdsburg, with another tasting room in Napa and a third in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, they opened up their fourth tasting room just outside of Philo in 2019 after buying the old Lazy Creek Vineyard, the 2nd oldest vineyard in the Anderson Valley. Besides their own vineyards cultivated across California’s beautifully varied wine regions and into Oregon, they source their fruit from other select vineyards such as Ferrington, which is owned by Sarah’s father and is the source for most of the fruit that goes into the Fathers + Daughters wines… so they have a close claim to our hearts!
We sipped our way back and forth through the wines that had been poured for us, focusing on the trio of 2018 Pinots from the Anderson Valley, the Russian River, and the Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley. It was a delightful, relaxed opportunity to savor the differences between three of the different wine regions Twomey sources from. Tasting room manager Jessica Van Grieken came over to walk us through the different wines and tell us a little bit about the history of Twomey and the Lazy Creek Vineyard and catch us up on her and her fiancée’s upcoming wedding plans (they are friends of Guy and Sarah and had just been out to stay at the inn on Christmas Eve). We laughed. We nibbled on the crackers Jessica put out for us. We shared stories. We pondered the future with hope. And in between it all, we exclaimed over this wine or that, trying and failing to come to a group consensus on which was the best of the consistently delicious lot of them.
My personal favorite of the day - includes some of the grapes from Ferrington! Although we were tasting the 2018… I wonder how the 2017 compares…..
So what was so classy about the whole experience? Was it the simple gray placemats that framed each person’s set of glasses? Was it the personalized tasting notes? Was it the ease with which the tasting room staff set us up and breezed in and out to tell us about the wines or ask how we were doing? Was it the rustically elegant gift shop? The high quality bags in which Jessica handed over the wines we couldn’t leave without? The sweet bouquet of fresh flowers on the table? The discreet heaters warming us gently from overhead? Yes. It was all of that and more, and to see what exactly I mean, you’ll have to go and see for yourself…
Twomey is open for tastings by appointment Friday-Monday, 10:00am-5:00pm. Tastings are $15 per person, with the fee waived for Club members. If you are driving to them from the west, be aware that their sign faces east and can be easy to miss – just remember that they are the next exit on the left/north after Roederer and Husch!
Words and some photos by Laura Hockett