Great Wines of Sonoma County/ Balleto Vineyards and Winery /Valette Healdsburg

We have enjoyed many great wines recently with Valette Healdsburg. Today we have two great red wines and Harry Byran will pour these wines for us. First let's check out the tasting notes on these great wines from Balletto Vineyards and Winery. Founder and owner John Balletto started the business after the untimely death of his father in 1977. At the age of 17, when the family needed him the most, he put their needs before his own and relinquished several college athletic scholarship offers so he could stay home and help his mother, Hazel, run the small five-acre farm. The Balletto family was determined to make the business a success, and throughout the 1980s and 1990s they purchased parcels of land to gradually increase vegetable production. One of those properties is where the Balletto Vineyards winery stands today. By 1994, the Balletto family had grown the business into the largest vegetable farm in Northern California, growing more than 70 different vegetables on 700-plus acres. More than two million cases of mixed vegetables moved through the premises per year during its peak. Determined to overcome the adversity John and Terri set their sights on the wine grape growing business. The family already owned 35 acres of vineyards on their home ranch in the western hills of Sebastopol. Subsequently, they converted all of their vegetable farming land to estate vineyards over a three-year period-planting primarily Pinot Noir and Chardonnay-and started selling fruit to well-known wine producers in Sonoma County. First we will open the Teresa's Chardonnay. Teresa's Chardonnay continues to define California's Unoaked Chardonnay category. Crisp and vibrant, yet amazingly luscious. It showcases how Chardonnay does not need flashy oak to be distinct and delicious. The wine is focused with intensely bright and lifted citrus and melon aromas that are offset with savory tones that add complexity and pleasure to the aromatics. Then comes the texture, balance and persistence. It's mouthwatering with refreshing acidity that contrasts its surprisingly robust and weighted mid-palate. Slight tannins add subtle tension and pull the wine into a persistent, serious finish. We will also open the great single vineyard BCD Pinot Noir! Bright and dark simultaneously, with mocha and earth aromas playing off fresh cherries. It has a wide and silky palate, booming aromas and just enough acidity and tannins to pull the wine through to a long and lasting finish. It's quite a ride. Under the initial aromas is a distinct and interesting spice undertone that aromatically lifts the wine, but it’s the mid- palate weight, texture and perfect touch of acidity that define it. It’s full and coating, start to finish, wave upon wave of pinot pleasure. These wines are vewry special and extremely food friendly! We love enjoying the great menu of Valette Healdsburg,and love the staff and owners. Valette was born from two brothers’ lifelong dream of creating a unique dining experience in our hometown of Healdsburg. Our goal is to provide a canvas for local farmers, winemakers and artisans to showcase their crafts. Chef Dustin Valette began his restaurant career at the age of thirteen washing dishes at Catelli’s in his hometown of Geyserville, California. Two years later he took an apprenticeship at Chateau Souverain, a Francis Ford Coppola Estate, where he worked under Executive Chef Martin Courtman, – beginning the twenty-plus year culinary journey toward his dream of opening a restaurant dedicated to showcasing the rich bounty and beautiful ingredients of his Sonoma County roots. Please click on the link at thge bottom of this feature,and join us for this very special audio feature! Cheers! We will see you out on the town! Click here and join us as we enjoy great food and wine .