Another Small Winery: Lazy Creek

Lazy Creek Vineyards was another Anderson Valley find, but it wasn’t easy to do so.  The sign to the dirt road off of 128 was a rusted LC (maybe there was a V, too…but I can’t recall now) that I barely noticed as we were driving past, resulting in a turn around in someone’s driveway.  However, once we made it down the dusty road we saw this ‘Winery’ sign and plunged forward past daffodils and succulents.  A house to our left had a woman at the kitchen window who pointed us onward.  There was a dog roaming about but she didn’t show us the way, despite my plea. Finally, after a bit of exploration, I heard voices coming from behind the barn door.  We pushed it open to see a very small bar with a woman behind it and another in front talking to her, making a purchases.  We waited while they finished.

Turns out, the one behind the bar was Mary Beth Chandler, who bought the winery with her husband Josh in 1999.  She poured us through the line-up and passed along interesting information while doing so.  That 920 gallon oak barrel is used for the whites, whose fermentation begins in steel and finishes up in these neutral (17 yr old) vessels.  While the regular Gewurztraminer was a nice sipping wine, the one that blew me away was the one they called ‘En Premier’ a frizzante version bottled in fat Pinot bottles instead of the usual tall and slim ones, finished off with a bottle cap, as the pressure is too much for a regular cork.  BK and I both loved the spritzy, sugary pears and peaches.

The reds were a little more down to earth. The Pinot Noir we tasted was 100% estate grown, 80% old vines, from Heirloom clones, and aged in 32% new French oak. I enjoyed its cocoa, pepper, cherry, strawberry, and herbal notes. Of the 2006 Syrah, I wrote “baby! lots of tannins but somehow rounder, vanilla, raspberry.”

  We found out that the German couple who bonded the winery in 1973 retired and passed their legacy on to the Chandler’s but that they still live there. And the whole place is very home-y, easy to maintain with a small production of only about 3,000 cases, website still under construction. Two more groups of two arrived during our visit, and it must have been Josh who popped his head in the door with a “Honey, you okay in here?” All very casual and easy-going. And speaking of down-to-earth, we had to stop and say goodbye to the pigs soaking in the sun, before we made our way back down the bumpy drive, past the lazy creek.