PART TWO OF OUR SALUTE TO THE REGION’S WINE LEADERS
The Alexander Valley Winegrowers association is gearing up to present one of its most successful educational outreach programs for the trade this spring: the Alexander Valley Cab Academy. The SOMM Journal is a proud media sponsor, and our own senior wine editor, Jessie Birschbach, will serve as a “camp counselor.”
As a tribute to this region, home to 32 wineries and 77 vineyards, we will highlight noteworthy selections that represent it in its best light over the course of the next two issues. Additionally, we will explore how Cabernets from different districts of the narrow, 20-mile-long and 8-mile-wide AVA vary in style. These districts are, from north to south, Cloverdale, Geyserville, Jimtown, Healdsburg, and Maacama.
Cyrus Alexander built the Alexander Valley schoolhouse in 1868. A century later the building was moved to a hill overlooking the vineyards on the Wetzel family’s Alexander Valley Vineyard estate and restored; its image is now featured on the Alexander School Reserve label. Jake Hawkes and his mom, Paula Stone Hawkes. Hawkes 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon, Stone Vineyard, Alexander Valley, Sonoma County ($95) The Hawkes family has been growing grapes in the same Alexander Valley vineyards for over 50 years. Referring to themselves as farmers who make wine, they don’t believe in fining, using a lot of new oak, picking at 28 Brix, reverse osmosis, or advanced phenolic profiling: They simply aim to make wines that are pure and direct expressions of the place they come from.
This Article was originally published on The SOMM Journal
