As Promised....Tin Barn Vineyards

As mentioned before, we stumbled upon this little group of wineries on 8th Street East, just outside of downtown Sonoma. Actually, here is the web link to learn more about them all: http://www.eighthstreetwineries.com/. The first one that we called on was Tin Barn Vineyards. It was Thursday, late afternoon, and I was told by the very welcoming voice on the phone that they were actually not open....but since she was there preparing shipments for the wine club we were welcome to come on in.
Tin Barn Vineyards, http://www.tinbarnvineyards.com/, was very appropriately named. It is in the back corner of a steel garage-like industrial building. Sandy Maus, who also handles marketing for all of the 8th Street East Wineries, was even nice enough to put the big plastic sign out to flag the very small door for us. Once inside, we easily could have mistaken this room for some of the downtown Sonoma tasting rooms. It was very inviting with a small bar and stools.
Sandy told us a little bit about the company. According to Sandy, and interesting to me was that the wine maker, Michael Lancaster, REFUSES to make a Chardonnay. And as such, their first pour of the day was an excellent Sauvignon Blanc. The 2006 Sauv Blanc was very crisp with a touch of citrus and a very clean finish. I would have stopped right there, but Sandy opened every bottle in the place for us to try and I couldnt let her down.
I had two favorites on this stop, but only one came with us. The Russian River Zinfandel was amazing, but has comparably large production volume and, as Tin Barn can ship through a 3rd party to MA, we opted not to take one home. The winner was....
2007 Carneros Pinot Noir. Only 98 cases of this wine was produced, but I would happily volunteer to drink them all on my own. This is a very food-friends Pinot. The initial fruit is very light as it is still a young wine, but the finish is not overly oaked or tanic...Surprising as it is was aged in 75% new French oak barrels. The price for a bottle of this gem is $34. I will tell you, it is money well spent. We didnt get this one all the way home. Instead, we finished it the night before we left with a meal at "The Girl and The Fig" in downtown Sonoma.
FYI --> The 2007 season was a near perfect one for the Sonoma area. This was especially true in the southern area where Carneros is located. However, it was considered to be a very low yield season so the expectation is that most wines of this vintage will have much lower production.