Oyster and Bubbles Pairing | J Vineyards in Sonoma
J Vineyards & Winery up in Sonoma, CA is easily one of my FAVORITE places to visit every time I'm in town. Not only do they have one super stunning patio, lots of delicious bubbles, and creatively cool pairings - but this is a truly female empowered winery. Started by Judy Jordan, the daughter of Jordan Vineyards founder Tom Jordan - she graduated from Stanford & worked in Geophysics which gave her the perfect background as a geologist, along with her family history in viticulture to figure out how to make something special from that Russian River Valley soil.
She started J Vineyards in 1986 focusing solely on creating a sparkling wine - utilizing the valley's cool climate and diversity of soils as her base for grape growing. Since then, unlike a lot of other wineries in the region, they've specialized in a variety of sparkling wines, as well as varietal Pinot Noir's, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris - all fun, easy to drink, and refreshing wines that are easy to pair with delicious foods.
Not only does Judy run the show - but she's brought in Nicole Hitchcock as the chief winemaker. While there are thankfully more and more women entering the winemaking field - it's pretty special to have a place that's championed that female perspective, and you really do notice all the details from sleek and fun packaging, to creating detailed and extremely memorable experiences, to knowing just how best to utilize their space for a bunch of drinking opportunities. Feeling fancy? Head to their "Bubble Room" for an extremely gourmet wine and food pairing in a sophisticated and modern dining room. Want to bring a whole caravan of friends? They have an incredibly cool "event space" for private events that OVERLOOKS the production floor! It's seriously super cool.
But if you're like me and really just want to have fun in the sun with bubbly sips and delicious bites then their patio offers up some really special selections. It's got "Sex and the City" written all over it.
Their menus change seasonally - but I was LUCKY enough to catch this sparkling oyster pairing which was one of the coolest pairing experiences I've ever done! The slightly brine-y and buttery oysters were the perfect conduit to experience the variety of flavorful toppings that offset J's Legacy collection super well. If oysters aren't your thing - you can't go wrong with either the Legacy tasting or the cheese pairings. In past trips we've even had foie gras corndogs on the Legacy menu!
Reservations are highly encouraged, especially if the weather is shaping up to be a beautifully sunny day!
J Vineyards & Winery
11447 Old Redwood Hwy
Healdsburg, CA 95448
Healdsburg, CA 95448
(707) 431-5430
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