Siduri (Healdsburg)
Warehouse Winery in Santa Rosa, CA
981 Airway Court, Suite E
Santa Rosa, CA. 95403
707-578-3882
Tasting Lounge in Healdsburg, CA
241 Healdsburg Avenue
Healdsburg, CA 95448
707-433-6000
Adam and Dianna (Novy) Lee met while both were employed by the colossus of finery and delight that is Neiman Marcus, in Dallas, Texas. He managed fine wines, she managed epicurean delights. In disputably, a match made in (retail) heaven. The pair bonded over their shared love of food and wine, and made the move to Sonoma County in the early 1990’s. They arrived with $24,000 in their pockets with a dream of making high quality Pinot Noir from select, cool weather vineyards, and believed from the beginning the wine is made less in the winery, more in the vineyard. The Lees paid to use custom crush services at a local winery, but opted for the “hands on” approach, often bunking down with their fermenting fruit to ensure that every step of the process was managed to their exacting standards. In 1994, they produced their first vintage of Siduri, to critical acclaim. Four years later, in partnership with Dianna’s family and mutual friends, the Lees introduced a second label, Novy (meaning “new” in Dianna’s Czech heritage language), to highlight their fondness for other varietals, including Syrah and Zinfandel. For the last twenty years, Siduri and Novy have continued to receive outstanding ratings from consumers and critics, alike, and in 2014, their wines were chosen to be served at the White House during holiday parties and festivities.
Days and Hours:
Santa Rosa: Thursday through Monday, 10:00 am to 4:30 pm (by appointment only)
Healdsburg: Sunday and Monday, 11:00am to 4:30 pm
Thursday through Saturday, 11:00 am to 6:30 pm (hours change seasonally)
Cost: $10 (fee waive with purchase or wine club sign-up).
Red or White: Red (mostly). Expect to taste Pinot Noir from California to Oregon, with a few others (Syrah or Zinfandel) mixed in for good measure. Only one or two white wines available to taste.
If you don’t love Pinot Noir, Siduri isn’t your winery. In any given year, they make up to thirty different Pinots, the majority of which are single vineyard selections spanning more than 800 miles of varying topography from the Willamette Valley (the heart of Oregon’s Pinot Noir production) to Santa Barbara County.
Pricing: $24 to $65
Food:
Santa Rosa: No
Healdsburg: Yes. Inquire as to what might be available. Currently, the Healdsburg location can accommodate small, plated snack food. They intend to re-establish a wine and food pairing program in coming months.
Good for Groups: In both locations, advanced arrangements are required for groups larger than six. Neither space is particularly large, but of the two, the Healdsburg location would be most comfortable for a large group.
Proximity to other wineries:
Santa Rosa: Poor
Healdsburg: Excellent
Family Friendly:
Santa Rosa: No
Healdsburg: Yes*
*I would not recommend bringing children to either location. Siduri’s Santa Rosa tasting room is housed within the winery’s production facility, in an industrial park. Their Healdsburg location is a distinctly adult environment, but that being said it is a larger space designed to host guests comfortably and privately. Just clarify your needs when making your reservation, and they are sure to accommodate you in the best possible way.
Pet Friendly:
Santa Rosa: No
Healdsburg: No
Tasting Experiences: Private only. Visits to the warehouse winery in Santa Rosa require an appointment. Visits to the tasting lounge in Healdsburg do no require a reservation, but reservations are preferred and recommended.
Winery Events: The last Friday of February, April, June, August and October, the Siduri winemaking team hosts a chef-prepared dinner, paired with Siduri wines. Tickets are $70/person and are available for sale on their website.
Wine Club: Yes. There are two wine club membership levels, one that offers one case of wine (six bottles, twice per year), and a second option that offers two cases of wine (one case, twice per year). As a Siduri wine club member, you have access to exclusive events, and “first dibs” on newly released wines.
Other interesting features: Siduri’s warehouse winery is the epitome of an industrial winemaking facility. The tasting bar is, literally, just inside the working winery. The Healdsburg location is perfectly placed in downtown Healdsburg, making a visit to the town square, shops and award winning restaurants an absolute must.
A quiet Sunday afternoon in (very) early Spring. A day spent with a dear friend, sipping wine in our own backyard. No drama, no chaos, no desperate and intense desire to solve the world’s problems. Not today, at least!
After a delicious lunch at Healdsburg’s Campo Fina (a casual spot with an Italian bent and a beautiful outdoor patio), we headed two blocks, through Healdsburg’s town square and past Healdsburg Bar and Grill (epic Bloody Marys, by the way), to Siduri’s tasting lounge. Unlike the warehouse winery, this spot is a less utilitarian space, with a cozy, rustic feel. The vibe is relaxed and leisurely, and thoughtfully appointed. And without meaning to sound kitschy, a bit retro. Good retro. Posh retro. Portland meets California wine country, retro. High top and low top tables are interspersed among comfortable window seats and an L-shaped, stainless steel tasting bar. Grab a seat in the window and peruse the selection of LPs available for play on the in-house turnable. Or pick up the guitar and strum a few chords while settling in to the groove.
Reservations are recommended, I can imagine that the lounge becomes a bustling hub of tasting activity during Healdsburg’s “high season.” This is a seated tasting experience. Unlike at the warehouse winery, where you are given a number of tasting choice and you select five, at Siduri’s Wine Lounge you are given a menu of the day’s offerings. Five Pinot Noir tastes, plus a few of the brand’s Novy label wines, too. Eight or so, in total. We were hosted by Siduri’s new tasting lounge manager, Ben. Bright and pleasant, he poured each taste with enthusiasm and showed a firm grasp of Siduri’s extensive portfolio of wines despite being relatively new the brand. Honestly, because Siduri is a winery focused intently on terrior, you can expect that whomever is hosting you will be well trained and knowledgable. Microclimates, soil content, these intricacies are, after all, the reason why each individual Siduri Pinot Noir wine is unique and different, single vineyard or appellation designate. And the hosts I’ve encountered are willing and able to go as far down the rabbit hole of Pinot Noir planting, harvesting, and production as the visitor desires.
While Siduri’s Wine Lounge doesn’t offer a tour, as such, you can expect to spend at least an hour here, maybe more if you choose to stay at the conclusion of your tasting experience. They offer wines by the glass and a selection of microbrews on tap. Guests are encouraged to sit back, relax, enjoy the music, and watch the world go by along Healdsburg Avenue.
For more information about Siduri’s Healdsburg Wine Lounge, it’s current offerings and to schedule appointments, visit their website: https://www.siduri.com/visit/healdsburg-tasting-room
Suggestions:
- Take some time to unwind here after a day of tasting in Dry Creek Valley or Russian River Valley. If you are spending time in Healdsburg, and need an upbeat, yet relaxed place to spend some downtime before heading to the hotel to change for dinner, Siduri’s Wine Lounge fits the bill.
- Gather together some friends, make a reservation and specify that you would like to be seated at the window, either next to the lounge’s turntable (think musical reminiscence and Trivial Pursuit) or in the comfy lounge chairs adjacent to the tasting bar. It’s a great way to spend an easygoing afternoon in Healdsburg, sipping wine and people-watching.
- Check in on the possibility of a wine/food pairing. Siduri’s Wine Lounge has hosted pairings in the past, and is contemplating doing so again. A spattering of award winning Pinot Noir plus local cheeses, charcuterie, etc.? Yes, please!
Wines tasted:
I tasted the following wines during my visit to Siduri’s Healdsburg Wine Lounge (bold indicated purchased):
2015 SIDURI Hawk’s View Vineyard (Willamette Valley, OR) Pinot Noir ($45): When tasting wines made from fruit grown in Oregon’s Willamette Valley (as this one is), I am often left analyzing acid/tannin balance, with earthiness and fruit on the mid-palate. Enter Siduri’s Hawke’s View Vineyard, which showed so much red, ripe fruit right up front, it left me making comparisons to Russian River. This wine is ripe, lush, with strong structure derived from a solid foundation of acidity.
2014 SIDURI Chehalem Mountains (Willamette Valley, OR) Pinot Noir (Sold Out): I love when I’m offered wines to taste that aren’t otherwise available. I mean, it’s a bummer when I’m told that I can’t buy, but at least I know what a producer is capable of in coming vintages. It also tells a story about how winemakers make decisions about what’s important from vintage to vintage, and where they are in their discovery of new vineyards/wines. Chehalem Mountains was chosen by Siduri as, essentially, a polar opposite to some of their Sonoma County production. This appellation is the northernmost in the Willamette Valley, so my notes of lean, cool aromatics, and bright, tart cherries goes without saying.
2015 SIDURI Van Der Kamp Vineyard (Sonoma Coast) Pinot Noir ($55): One of my favorite Soonma Coast Vineyards, Van Der Kamp Vineyard is similar, longitudinally, to Sonatera (see Siduri (Santa Rosa), but further east, between the Bennett Valley AVA and Sonoma Valley. This wine, made from fruit grown in a warmer vineyard at higher elevation, expresses darker, macerated fruit, classic tar and pencil-lead earthiness and structure as deep and rich as the soils where it’s grown.
2015 SIDURI Saralee’s Vineyard (Russian River) Pinot Noir ($45): Such a shining example of prom queen, Russian River, Pinot Noir. This wine is just so darned pretty! Bright, light cherry pie, with sweet spice and beautifully rosy floral highlights.
2015 SIDURI Ewald Vineyard (Russian River) Pinot Noir ($55): Like Saralee’s, the Ewald Pinot Noir shines with red fruit and sweet spice, but takes a more complex and thought provoking turn. It’s like learning that a friend, who graduated from high school and became Snow White at Disneyland, is now a master Reiki practitioner and Medical Intuitive. There is a complexity to this wine that hides just under the surface. And the mouthfeel on this wine…sublime, soft and silken.
2015 SIDURI Pisoni Vineyard (Santa Lucia Highlands) Pinot Noir ($65): This wine is aromatically, so floral with nose-tingling potpourri of roses and violet. On the palette, it is much more dark and lush, showing notes of black licorice, burnt caramel and an umami-like character that I can’t quite identify. Another example of how Pinot Noir from warmer climates can be more than just a fruit bomb.
2015 SIDURI Clos Pepe Vineyard (Santa Rita Hills) Pinot Noir ($60): I tasted this wine at Siduri’s warehouse location, but when offered the opportunity to taste again I happily accepted. See my quick note here (link to Siduri (Santa Rosa) wines). Even on another day, in another locale, this wine is still a standout.
