Sonoma - B.R. COHN Winery in Glen Allen

This past Sunday we headed up to Sonoma. It was New Years Day 2012. What better way to start off the year? The weather was sunny and crisp. A stunning day. We got in our new Jetta SE with sunroof
(and huge dent on the door thanks to my husband), packed up our baby girl and we were on our way! We turned on Sirius radio (free for 3 months) and set it to Howard Stern who was in mid interview with Steven Tyler. They talked about drugs, sex and rock n roll. What else?! We learned that Steven Tyler has a big penis, he enjoys threesomes and...well that's not important. Back to the wine!
The baby was happy, we had the sunroof open and we were on our way to country. All was right with the world!

It was New Years day and so only a select few wineries had their doors open. We chose two to go to that morning.

B.R. COHN 
and
Roche



We had no idea that B.R. COHN was the winery of the Doobie Brothers manager, Bruce Cohn. How cool! My husband loves music and this was a nice surprise!

There are many great things about B.R. COHN winery. Firstly it is beautiful. See below for a picture of the grounds and the beautiful white home.  One of the sommeliers told us that Bruce Cohn originally lived in the main house and never planned on making it a winery. He just wanted a country house. "I wanted to recreate my childhood for my family." Cohn's family moved from Chicago to Sonoma in 1956 when Cohn was 10. Both of his parents were part-time musicians and his dad designed shoes for Florsheim.  They moved to Sonoma and ran a goat dairy in the Russian River. Cohn had a bunch of cash from the Doobie's hit album Toulouse Street and he bought the Olive Hill Estate in 1974. There were some old grapes left on the property and he tended to them but ended up selling them to other Vineyards. Charlie Wagner, a Napa winemaker helped Bruce learn and encouraged him.  Eventually Charlie made wine with Bruce's grapes and the results were successful! Ronald Reagan took wine produced from the Olive Hill Vineyard grapes to China. Bruce decided he should make his own wine and in 1984 B.R. COHN winery was founded.

Secondly, the fact that Bruce Cohn, manager of the Doobie Brothers, is the owner is very cool. They sell Doobie Brothers hats and t-shirts and even wine glass markers made of different color guitar picks. The Doobie Brothers do a concert at the vineyard every year in September for the Fall Music Festival.
What is great is that he raises money for various charities as well. Over the years Cohn has raised over 6 million dollars for various local and national charities including national veteran's organizations.

Next years event is scheduled for the week of October 5th-8th. I might just check it on out!! Word is though it's tough to get a good seat in the shade. People line up super early!!!

Here is a picutre of the tasting room.

WARNING: There are no seats. So it is like a bar and quite small. Got a bit crowded when we were there.

NOW FOR THE WINE!

I tried four wines. It was $10 bucks for four tastings and they waive the fee if you buy a bottle. 

1/ 2010 Carneros Chardonnay $35/bottle. 

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I went home with a bottle of this stuff. Yum. It is fruity, but also with yummy caramel and vanilla. Delish!

2/ 2008 Sonoma Valley SyrZin $32/bottle ( a mixture of Syrah and Zinfandel ) 

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I was NOT a fan of the SyrZin.

3/ 2007 Olive Hill Estate Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon $100/bottle

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This wine is all kinds of delicious. Just didn't want to pay $100 for a bottle. I adore OLDER wine and this one came from the old grapes that were on the property when Cohn bought it. This wine was like a stinky blue cheese. Like dirty socks. Tasty socks. :) 

4/ 2009 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir $40/bottle

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This wine was good and had nice spice!

The other really great thing about this winery is they also have an olive oil company and sell olive oil, vinegar and gourmet food. We tried several infused olive oils, including blood orange olive oil. They were all super yummy! We took home a lemon infused olive oil. I just made a salad with it and it adds a nice pizzaz to plain oil.


MY RATING: 

I give this winery 4 stars. Good wine, nice buzz, kind to the baby, beautiful grounds, cool music angle, delicious olive oil. Why not 5 stars? I guess if they had chairs inside or nicer modern decor, comfy chairs outside that would be the fifth star. 


Here I am on the B.R. COHN grounds: