MARCH/APRIL 1999

VOL.4 NO.2

The Best of the Month - The Best of the Month's Eating and Drinking

In early February, Celebrator Beer News publisher Tom Dalldorf and I embarked upon a mini-brewery tour that ended up ressembling more a beer aficionado's Road Trip than the casual tasting tour it was originally envisioned to be. We began in Napa, moved on to Sonoma, headed well north to Fort Bragg, and returned via Boonville and Petaluma, all in about a day-and-a-half. Along the way, we tasted several beers that could each easily rate as the TOTM for almost any month.

The one that stands out among the many, however, was the Sonoma Brewing Company Barley Wine that we tasted at Demsey's Restaurant in Petaluma. Extremely well-structured and beautifully balanced at one year of age, it began with plentiful fruit, vanilla and even a hint of pine on the nose, before it exploded in a complex body of soft fruit (strawberry, peach, cherry), surging woody hop and further vanilla notes. The finish kicked in with chocolate, some strong hoppy bitterness and a warming, brandy-like alcohol.

Even though I participated in the final round judging at the Toronado Barley Wine festival two days later, in which the Sonoma brew was not entered, the barley wine from Petaluma was the finest example of that style I tasted all weekend. And that makes it the undisputed Taste of the Month.

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