A perfect pairing and picnic

• Delicious food and wine pairing that's educational and personal
• Wonderful grounds/setting to have a picnic
• Three adorable winery dogs
• Friendly and unpretentious staff
• Ultra high quality wines

Normally when I go wine tasting, the aim is to pack as much into the day as possible and visit as many wineries as we can. So when we packed up the car and decided to head to Healdsburg, where I had never been tasting, I was excited to see a few new spots. My main objective was to infiltrate Lambert Bridge - a winery that’s known for their exceptional wines, expansive picnic grounds, and big adorable winery dogs.

Before arriving at the winery, we made sure to load up a nice picnic lunch. Most wineries do not allow picnics, but Lambert Bridge does, and they can accommodate a good number of people at the tables spread out around the property. Upon arriving, we walked into the main tasting room and were greeted by Summer Jeffus, their Hospitality Director. She welcomed us and invited us to a sit-down tasting with food pairing.

The first thing you should know about this place is that they’re big on food. They make wines that are considered food-friendly, which means they’re balanced, with nice acidity and often contain lower alcohol than you might find in the same varietals from a winery down the street. As Summer explained, many CA wines have higher alcohol levels, which often mask flavors in food. Their aim is to produce an array of wines that complement different types of food; in some cases the wine brings out flavors in the food better, and sometimes its the other way around.

Food and wine pairings done right

I’ve never done an actual food and wine pairing, and I’m usually pretty carefree about the wines that I choose to drink with foods. If it’s a Pinot, I know I can eat a roasted chicken dinner, lamb kabobs, or a red sauce pasta without running into many problems. But those surface level pairings don’t exactly take into consideration the individual elements of the food and wine as they interact together. As we sat down at the circular table in the tasting room, we noticed the additional details like the vaulted redwood-lined ceiling, and nicely decorated, candlelit tabletops.

To elaborate, the first bite included chicken with a house-made mango salsa, creme fraiche, on a rye chip. This was paired with their Beville Vineyard 2011 Sauvignon Blanc, a wine with some sort of VSS clarity you’d attribute to a diamond. It was amazing how well you could taste the three or four elements of the small bite of food, and then take a sip of the wine and have one or two of them magnified, and carried on further than you expected. In this case, the initial stone fruit flavors seemed to linger after eating the chicken and then taking another sip of the wine.

Another great example came from the Maple Zinfandel and Caggiano smoked Pork/Duck with red onion confit. The rounded plum and red fruit flavors of the Zinfandel were apparent in our first sip, but the sip after trying the small bite of smoked sausage brought out the smokiness in the wine, leaving a much longer finish the second time around. This time, the food teased out some of the flavors in the wine, making them much more apparent.

These two examples stood out to me the most, but the others were equally impressive. I think the cardamom chocolate experience paired with the Petit Verdot was another eye-opener, as I’m not usually one to enjoy wine and chocolate together. But somehow they made it work.

Limited production, high-quality wines

You probably haven’t seen Lambert Bridge wines in your local liquor store. That’s because they don’t distribute, and the vast majority of their wines are transferred hand-to-hand, from the tasting room to the hands of their happy guests and club members.

The story of this winery is an interesting one. Not long ago they produced upwards of 25k cases each year. Then they switched things up, and pivoted their focus and cut that down to a measly 5k cases per year, with an increased focus on quality over quantity. In a market that’s diluted with plenty of “good” wines, they wanted to differentiate themselves and produce “great” wines. To do so, meant switching gears and re-evaluating the winemaking process entirely.

To differentiate themselves, Lambert Bridge takes an intensive and focused approach to growing, harvesting, sorting, and ultimately making every single the wine they do. In each block of every vineyard they source grapes from, every vine is tended to with precision care. The winemakers and vineyard crews obsess over every row in each block, with particular care given to the needs of each vine. Their aim is to bring each variety to the perfect ripening point, and to provide each vine with the attention it needs to reach full potential.

As harvest approaches, the entire crew at Lambert Bridge takes part. That means that every single employee spends time in the field, hand-picking the grape clusters that will become the next vintage. This sense of community was evident throughout the winery, and unlike other tasting rooms where there’s a sense of detachment between the staff and the other moving parts of the winery, their philosophy is different. The family feeling they create helps dampen the often pretentious air that limited-production wineries sometimes emit. You’ll feel at ease here. The three dogs that welcome you add to the relaxed atmosphere, and further create that sense of family and togetherness that comes with the wine lifestyle that many of us attach ourselves to.

In fostering this community-driven, hands-on approach, they are careful to choose only the best grapes for their wines. The emphasis on creating vintages that are consistent from year to year is apparent. While most wineries sort the clusters, the folks at Lambert Bridge go through practically every single grape, removing anything that doesn’t meet their quality standards. This means that leaves, twigs, stems, unripe/overripe fruit, bugs, leaves, grass clippings are all things you won’t find making their way into their wines. They also make use of Le Trieur machine, which helps remove all the aforementioned extras quite effectively. Other producers who use this machine include Screaming Eagle and Karamoor Estate. Although time-consuming, this process ultimately brings forth the best characteristics in a varietal, and yields a higher quality wine.

The details matter

While there, we tasted a wine that you don’t often find; in fact, I’ve only encountered it at one other winery. Petit Verdot is generally relegated to a blending grape, but they have a single varietal of this wine in their lineup. To give you another idea of the extent to which their winemaker goes to ensure the quality of their product, during the bladder press most winemakers simply let the machine do its job and taste the resulting juice a few times. During the press of their Petit Verdot, winemaker Jill Davis was constantly tasting the juice, making sure the press exerted the exact pressure needed to bring out the perfect amount of tannin and flavor from the skins. The final product displays the effects of this relentless attention to detail, and delivers a perfectly sculpted example of Petit Verdot.

After we finished our wine and food pairing, we ambled outside and took a walk around the expansive gardens that surround the winery and found a small table to call our own for a picnic. There was no desire to get back in the car and hit up another winery. Instead, we relished in the afternoon sun, munched on our food and simply enjoyed the afternoon without a care in the world. And that is exactly what I think they’re mission is - to instill that sense of appreciation for friends, family, and the immediate surroundings that you find yourself sharing with the ones you love.

More Information:
Lambert Bridge Winery
4085 W Dry Creek Rd
Healdsburg, CA 95448
(707) 431-9600
Lambert Bridge website