Journey de la Montanya

A pickup party is one of the standard perks of wine club membership. Usually 3 or 4 times a year, club members who live close enough by, or who happen to be visiting the area, pick up the newly released club selections on a special day at the winery. Lots of wine is poured (of course) with complementary foods, often a barbecue, and sometimes, live music. It was all of these at the club pickup party we visited at De La Montanya Winery & Vineyards.

De La Montanya is easy to miss, down through an underpass off Westside Road, a few miles outside downtown Healdsburg in Sonoma County, California. The facility is just a few years old, but the De La Montanya family has been farming, making and selling wine in Northern California for seven generations. It’s not big, not corporate (not that there’s anything wrong with those), but family.

The owner, winemaker, and master of ceremony is Dennis De La Montanya. He’s a very approachable, personable, genuinely friendly guy. Think Jerry Garcia, but shorter hair, more regular and down-to-earthy. Everybody knows Dennis, and everybody feels like he knows them.

As a winemaker, Dennis is out of the happy blender school, each year making some 20 different varietals and blends in batches of just 25 to 250 cases. The winery’s total output is only about 4,500 cases a year, so needless to say, much of it goes out the door to club members only.

The Pickup Party was set in the garden and apple orchard behind the tasting room on a warm and sunny Sunday. About 75-100 club members and guests came and went, all in good time. Several tasting stations among the trees kept the glasses glam as revelers strolled the grounds and made the rounds.

The featured wines for the party were the ones the club members were there for picking up: An ’05 Fumé Blanc and an ’05 Pinot Noir. Lots of other wines of the same vintage could be sampled too. Dennis’ Amigos blend (Cab & Syrah, 10% of the proceeds to bonuses for DLM’s farmworkers), Summer White (Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc & Gewurztraminer), Syrah, and Pinup Cabernet (Cab & Zin from cold fermentation). There were special event-only discounts for a Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. I think they were half off, but I really don’t remember. If you’re going to try a bottle of DLM, if you can find them, the Christine’s Vineyards Pinot Noir and the Pinup Cabernet would be excellent choices.