Husch Vineyards & Winery

If you could take just one photo: A wall of well-deserved award ribbons

Tucked into a small wooden building, the tasting room at Husch is small, dark, and intimate. For the novice, it’s an ideal place: the wine is excellent, and the host is well versed in the art of casual explanations. With his invitation to compare each sample to another of the same grape—chardonnay vs. chardonnay, for example, or a pinot noir and its sibling of another vintage—nuances start to emerge, and identifying differences becomes a game. Soon, the adjectives swirl forth like the wine itself, rolling off of tongues with increased confidence. It isn’t at all pretentious or intimidating; rather, it’s good old-fashioned, slightly tipsy fun. And once back in the car, smug that you’ve bought bottles you actually like, it’s hard not to pity others making their way through Anderson Valley, knowing they likely missed one of the best little stops on the road.

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If you’re tired of the stuffy swirling, sniffing, tasting, and spitting crowd populating the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma, then drive North to Mendocino County and into Anderson Valley, where the redwoods meet the grape vines eleven miles inland from the Pacific. The tasting rooms are small, quaint, and stocked with vineyard owners, harvest employees, and an outstanding selection of estate-grown wines. At Husch Vineyards, we were invited into the cellar for a barrel tasting of an upcoming pinot noir. When we returned topside, a particularly pretentious oenophile was inquiring about a spittoon. The tasting personnel replied, “I’m sorry, we actually drink the wine around here. But if you really feel the need to spit, you can water our plants outside.”

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