Sausal Winery

I WAS a fan. This place is now closed/​being taken over by another winery. (They had some nice wines though.)

We stopped in the tasting room as we were in the area, literally across the street. As we were tasting their Zinfandels, we were told that the owners had recently sold out to Silver Oaks. Another family owned winery soon to be gone. The only good news was that they were essentially liquidating their inventory because of the sale. We bought some great Sangiovese at 40% off.

While barrel tasting this last weekend we had an awful experience at Sausal with their tasting room staff person Sissy. We are locals and typically try to hit each of the three Valley’s over the two weekends of barrel tasting. Customer service is the differentiating quality for most of the wineries. Sausal’s wines are on par with those in the area, but when we came in, we were not told about the wines except when we asked other people behind the bar and to top things off, Sissy wouldn’t let one of my companions re-​taste the Sangiovese she was considering for a purchase.
Our group usually buys at least one case if not more at each winery we visit. We would have done so here too since the wine was decent, but the very poor customer service resulted in us leaving to better wineries.

Popped into Sausal for our first tasting of the day. They tout their old vine zins here so the tasting largely focused on that particular varietal. The wines are all estate grown and share the property with the tasting room. Overall, they do a good job here offering tasty wines and an appealing tasting environment.
We tried 4 wines: 3 zins and a Cab Sauv. Generally, the older the vines, the higher the bottle price. Their zins are elegant — they thankfully aren’t big, high-​alcohol, super jammy wines. Prices ranged from $ 19 – 40 a bottle — reasonable. All the wines we tried were tasty although not all of them jumped out at me as outstanding. We did happily walk out with a lovely Cab Sauv. Service was adequate but a bit flat. 3.5 stars

Familial atmosphere, interesting explanation of the property and vines (over 100 years old – very cool!).

Stopped here on a whim after visiting another winery in the area that was disappointing, and we are so glad that we did.
We walked in and were greeted by the daughter of one of the owners. She gave us a nice history of the property and her her family (which is something that I look forward to and love about visiting smaller wineries).
We tasted some zins from their 50– and 130-​year old vines, which were very nice. We also tasted a sangiovese, which we also liked.
All in all, a very pleasant experience!

So Sunday, day two of our Sonoma wine tasting tour, was foggy and cold, a perfect morning for wine tasting if you ask me. Our first stop was Sausal, they were not on our original list of wineries but my friend had seen them on Tasting Pass and we had time before our appointment at Lancaster so we stopped. We were the only ones there as they had just opened and our friendly wine pourer was Ted. What neat wines!!! The sangiovese was delicious as was each of the following zinfandels we tried. None of the peppery bite so many zins have just wonderful flavor. Even my one friend who normally does not like zins liked these. Now it was my turn to give in and join a club. I liked all their wines and they are all reasonably priced with their most expensive being $ 40. A definite must try if you’re in the area.

It seems that the Zins of Alexander valley are much more tannic than the ones in Dry Creek. I liked the presentaion of this winery, but couldn’t really get into the wines. We did buy one of the cat ones though, and the pourer did give us some labels when we asked. (I have a scrap book of labels) I was impressed with the 100+ year old vines, but I didn’t like how they tasted all that much.
Eh, someone else might like the heavier taste of these zins.

Great Zins. Big property. Free tastings. There’s cats in and around the property. Bottles are not too expensive. You should try a bottle. They have 134 year old vines. They’re as old as Canada!

Quaint tasting room with cute cats, but I just don’t get the wines. High alcohol Zin just doesn’t cut it. I don’t want to taste overripe fruit and heat. I keep retrying the wines to see what I am missing and it just doesn’t happen. Really cute place though.

Sunday, 1:00PM.
Dang it’s warm in Healdsburg!
Quickie:
+Fun, helpful staff
+Reasonable prices (Zin specialty)
+Two adorable black cats patrolling shop
— No fan, AC?
Final call:
Familial atmosphere. Spacious outdoor seating. Put it on the list of places to visit when wine tasting in Sonoma County.

5 minute tasting. Not sure a tasting could be any shorter.
The tasting room was nice. The atmosphere was nice enough. I was disappointed because I have always wanted to stop at this place and when I finally did they didn’t really have a lot to offer.
3 pours, a binder with random information that I couldn’t really sort out myself, and no information offered on the winery.
I bought a bottle of wine but I buy a bottle of wine almost everywhere. No reason not to visit this spot but I wouldn’t make it a destination.

Their Zins are still great.
Each bottling is from vines which are progressively older all of which are grown on their estate. You can definitely taste the difference. And, in my opinion, the older the better.

This is a very chill winery with some really good stuff. The sogno was delicious! The problem with it is the other patrons — they were surprisingly quiet and uptight.

This place is small and the tasting room is just that… one small room. They have cats which I realize is a theme with wineries and sell things that show the cats on them. The wines were good but not spectacular and we all decided to pass on purchasing anything.

We went wine tasting in Alexander Valley on Satuday and had a lot of fun. A few wineries whack you for tasting fees but not Sausal. They are very informative and patient as we are not wine experts. Of course I loved the most expensive Zin (from a vine over 100 years old!) and Dale bought me a nice bottle of it that I’m saving for a special occasion. They also love cats. I didn’t see any but it’s obvious because they sell cute wine accesories and trivets with cat art. And they sell fig infused balsamic vinegar, shirts, sweat shirts, etc. We enjoyed our visit very much.

WOOOHOOO!!! What a cool winery. This place is one of my personal favorites. They specialize in Zins and have a killer variety of old and ancient vine zins at VERY reasonable prices. Sausal is a family winery that focuses on FLAVOR… mmmmm
While there we tasted several wines ranging from less than $ 15 to about $ 40 per bottle. At the entry level they will pour you the cellar cats red (very cute label) which makes a great daily drinker and treats you to some neat character that you typically don’t see at that price point. In the middle, they’ve got 50 year old vine Zin for about $ 20 a bottle that has an unmistakable old-​vine character and complexity that you simply don’t find at this price point… ANYWHERE. At the top of the list they have a Zin made from 100+ year old vines (ancient vines) for ONLY $ 40…this one has such a unique character because it blends the stress of the ancient vine with the terrior of Alexander Valley. It’s not super-​sweet jammy like you tend to get from ancient vines, but has a great blend of mild jammy fruit and full-​bodied texture.
I have yet to find another winery that matches this quality/​value ratio… if you’re in the area, this NEEDS to be a stop on your trip.

My first visit to Sausal on Thursday was in the heat of the day — and the shade and bathroom were a welcome respite. Angela was charming and friendly — my friend and I enjoyed the wines, as well as the darling kitties Sophie and Gypsy. We were so impressed that I joined the wine club and made plans to pick up more of the Cellar Cats red on my way home — at $ 13 ($ 10 with wine club discount) — it is by far the tastiest AND cheapest table wine I have found at any Northern CA wineries or in retail. It tastes just as great at home as it did at the winery — I’ll definitely be looking forward to trying more of their wines!

I love this winery for so many reasons– their tastings are complimentary, the pourers have personality and customer service, and just thinking about their 2005 Sangiovese makes me drool.
If you are ever in Alexander Valley (please please go, you’ll be doing yourself and your wine tasting future a favor). Go give these good folk some business, say hi to their darling cats, and enjoy the wine the way it’s supposed to be– unpretentious and simply delicious!

Long ago, before I ever set foot in the door of Sausal, I had a bottle of their zinfandel at a small italian restaurant in Napa (The depot) and remember it to this day — it knocked my socks off — for quality, craftmanship and value.
Sausal became a name I would frequently purchase, then after living on this side of the hill for the last 6 years, finally found my way into their tasting room a little less than a year ago when some friends came to town.
Wow. Nice job Sausal. Not only do they have fantastic Zinfandel, but their Sangiovese is something that I have since dreamed about. It was so good, a week after going (and buying a few bottles) I went back and got a whole case of it, for fear it would be gone.
Something I really enjoyed about the tasting room staff (and I’m sure if you read enough of my reviews, you will hear me preach this a lot) they actually gave you a chance to TASTE the wine. Nothing aggravates me more, than going into a tasting room and being told by someone behind the counter — exactly what they (or the winemaker) thinks it tastes like before I’ve even raised the glass off the counter.
At Sausal, they were there to answer questions, or to give you information about what set certain wines of theirs apart from others, or unique facts that you may want to know about vineyard etc, but they didn’t shove their opinions of the wines down your throat before you could make up your mind yourself on what you thought.
and that to me is an intrigual part of wine tasting.
So go! go! go! have the zins, definately have the sangiovese, and if they have any more of that cat wine. (something had to do with a cat on the label — the name elludes me now — give it a go too)
but don’t say I didn’t warn you about how good the sangio was and how totally affordable the wines are.