Ferrari-Carano Vineyards & Winery

Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery was never at the top of my list of places to taste. I’m not sure if it as the gaudy label or the Instagrammable opulent tasting room, I just didn’t think it was a place for serious wine drinkers. That all changed when I discovered their hidden tasting room in the dungeon.

The Enoteca PreVail Room is located down a winding set of (marble?) stairs back behind the register. It’s not well-marked, and I’m starting to wonder if that’s on purpose—keep the riff-raff (aka loud bachelorette parties and the marina-people looking to get drunk) upstairs with the consumer-grade vino? I’m certainly a fan. Call me a snob, but I think a quiet environment is more conducive to tasting and I appreciate a learned, experienced pourer.

The downstairs menu offers four wines for $25, choose your tipple. I love the Reserve Chardonnay, which regularly receives accolades, while my husband skips straights to the reds like the Trésor Bordeaux-style blend.

What we can both agree on are the PreVail wines. The Back Forty (cab) and West Face (a cab-syrah blend) are both incredibly well-made wines. They have enough fruit for me, all the tannins my husband could ask for, and a perfect structure for cellaring. We’re wine club members just for these two gorgeous bottles, and they continue to please year-after-year. No surprise, Robert Parker and co have discovered them and the 90+ point ratings are pouring in.

Note: The F-C Tasting Room is at the END (read: north) of Dry Creek Valley. Just when you think you’re about to run out of road, it’s on the left.