Idlewild Wines

After wine tasting in Piedmont this past fall, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to taste at a new winery in Healdsburg dedicated to the varietals of the region. Idlewild Wines is an inconspicuous tasting room just off the square in Healdsburg. The $40pp tasting includes a flight of five wines as well as a charcuterie board of Italian cheeses and salumi.

I can’t say we were impressed by any of the wines here, and we didn’t purchase any bottles. The Arneis we started with was lackluster. Lemon “balm” instead of the clear fruit flavors of the Vietti Arneis. And no effervescence reminiscent of my favorite Cerreto white. Everything had TONS of sediment and their Barbera, my favorite Piedmontese grape, ended up tasting like sad Zin. The Cortese with notes of orange blossom and the Dolcetto, which was probably the closest in flavor to an Italian wine, were the best but their price points were more than I would pay for “better bottles” imported from Italy.

After the tasting, we chatted with the winemaker a bit at their “market,” Ciao Bruto. Although the name “Idlewild” has been used numerous times in popular fiction, he couldn’t pinpoint an exact reference for the name. The market had an assortment of Italian-made gastronomy, but nothing I needed to purchase. I think this is a case of a winery that hasn’t quite figured out what it wants to be yet.