nalle winery

yet another wine/pétanque venue...

Dry Creek Valley: The Mother Lode of Zinfandel

“I think people recognize that we have enough Syrah in Dry Creek Valley now. As for the future, there’s just no way Zinfandel will ever be eclipsed here.”
~ Doug Nalle

by Thom Elkjer August 11, 2006

Doug Nalle has been making wine in Dry Creek Valley for more than 20 years. After starting in the wine business as a cellar rat in 1973, he earned a Masters in enology from UC Davis in 1979 and dedicated himself to winemaking. He launched his own label in the mid-1980s, then became founding winemaker at Quivira estate winery on West Dry Creek Road. Today Nalle concentrates on Nalle Winery, a family operation that he shares with his wife, Lee, and their son (and assistant winemaker), Andrew. Lee’s family also grows grapes in Dry Creek Valley that go into Nalle wines.
Appellation America is proud to feature Nalle Winery’s outstanding Dry Creek Zin and other varietals in our online wine store."Wine Makes You Smart" You can easily identify Nalle wines in stores (or on the next table at a restaurant) because of the “family crest” with the Latin motto vinum sapientiam tibi dat – “Wine Makes You Smart.” On the back label? Wry wine cartoons, also in an archaic wood-cut style. For all his humor, Nalle is a serious observer of the wine scene and often one of the first to note when the pendulum has swung too far in any direction. He calls himself a “contrarian” but it might be more accurate to call him a bellwether.

Thom Elkjer: Nalle Winery has both a horseshoe pitch and a pétanque court. One’s “All-American” and one’s “Très Francais”. This looks like your Zin/Pinot paradox all over again, but with projectiles.

Doug Nalle: My wife and I like Europe and spend some time in France, and we think pétanque is a cool game! I like horseshoes too, and if you think about it, most of a horseshoe area is just empty space you throw the horseshoes over, so we put the pétanque court right there and got a kind of two-for-one deal.
click here to read the complete interview.