Wow, 25 wineries during the 3 day first weekend of the Barrel Tasting event.  We spit and dumped so ended the day quite sober.  We also preserved our palates by avoiding the barrels and focusing on finished wines.  And we spent way too much money on wine for our budget.  Our budget should be focused more on the development of WineQuesters.com and Winery Quest Pro, our iPhone app, than on wine for blogging.  Sometimes we seem to lose control

Spring Vineyard Scene - Dry Creek Valley

We tasted mostly at wineries that are open by appointment only.  It is nice to visit without the hassle of scheduling.  This next weekend we’ll be at some we’ve never tasted at before.

The weather was a little pissy on Friday and Saturday but Sunday was terrific.

We’re working of course. As always we do photography for our upcoming videos and collect winery data for their profiles.  We were also evaluating wines on a scale of 1 (soft) to 10 (robust) so we can develop a filter to help tasters find wineries that generally serve red wines they prefer. We’ll prototype this new feature by summer with wineries in the Dry Creek, Alexander, and Russian River regions.  Other than wineries in RRV that focused on Pinots most of the wineries rated between 6 and 8.  South of Monterey County the wineries will rate lower.  Temecula will have many in the 1 to 4 range.

Did we have some favorite wineries?  We liked them all but two really stood out for friendliness and the robust wines we prefer – Battaglini and Robert Rue in the Russian River Valley near Santa Rosa.  I’ll write more about them when we taste their wines at home but stop by for a warm welcome and great wines.

- jim

Recently we drove to Livermore for a photo-shoot at Tenuta’s winery, a favorite.  Since we were in the area we decided to explore Deer Ridge Vineyards, a newer winery with nice Tuscan architecture.

Deer Ridge winery, tasting room, and events area.

Besides the pleasent ambiance and very friendly staff they have a nice choice of wines available.  In the last few days we’ve worked over their 2004 Livermore Valley Cab and a killer “Chocolate Silk” Port from Madera grapes. Their Port is VERY addicting

Their Cabs work for us. We like decent nose, full body, and a long finish. Wines have been softened so much for the broader market that we struggle to find interesting reds.

We enjoyed all of their wines but especially the Cabs, Merlot, Zin, and a Pinot with great aroma.  The selection should please most tasters.

The staff is friendly and talkative.  The tasting bar is curved and comfortable.  There is a little art gallery in the hall and sometimes in the meeting hall during events.  Outside is a patio with a nice view of the mountains.

Adjacent to the winery is an early California style  2 bedroom guest house.  It is new, beautiful, has a great view, and a large oak shelters it.  $375 for the first night is probably competitive. We would love to hang out there for a week – with a good stock of Deer Ridge wine.

- jim

Little Satori Cellars is a new winery north-east of Gilroy in the southern Santa Clara Valley.  They are only open the 3rd weekend of the month now but intend to be open on all weekends starting in July 2010.  Please visit their WineQuesters.com profile for much more information.

We were driving along a back road after visiting the Tom Kruse Winery when I decided to drop by Satori to see if they were open on a Sunday afternoon.  We stumbled into a winery event.  We were handed a string of beads to exchange for glasses of wine.  There were a lot more beads on our string than our ability to drink wine.

The lawn area was surrounded by crafts booths and a band played at the far end.  I pretty much focused on the wines and BS’ing with the locals, including a Gallo. This event was more social than many I’ve attended in the Gilroy area.

We came home with their attractively labeled Oh-So Zin, Cabernet Sauvignon of the Blue Hand, and Estate Merlot of the Violet Flame – all 2006.  These are quality wines with good structure and moderate nose, body, and finish.   We will definitely drop by and purchase more of their wine.  Maybe we can exchange some nice glass beads for wine.

- jim

This past weekend we finished off a bottle of Holly’s Hill Vineyards El Dorado 06 estate Grenache.  Medium body with an earthy Pinot-like nose and a fine lasting finish.  It has just a light hint of sweetness but is not a sweet wine at all. Nice and dry.

A view through the tasting room to the amazing Sierra Foothills view from the deck.

So what’s the story about a visit to Holly’s Hill?  Well, for one Holly’s Hill and nearby Sierra Vista and Narrowgate are well off the beaten track.  Most wineries in El Dorado County are along or not far off the Carson Road east of Placerville and north of US 50, or closer to Amador’s wine region in Fairplay.  Holly’s Hill, Sierra Vista, and Narrowgate are between these two areas.

They seem to get less traffic and offer  a quality mountain winery experience.  Holly’s Hill has a friendly, warm, and cozy tasting room.  The big attraction is the view from the deck and picnic tables!   If there is not much haze then you can see far south down the Sierra Foothills and across the Central Valley.  The deck and picnic area have a southern exposure which can be a bit toasty on hot days but wonderful during the cool months.

A visit to Holly’s Hill and the nearby wineries is a special treat year-round.  Bring a picnic lunch and have a feast with a view!

- jim

Napa Valley Marriott guests are invited to a complementary tasting in the afternoons most days.  The wines are from quality vintners in the Napa Valley, many of them very small operations, and the pouring is done by the vintners or their staff.

Tasting Salvestrin's fine Napa Valley wines at Napa Valley Marriott

Most of the wineries seem to be by appointment only types so this is a chance to taste their wines without an appointment.  But that isn’t the only attraction.

This is a great opportunity to meet with visitors from around the world and discuss a wide variety of topics.   The people who hang out at this hotel are interesting and well traveled.  The lobby design encourages mingling and socializing, a far better design than most hotels.

The afternoon of this photo we were tasting Salvestrin’s wines. Salvestrin is a small winery just south of St. Helena on Highway 29 that also includes a B&B.

They poured their 08 Sauv Blanc, 08 Cab which is Napa robust with nice tannins, and an interesting Super Tuscan blend with Sangiovese.  I found all their wines to have interesting nose, flavors, and finish to explore. None just disappeared on my palate.

After a long day of tasting wine in Napa Valley it is SOOOOO nice to sink into a Marriott bed and take a nap before heading out to the fine dining available nearby.  When I lack energy for dining elsewhere I dine in their cozy and comfortable cafe which has excellent food and ambiance.

- jim

I picked up sisters Amber and Britney at SFO early Wednesday AM a couple of weeks ago and headed across the Golden Gate bridge for adventure. I’ve known them since their births in Alaska and now that they are out of college we found the time to do a little two day tour of the Sonoma wine regions. This was their first wine tasting trip and besides the pleasure of showing them the ropes I also wanted to see wine tasting from the perspective of newbies. I learned a thing or two about WineQuesters.com and our Winery Quest iPhone app as they work now.

We drove up Highway 1 and then inland along the Russian River to the Russian River Valley. They wanted Pinot so I took them to Arista and C Donatiello wineries. Next we crossed into Dry Creek valley for Zins and Cabs at Mill Creek and Passalacqua Wineries. Not a bad tour for their first day. We spent the night at the Geyserville Inn, a favorite of mine, and the next day they shopped Healdsburg and we tasted at Alexander Valley Vineyards and Hanna Winery.

I was doing much more thinking than tasting. Selecting a few wineries to visit with such a huge selection available is a real challenge. You can go online or subscribe to magazines and get loads of advice about wines and tasting rooms but who has the time for researching hundreds of wineries.

Our search engine lets you select from over 100 criteria which helps if you know what you are looking for. However, Amber and Brittany had only vague requirements such as dry reds. When I suggested landscaping, architecture, friendly staff, ambiance, etc. it helped to narrow the field a bit more.

Of course I have my preferences based on my experiences but should those be used as the default selection criteria on WineQuesters.com? I don’t think so. I need to find a way for tasters to narrow their selection quickly and get the results they imagine from their wine tasting experience.

I believe what we need in WineQuesters.com is a wizard. The search engine is pretty good and the data is improving almost daily but a wizard will help tasters focus on their own interests with more of a conversational approach. I’ll develop a wizard we’ll see how it works.

- jim

The Town of Carmel is known for Bing Crosby, Clint Eastwood, cozy cottage homes, tiny shops, and a beautiful beach next to Monterey Bay. Carmel is well-visited but 11 miles up the Carmel Valley is the Village of Carmel Valley with 9 tasting rooms!

The Heller tasting room in Carmel Valley

Heller Estate is in this nest of tasting rooms and we’ve discussed their Cab Sauv before. This is the winery with the smoked grapes from the huge 2008 wildfire in the Big Sur area and the nearby Ventana Wilderness.

Some of their wine comes from vineyards in the upper Carmel Valley and some from the Salinas Valley / Santa Lucia Highlands on the other side of those huge mountains above the village. This winery is known for their organic wines but not all their wines are organically farmed.

Katya and I just finished a bottle of their 2003 estate Cabernet Franc. Spicy, robust, and dry, just the flavor profile we love. This is one of those wines that is a bit hard to find among hundreds of wineries but at least for us is a real treat. We are waiting for the smoked wines to be bottled later this fall for another treat. It will be interesting to pair those wines with food.

- jim

We visited this winery last weekend in Santa Cruz, CA. It is a tiny working winery in an industrial park building. Nothing romantic but Bill Miiler, the vintner, is enthusiastic and the barrels are there for an impromptu barrel tasting.

This evening we are drinking his 07 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot. The nose is outstanding and complex. While the finish is softer than we usually prefer it lingers instead of dying out fast like many Pinots. We will buy his Pinot again and want to return soon.

He doesn’t have a Web site so you will have to visit his winery. It is near seven others in Santa Cruz so plenty to do there!

Chuck Meeker’s tasting room is in little Geyserville in California’s Alexander Valley. Geyserville is one of our favorite wine country hangouts but avoid the place at night if you want action. In the evening it is a place for quiet conversations with the local winery folks at the restaurants and that is about it.

However, during the day the little agriculture town is booming with several quality restaurants, four tasting rooms, and now art galleries. One of those tasting rooms is in an old bank building and that be Meeker.

Meeker doesn’t make soft wines with taste that disappears when you swallow. His Syrah is a fine example. It doesn’t burn going down but it is robust, fruity, lots of nose, and a delight to drink if you really want to taste wine. We found it much more interesting than most of the Syrah we drink.

Now back to the tasting room. They retained the bank’s caged off interior and vault. Of course they still have the vault. They would have to blow up Geyserville to remove it. Anyway, Meeker’s “hand painted” bottles are a treat in vintner art and decorate the tiny tasting area. The tasting room is also one of the few “party” T/R’s in California.

The tasting room staff is a joyous bunch and it gets infectious. By afternoon the place is packed with tasters and no one is in a hurry to leave. During region events it is packed all day and tasters are having FUN! If Chuck Meeker is pouring then the decibels are ramped up a bit.

While all the other tasting rooms in the beautiful Alexander Valley are wonderful to visit, go to Meekers for a more social experience, and you’ll leave with good wine at a good price.

- jim

Heller Estate is known for their Carmel Valley, Monterey County, CA organic wines. They have a nice tasting room in the Village of Carmel Valley about 11 miles up the valley from the Pacific and the famous town of Carmel.

We were testing our iPhone app and doing a little videography in the area not long ago and noticed temporary signs on Carmel Valley Road to Heller’s mountain winery, not the tasting room in the village. We decided to follow the signs and see what’s up.

They were having a wine club event and barrel tasting and Katya and I crashed it. Fortunately we were welcomed and joined the tastings. Also fortunately we were spending the night at a nearby cottage. There was a lot of wine to try and lots of lively conversation and interesting people to share it with.

The winery is located at the end of a long twisting drive off a long twisting road that branches from another long twisting road – Carmel Valley Road. It is off Cachaqua if you must know and is rarely open to the public. We got lucky. It is soooo beautiful up there!

We tasted who knows how many wines from bottles and barrels. Their rich, bold, and complex 2004 Cab really stood out and we would buy again. We tasted it at home over 2 days and it tastes great, but a bit different, each day. I was tasting chocolate which for me is a special treat in Cab.

Heller’s vineyards are near last summer’s huge wildfire in the Ventana Wilderness. During barrel sampling we tasted smoke and we are really excited about their 2008 vintage. A little smoke in the back-taste is a treasure!

- jim