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 first Wine Questers Live Blogup (then called Taste n Tell) was at seven SF urban wineries last January 10th.  Tiny A. P. Vin was one of those.  Andrew makes only Pinot and from various California regions.

This evening Katya and I are doing a little comparison tasting of his 2007 Alexander Valley and Santa Lucia Highlands (Salinas Valley) Pinots.

Both are soft with finely tuned Pinot nose and taste.  The differences are subtle and interesting.  We feel that the Santa Lucia is slightly more robust.  The fruit will taste a little different but you have to really pay attention.

As usual I’m not going to tell you what you will taste. Everyone’s taste varies in many ways and is affected by mood, environment, experience, and more.

I will suggest that if you are in SF you make an appointment with Andrew and try his Pinots from various regions.  This is an usual venue with a fine winemaker and an interesting selection of Pinots available for a broad comparison tasting.

- jim