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

Katya and I drove down to the Salinas Valley on a windy late afternoon a few weeks ago to attend a gourmet dinner at Pessagno Winery on River Road in the Monterey wine region. The west side of the Salinas Valley is called the Santa Lucia Highlands in the wine world. While there is some difference in the dirt it appears that the vineyards don’t want to be associated with their lettuce and row crop neighbors.

Anyway, River Road has about a dozen wineries along it and all produce tasty wines. Pessagno is a small family operation about half way along the trail and they host a Friday evening dinner occasionally and pack their tasting room with gourmet foodies for a great dinner and social event.

OK, so what’s the Zin Surprise?

We arrived a little early and tasted a few of their wines for the first time. While all are very enjoyable their 2006 Idyll Times Vineyard, San Benito County, Zin really got our attention. It had the nose of prunes and the taste of apricots, and neither was subtle.

I’m a former Santa Clara Valley prune and cot picker but Katya certainly isn’t (from the Russian north). I couldn’t believe what the terroir was doing to the wine so we bought a bottle, brought it home, and recently shared it with Jeff, a close friend and wine affectionado from Seattle.

We asked for an honest opinion, which with Jeff has to be a special request. I poured and Jeff did his sniffing. Prunes. He tasted. Apricots. He looked puzzled and confused. Did he understand right, we are tasting a Zin this evening?

This Zin is FUN!

- jim