Ed and Jonjie under 130yr old Fig Tree @ Quivira
Piggybacking on the 2nd Annual Wineblogger’s Conference this year, the wife and I stayed in Sonoma another 4 days to tour and taste to oblivion! In those 4 days we visited 20 total wineries and we thank many of our friends for the awesome recommendations, hook-ups and tips that lead to such a wonderful experience. Some of those friends include Michael Bryan (@AtlWineSchool), Shana Ray (@ShaRayRay), Paul Mabray (@PaulMabray) and Deborah Kravitz (@WhatDebPours). In this post, I am going to list those 20 wineries we visited and then which ones we rated as our Top 5 of the trip. Then I will expand on each of the top five in more detail as a subsequent and separate post. Sure, many folks hate the whole rating thing, especially when it comes to wine scores, but as technical and analytical nerds, we just couldn’t help ourselves… plus, it gave us a framework from which to share our experience to all of you. In the end I would recommend almost every winery on this list, so don’t just take our word for it… get out there and live it!
The “rating system,” if you want to call it that, is every bit as subjective as wine can be most times and was based on the quality of the wines (did we like them?), the hosting (was the TR staff courteous, knowledgeable and not snooty?), the setting (were the vistas picturesque and added to the experience) and the facility (was the tasting room enjoyable, inviting, comfortable and functional?) — that’s it, very simple. Here are the wineries in alphabetical order:
The TOP 5 were… drum roll please!
| Iron Horse |
| Michel Schlumberger |
| Lancaster Estate |
| Medlock Ames |
| Quivira |
Look for detailed posts on the Top 5, in the coming days and week… cheers!
When can we go back?!?!?
Delighted to have made the cut! Looking forward to your next trip to Alexander Valley.
I love Quivira and Michel Schlumbereger. Been club members there for some time now! Sounds like an action packed trip!!
Kenny: you bet… we had a blast and it was great to meet you! Hope we can connect again real soon
Sonadora: Yeah, I think we need to drop some other clubs and sign up with some of these for sure… I think we already did actually ; )
Sonadora, I forgot to mention how it’s a small world: The owners of Quivira are practically neighbors here in Atlanta (they live in a ‘hood behind us) and Pete is the Vice Chair of the company I work for (Fiserv) too. Amazing how that works out, huh?
no love for C. Donatiello
Chris, my man! You guys rocks too! In this particular post I am focusing on the wineries my wife and I visited together on our vacation… I will be throwing in most posts on the wineries I talked with and visited at the WBC separately… I still throw some twitter love your way too ; )
Cheers!