Napa and Sonoma Winery Impressions

During our October visit to California, we visited 23 Sonoma and Napa wineries, at which we tasted 127 wines. We tasted another 15 wines at restaurants and private homes. Since we primarily drink red wines, we only tried a few whites. In general, the wines we had were very nice to excellent. There were only a few that we did not like. One of the unique pleasures of the Sonoma and Napa wineries was the terrific Zinfandels. Despite the fact that we prefer reds, one great tasting experience we had was the 1991 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, made in the style of its predecessor that won the 1976 Paris tasting.

A Beautiful Old Sonoma Vine

Another great experience during our winery visits was seeing the great Mike Grgich, whose splendid wine open the eyes of the world to the quality of California wines.

Mike Grgich

One important lesson I learned in Napa and Sonoma is how many different microclimates there are in that small region, and how strong a role those microclimates play in the production of the local wines.

California Wineries vs. European Wineries

Over the course of the past 10 years, we have visited 33 wineries in California and 30 in Europe - 17 in France, 10 in Italy, 2 Greece, and 1 in Spain.The winery in Spain was a very commercial sherry winery (Gonzalez-Byass), so I would put that in a different category than the others.

While the wines in California and Europe are comparable in quality, I have noticed some differences between the tasting rooms of the wineries in the two continents. California winery tasting rooms seem to be far more commercial than the European wineries. However, there were several European wineries that were similar to the California wineries in that regard.

One aspect of the commercial focus of the California wineries was the fee for tasting wines. In general, the European wineries were less expensive or free. There were a couple of exceptions - Chateau Mouton Rothschild in France, and Antinori and Castello di Brolio in Italy.

Another difference that I experienced was responsiveness to emails. All of the European wineries to which I have sent emails have responded. None of the California wineries responded to my emails, even when I explained that I was searching for wines to use at a tasting for our wine club. I chose wineries that had interesting historic backgrounds and explained why I was interested in them. I referred them to the Tuscan Wines page of my blog as an example of the type of presentation I do. Nonetheless, there was no response.

Sonoma vs. Napa

We also noticed that Sonoma winery tasting rooms tended to be more friendly and less commercial than their Napa counterparts. However, there were some in Napa that were very friendly - particularly Charles Krug, Louis M. Martini, Grgich Hills, and Chateau Montelena. The cost of tastings was generally more expensive in Napa than Sonoma.

Discounted and Free Tastings

We discovered that there were a number of ways one could obtain discounted or free tastings:

1. Internet coupons. Many wineries have wine tasting coupons on their web sites.

2. Credit-card discounts. Bearers of Visa Signature credit cards were entitled to free tastings at some wineries.

3. Hotel-provided coupons for wineries. Some Napa and Sonoma hotels and inns offer their guests coupons for free or discounted tastings at nearby wineries.

4. Recommendations from other wineries. Some winery tasting rooms offer visitors coupons to visit other nearby wineries. In one case, we were giving a free tasting because we told the pourer that we had been sent to the winery by an individual at another winery.

5. Residential Discounts. Some wineries offer discounts or free tastings to area residents and sometimes to their guests.

Wine Clubs

All of the wineries we visited had wine clubs that offered significant discounts to members - typically 20%. However, shipping costs have to be added to the bottle cost. A little research indicates to me that the least expensive option is to purchase the same wine at my local wine store, if available, rather than directly from the winery. Some wineries are so small that all their wines are sold from the winery. In other cases, some larger wineries produce certain special wines in such small quantities that they are only available by direct purchase from the winery.