There are always some tastings that stand above all the rest and this was one of those – Behrens Family Winery. High on Spring Mountain outside of St. Helena, in a very comfortable tasting room surrounded by wonderful original art and a killer view, we met Robin Cooper and some exceptional wines! For close to 2 hours Robin painted a full picture for us of … Continue reading Spring Mountain Experience
We headed out of Santa Barbara the next day to Los Olivos and Los Alamos to taste at Andrew Murray and Casa Dumetz. After talking with Noah from the Wine Merchant, we added the Holus Bolus tasting room to our trip. Our first stop was at Andrew Murray Vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley Wine Country. Tastings are held at the winery in a stunning location … Continue reading Day Trip from Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara California not only has a stunning coastal location, beautiful Mediterranean style architecture, amazing restaurants and shopping – it also has its share of wineries! More than 280 wineries are located among the seven AVAs in Santa Barbara County. We made a road trip to Santa Barbara to relax for a few days and explore a few of those wineries and tasting rooms. We … Continue reading Santa Barbara Trip
East of Sacramento and west of Lake Tahoe has become one of our favorite winery haunts. It’s the foothills of the Sierra Mountains. It’s a region that began growing grapes in the gold rush days of 1849 but has more recently begun flourishing into a major wine region of California. We visited a small portion of the region for the third time in October. Over … Continue reading Into the Foothills
Rhone Rangers is America’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to promoting American Rhone varietal wines. They hold a number of events throughout the year. We headed to Sonoma for an afternoon wine tasting on the lawn at Cline Family Cellars with 30 Rhone Rangers from Sonoma, Napa, Lodi, El Dorado, Monterey County, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara County, Oregon, and Texas pouring their wines. We tend to … Continue reading Rhone Rangers Event
We have definitely been busy tasting, just not writing about it. So sorry! I’ll attempt to catch up. Since the beginning of June we attended the Summer Open House and Marketplace at Grand Cru Custom Crush as well as a Rhone Rangers event in Sonoma. We visited and tasted at Maggy Hawk, Dry Creek Vineyard, Aperture, Sixteen600, Iron Horse, Gary Farrell, and Hartford Family. We … Continue reading Summer is Cooking!
Refortified after a relaxing late night around the fire pit we set off for Epoch Estate Wines. Epoch’s wines are from a combination of Paderewski Vineyard, Catapult Vineyard and York Mountain. The tasting room is on the historic York Mountain Winery property. It’s the love of two geologists – Liz and Bill Armstrong who assembled these vineyards and renovated the York Mountain structures to create … Continue reading Trip to Paso Robles – Day 4
Just outside of downtown Paso Robles is an industrial area turned into the home for over forty wineries, distilleries and breweries. Park your vehicle and spend the day here. Some tasting rooms in Tin City accommodate walk-ins. We made reservations for all our tastings. Jacob Toft’s tasting room was our first of the day. They’re a small Central Coast producer sourcing from some of the … Continue reading Trip to Paso Robles – Day 2 – Tin City
Halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Paso Robles, once a Almond growing region has grown into a major wine region. The rolling hills are studded with over 400 wineries with a majority making Rhone varietal wines. Over 4 days we toured the west side of Paso Robles and tasted at 13 wineries. Yes, that’s a big number in 4 days but using some restraint … Continue reading Trip to Paso Robles – Day 1
Currently Closed Tucked away in Bacchus Landing is a unique tasting room –13th & Third. This boutique winery produces their Rhone style wines in Paso Robles but their tasting room is here in Healdsburg. Gregg Rothenberg and wife Julie are the passion behind the wine. They’re New Yorkers who met on 13th & Third in the city, married, and made the move to California to … Continue reading Paso Wines in Healdsburg
John's Wine Cellar 