J Rickards Winery – No tasting fee!

J Rickards Winery in north Sonoma County J Rickards is a small hidden winery located in north Sonoma County near Geyserville.  We’d visited J. Rickards in 2009 and a great deal has changed since then. The winery has a new winemaker, Blaine Brazil, who started in 2010.  The winery just completed an innovative cave system for barrel aging wine. A … Read more

Rock Wall urban winery has it all

Rock Wall urban winery at Alameda Point The only things missing at Rock Wall Winery in Alameda are vineyards. Rock Wall is one of many urban wineries in the East Bay that make wine and have tasting rooms in an urban setting. The grapes are sourced from a variety of California vineyards and at harvest … Read more

Is Sutter Creek the best wine country town in the Sierra Foothills?

Sutter Creek best wine town

Sutter Creek Theater and other boutiques on Main Street Is Sutter Creek the best wine town in the Sierra Foothills? Here are some reasons why we think it is. Close to wineries Sutter Creek is 20 minutes away from the Shenandoah Valley in the Plymouth area. There are over 40 wineries in this area of … Read more

Napa Valley Tasting Room Fee Index 2015

napa valley tasting room fee index

I started the Napa Valley Wine Tasting Fee Index last March in 2014. The idea behind the Napa Valley Tasting Room Fee Index is twofold. It gives our Wine Country Getaways readers a ballpark dollar figure of what it costs to taste wine in the Napa Valley. Secondly, I thought it would be interesting to compare Napa Valley tasting fee … Read more

Julie at Goosecross Cellars

Wine, for me, is all about the experience and having fun with old friends and new. Goosecross Cellars, a family-owned winery in Yountville, delivers on both excellent wines and plain, old wine fun! The ideal wine experience for me includes more than delicious wines.

Hall Wines leaps forward with winery iPad technology

The next time you stop in at one of Hall Wines tasting rooms, there will something new to ponder at the counter: iPad tablets used by customers and staff to simplify the purchase and shipping of Hall wines.

Napa Valley Wine Tasting Fee Index 2014

I want something as a gauge for the wine country traveler who visits our Website looking for that information. I decided to devise a quick and easy, but unscientific, Napa Valley Wine Tasting Fee Index, one that I can update a couple of times per year.

Do you really need a tasting room appointment?

A third set of wineries, and very much in the minority, truly do require visitors to make a reservation to taste or tour. These wineries tend to be small, boutique, high-end, and not staffed to take in numerous visitors.

Navigating the Napa Valley Wine Route

There are over 400 wineries to visit in the Napa Valley and, if you are visiting the max of ten wineries in a two-day excursion, how does one seriously decide on which of these 400 wineries are the most enjoyable to visit?

Blending wines at Castello di Amorosa

It was our task to take five different barrel samples of the 2012 vintage and make our own Super Tuscan wine. We had a Sangiovese, two different Merlot samples, and two different Cabernet Sauvignon samples. This was my first taste of red wines from the fabulous 2012 harvest.