A Ride up the Sonoma Valley iPhone App in Hand – Deerfield Ranch
The other day Lahni and I drove up the Sonoma Valley and stopped at almost every winery there, it was a way to check and update the data in our Sonoma Winery Tour iPhone App. Things change, some for the better and some for the worse.
Tasting fees have gone up at several places, although Imagery eliminated their higher reserve tasting fee and now have just one very reasonable fee for that remarkable list. Kunde is up to $10 per tasting from $5 and they have a mountain top tasting now that I bet is spectacular. Still a very good deal!
Very good news: Deerfield Ranch Winery finally has everything in place for their wonderful cave tasting. They are open from 10:30 to 4:30 without an appointment. The tasting fee is very reasonable, especially for a comfortable sit down tasting. Lahni had never been there before and she thought it was beautiful, walking past the wine making equipment outside, and then the first long hallway of the cave lined with American and French oak wine barrels. Then you arrive at a surprising circle of light with the almost luxurious tasting salon. It is very cozy and delicious.
Audelssa winery had moved out of their downtown tasting room in Glen Ellen and that location has been taken over by HKG, an estate tasting room for the Hop Kiln Winery. All of the wines come from their Russian River vineyards and they are surprisingly reasonable. Meanwhile Audelssa is tasting at their mountain top winery while they renovate a new property around the corner in Glen Ellen, a classic stone building that has never previously been a tasting room as far as we know. Tasting rooms continue to proliferate.
Just down the road in the Jack London Village we noticed Moondance Cellars has opened a tasting room across from the Eric Ross Tasting room. Moondance had previously been on Highway 12 in Kenwood in the Wine Room, in the building now occupied by Figones Olive Oil. Figone’s used to be in the Jack London Village. It seems like people are playing musical storefronts.
Arrowood seems to be going through some odd stuff. This year’s wine making has been moved to an organic facility in Napa to save money. It’s owned by Jess Jackson now, who owns so many California wineries, so corporate decisions trump the winery experience. We’ve always had a hard time getting information out of the managers at Arrowood, a little grouchy, which is unfortunate. That’s part of the reason they have a low hospitality rating in the App. I suspect it’s the odd design of the winery that has brought it through so many changes in ownership, with the southeastern door pointed into the hillside and clinging to the slope. It always seems like it’s on the edge. Every time I go there they have different staff.
On the plus side Loxton winery seems to be doing their normal ‘great’ hospitality. Chris Loxton was predicting that the grapes would be coming in at least a couple of weeks late, and he was a little concerned about early fall rains shortening the harvest like we saw in 2009.
The Blackstone winery has really improved their tasting experience and we were thoroughly impressed. The other day we brought clients across the street to Chateau St. Jean and the pressure in the reserve room to become members of the wine club was uncomfortably heavy. Surprising! Of course maybe the fact that their parent company Fosters profits were reported down 53% is trickling down into the sales staff.
So to sum it up the Valley is a little more expensive, but still a good deal.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are authors of the Amicis Winery Guides (Find them on Amazon), and owners of Amicis Tours. They are authors of over twenty books on health, design, business and travel. Their iPhone Apps, The Napa Valley Wine Tour, and The Sonoma Winery Tour are a tour guide’s approach to these beautiful area, complete with 1000’s of photos and insights. Their articles and products can be found on the sites http://www.amicistours.com and http://www.spaceandtime.com. Their Apps can be found at http://www.sutromedia.com/apps.html.
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