Wine Tasting In Sonoma

Last Sunday I went on a wine tasting trip to Sonoma with 200 of my closest friends, well not exactly. There were actually 4 buses of 50 people and each bus went to 1 winery before lunch, and 1 winery after lunch so actually I went wine tating with 50 people. The bonus of being in a bus is no one has to drive, the downside, you are in a bus with a bunch of people, but it's a great way to meet new people and hang out without having to worry about driving.

Sonoma is a nice place to taste wine. On the other side of the valley from Napa it is less touristy and still has a quaint country feel. As an added bonus, if you have a Visa Signature card you can taste for free at many of the Sonoma wineries. A list of particpating wineries can be found online. We started our day of wine tasting at Mayo Family Winery a small production family owned vineyard specializing in single vineyard wines and ended the day at Chateau St. Jean a large corporate owned winery. We had a catered lunch in between where we also did some olive oil tasting and drank some wine from Silver Tap.

Mayo family wines are are single vinyard wines made with grapes owed by the vineyard or sourced from other vineyards. They are only available for purchase online and at the vineyard. We tasted a 2008 Sonoma Coast Pinot Gris, 2007 Sonoma Valley Chardonnay, 2007 Sonoma County Pinot Noir, 2006 Sonoma Valley Cabernet, 2006 Russian River Petit Sirah, 2007 Russian River Zinfandel and 2006 Russian River Zinfandel Port.. I liked the 2007 Old Vine Zinfandel at $40 a bottle the best, it had a big body and a nice jammy fruity taste. The 2006 Zinfandel Port at $35 a bottle was also good although a bit sweet..

At lunch we had Silver Tap Sauvignon Blanc out of a tap. it's a new venture of Free Flow Wines to provide wine to restaurants in kegs and on tap instead of individual bottles. It makes wine less expensive and more environmentally friendly ie no bottles or corks.

At Chateau St. Jean we had the 2008 Sonoma Chardonnay at $28 a bottle, a Pinot Noir & The 2006 Cab Sauv Cin Cepages. The Chardonnay was a classic oaky Chardonnay in the Sonoma/Napa Valley style and is what Chateau st. Jean is known for. The 2007 Pinot Noir at $50 Benoist Ranch was fruity and a nice surpise as Chateau St Jean and Sonoma are not known for their Pinot Noirs. The 2006 Cabernet Sauvingon Cinq Cepages at $75 is a big bold red in the Bordeaux style with a lot of fruit flavor.

It was a nice day and we saw the sun which was great since San Francisco has been locked in with fog the past few weeks. What I enjoyed the most about the day was listening to what others liked and did not like about the various wines we tasted. What the day showed me more than anything is that tasting wine is a very personal experience and each person needs to find the flavors and varietals they like and drink those but still be open to trying wines they may not have previously liked. Each varietal, each winery and each vintage is different and is changed by what the winemaker does with the wine. So, my advice is to get out and taste.

If you have the chance go to wineries as it's a fun experience, but if you don't have the ability or opportunity, go to the store buy a few bottles of wine, open then up, invite some friends over see what you like.