If you are lucky enough to be close to Taddei winery, you really should go. We've been getting his…read morewines for years and we can tell you HE DOES NOT MISS. I asked my partner tonight, as we enjoyed a bottle of 2021 Tu Es Belle cab: "why can't other people make wine this good??" And, if you are at the winery he ready makes it worth your time. His passion for the craft comes through in the product (100%) but also in the tasting experience. He's more than happy to discuss all the ins and outs of the winemaking process if you're interested. And if not, he'll just serve you excellent wine. You will be glad you visited either way.

BIG. BOLD. BEAUTIFUL WINES. Even more BEAUTIFUL wine maker! such amazing generous personal…read moreservice. Great conversations. Highly recommended

Black Mountain Gravel Bar Chardonnay is excellent !!! THis is a great wine to keep around the house…read moreand open up for a cold glass on a Monday night when you are trying to get your engine started for the week !!! Enjoy I believe TJs has it for $5 or $6 Peter

Buy my Black Mountain Chardonnay at Trader Joe's for $4.99 a bottle. I'm liking it more lately…read morethan the 6.99 BV or the 8.99 Clos du Bois-check it out at your local TJ's!

Sometimes small is good. Like when driving a Morris minor, or eating a really rich creamy dessert…read more The Chateau Adore tasting room is small, not a Chateau at all. But it is good. Clean, bright and airy. Wine tastefully displayed on one table and in the 4 foot tall racks on one wall. Tasting fee is $10, supposedly for just 3 samples. But our gracious hostess having no other guests, gave us the full tour of all the wines, we got to taste 7. And the pours were generous. The winemaker, John Wong, has a signature style in all the varietals he crafts. He coaxes spice flavors out of the grapes. His judicious use of oak provides structure without falling into the trap of making the wine puckery with tannin. The pinot noir, merlot, zinfandel & cabernet all have a similar mouth feel, but in each the intrinsic fruit flavors are easy to distinguish. Now the surprise. Onion wine. You read that correctly. Red wine steep in onion slices while fermenting. The wine is surprisingly mellow and quite tasty. The label is a hoot. It says that this is a Chinese style wine that will treat and alleviate all sorts of medical woes from painful knees to high blood sugar. I'm a sucker for claims made for herbal medicine, and when a good tasting red wine will heal my wounds, I'll drink it. I bought three bottles. Prices range from $17 to high $40's.

I was very excited to visit this winery, as it just opened. This winery is surrounded by their…read morevineyards that rise along the glorious Fountaingrove hills in Russian River Valley. The varietals grown are Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Chardonnay. For many years Kendall Jackson Winery sourced their grapes from this vineyard. When KJ changed sources (to obtain larger lots, no doubt) the growers decide to produce there own award-winning wines. The tasting staff who poured for me and my wife was great and very personable. We tasted a Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon all were amazing. Of my favorite was the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. It had a taste of mocha dark berries with a lingering of baking spices at the end. A side note: This one of the very few wineries in Sonoma County that is Asian-owned. Check it out

Taste Route 116, November 2022…read more This was our last stop after two days, having visited 10 out of 11 wineries. Truth be told, it was our tour guide's (second) least favorite, so it really wasn't even on the itinerary. What a fun surprise and excellent experience it turned out to be. We arrived without reservations but were fortunate to have been greeted and quickly seated by our absolutely engaging host, Julius. He was perfect for our group because he was knowledgeable for those that had all the questions and entertaining for those of us who were just enjoying the experience. I was with industry folk who speak the language and technical jargon, but I just know if I like the wines or not... and I enjoyed Ektimo's wines overall. To the end I have a (shared) case of Pinot Noir futures coming next month as well as a couple bottles purchased for Thanksgiving. Casual, outside patio was perfect for this lovely NorCal weekend. And do you know who purchased the other half of that shared case? Yes, indeed...our guide! Ektimo will definitely be on our itinerary going forward.

Very nice winemaker at this winery. Our group was here for the Wine Road barrel tasting weekend and…read moredecided to stop here. They had free goodie bags with popcorn and chips for customers. The wines were ok but I can see it being a nice place to visit and chill with the winemaker with a glass of wine.

I met Jon at the Bodega Seafood Art & Wine Festival and was privy to an INCREDIBLE deal on a couple…read moreof hand-selected cases! I bought two and wish I had bought three more! His wine is soo smooth and drinkable, I've eagerly shared bottles with a handful of others since picking up my cases, and everyone who has tried has been impressed, and I have picky friends! It was wonderful meeting the dog upon arrival to the tasting room for pick-up, and I look forward to bringing in friends for tasting, and continuing to promote this fantastic Sonoma County brand. I love the name of the vineyard, and absolutely love the taste of the wines I selected. Thank you Inspiration Vineyard and Jon! Much love!

Came here to celebrate a friend's birthday this past weekend and the owner was so nice! We had a…read moreblast doing the tasting and learned so much about wine and how it's made. They were able to accommodate our group of 20 with little notice. While waiting for the rest of the group to come, the owner served us some Rose on the house. If you're in the area and need some wine, I recommend their Zinfandel! It's $25 per bottle and worth it! They have an array of of her wines as well. Their Syrah and Cab was delicious too. If you purchase wine, they will even waive your tasting fee!

*Barrel Tasting Update* I'm a big fan of Family Wineries but…read morewouldn't recommend coming during Barrel Tasting. Do yourself a favor and check them out any other time but the crowds that we encountered yesterday were pretty much unbearable. *original review* I cannot recommend Family Wineries enough! My friend Dave is a wine club member there and insisted that we fit them in on Saturday while in Healdsburg. The tasting room features six different wineries and a bunch of different olive oils, mustards and bbq sauces for tasting. Most of the wines were very affordable (less than $20 a bottle) and since they were pouring so many different labels we were all able to find something we liked. Thank you, Family Wineries! I might have to join my buddy Dave and become a member as well...

What a great place to sample wines from six different producers!!!!!!!!! This is a WINE tasting…read morereview, not one that comments on the layout of the tasting room or the ambiance of the merchandising area. Six tastings for $5 fee (applied to any purchase of wine). The day we were there, they had 10 whites and 16 reds. We tried five whites and seven reds along with three dessert wines. We could have kept right on tasting except our palates were giving out and it was only 11 am on a Tuesday. Plenty of delicious wines here. Among the samples were Collier Falls 2008 Primitivo, Dashe 2008 Zinfandel, Forth 2006 Syrah, Mietz Petit Verdot, Philip Staley Tempranillo, Lago di Merlo Moscato and Dashe Late Harvest Zin. The winners for my palate were the Lago di Merlo 2009 Sangiovese and 2009 Barbera - they got purchased. The Dry Creek wineries produce a wider variety of wines and styles of wines than the traditional PN and Zin crowd along the Russian River. The Dry Creek area of the Alexander Valley is surprisingly good. We prefer it to most of the samples we tried along the Russian River. The Family Wineries Dry Creek tasting room location is in the same parking lot as 4 other wineries tasting rooms - right off Dry Creek Road. Stop at this ONE location and you will be able to taste wines from Amphora, Collier Falls, Dashe, Forth, Philip Staley, Peterson, Lago di Merlo, Kokomo, Mietz and Papapietro. Easy peasy.

Stopped at this tasting room as it was one of several tasting rooms/wineries on the Route 116 wine…read moreclub members appreciation yesterday. We were greeted at the door by someone who was pouring a chardonnay & rosé. We had just come from another tasting room where the chardonnay didn't even taste like a chardonnay. Jigars chardonnay was very buttery & pleasing to the palette. I could've drank this all day! The rosé was light & fruity and is the perfect summer wine! We then had the option of going into the tasting room and trying the wines being poured or into another room to try their library wines - we opted for the library wines. Ever wine that was poured was to die for! The pinot noir, syrah, Cabernet, Zinfandel ask were phenomenal! I could kick myself for not buying a bottle or two of the rosé and chardonnay. Good reason to go back again! Friendly & knowledgeable tasting room staff, great location, quaint tasting room, phenomenal wines and good prices.

Tiny tasting room but friendly service and lovely tasting of their wines - the pinots were really…read moretasty and reasonably priced. Never been to this area before and the downtown is really tiny but has its small town charm. Drop by if you are in the area.

Ever since trying Radio's wines at Hazel in Occidental many years ago, we've been huge fans ever…read moresince. Without a public tasting room we rely on restaurants carrying their wines, online sales or one of their open houses, usually hosted twice a year, for our Radio-Coteau cravings. During their most recent open house (sign up for announcements on their website) we sampled some of their latest offerings including Chardonnay, Syrah, and of course their amazingly delicious Pinot Noir's. La Neblina (our favorite) was the first Pinot we tried from Radio and have loved each vintage. While their latest releases are young, we usually just commit to a couple bottles of each, one to drink now and another to lay down for a while. We're not collectors of wine, were drinkers of wine so a year is about a long as we let anything lay about. Radio also offers a lesser priced wine by the brand County Line. We bought a case of their County Line 2016 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir as our "Tuesday night" wine. At $28 a bottle, this is a well priced and approachable wine, but don't take my word for it, go get some. Just head to the County Line website, sign up for an account and order away.

We were invited to an open house here and it was such a treat! I had never heard of Radio-Coteau…read morewines so the open house was a wonderful way to get introduced to their winery and the wines they make. The winery is not anything like other wineries I have been to. The set-up is more like a warehouse, standing room only. Everyone there was casually dressed and not pretentious like some other wineries I've been to. The open house allowed us to roam around and sample the many wine varietals they were pouring that day. We tried Albariño, Chardonnay, Pinot, Zinfandel and Syrah. There was also a few tables full of delicious fresh sliced bread to eat with our wines. One bread that had cheese and shiitake mushrooms in it was so good, we had to ask one of the workers where it was from. I really enjoyed the wines and definitely didn't leave empty-handed. I spent more than I expected but got some nice bottles for upcoming holiday get-togethers.