The Midwest Descends upon Wine Country

There are several ways to tour wine country. From private limo or sedan to group shuttles to personal valets who will drive your own car around. And of course, you can always take yourself, but as a single traveler who likes to swirl and swallow, this did not seem like a wise idea for me. So I booked two tours, one for each of the full days I stayed in Sonoma.

My shuttle wine tour group and our guide, Steve (first on the left), at Petroni Vineyards.
Ever wonder who buys table statuary? Signore Petroni, that's who.

Day 1, I jumped onto a shuttle tour run by Platypus. These kinds of tours feature a big bus/van thing driven by a knowledgeable guide who gives basic wine country history, wine growing and making information, and entertains you with various stories. These rides are typically shared by up to 10 folks from various parts of the country who, by the end of the day, become the best-friends-for-the-day through lots of wine and shared experience. In the off-season, however, this tour was shared by 5 of us, all entirely from the Midwest (Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin). An older couple in their late 60s-70s, a younger couple in their mid-20s, and 32-year old me. We immediately bonded over our accents and how not-cold we thought the weather was. At 40-50 degrees F and sunny, we were having a marvelous holiday. All the locals couldn't believe how unseasonably frigid it was. (Pro traveler tip: The locals are always right about the weather. The cold and snow that we have in Wisconsin just blows their mind, especially if they've never visited. It's all relative, anyway.)

I'll run through the highlights, skip the lowlights except to say that, for a tour that supposedly focused on smaller wineries, I was disappointed that we stopped at Arrowwood - where the tasting room staff was 21-years old and was more interested in cosmetology than wine, and their wines were all labeled "Vinted and Bottled by". I also wasn't terribly impressed with their wines and didn't purchase a thing except the $25 reserve tasting.

Petroni

Looking west across Sonoma Valley and over the Petroni estate from the residence

Gorgeous. The second most beautiful site I visited (the most spectacular site was Glen Lyon, which I visited on Day 2). Private vacation residence to the owner of North Beach Restaurant in San Francisco, tastings by appointment only, and the kind of home that invites comparisons to every fancy house-in-the-hills article you've ever seen in any upscale homes magazine ever. Wonderful Italian-varietal wines, delicious estate olive oil, and the most fantastic host I've ever had - Quinn, a level 2 sommelier whose look is somewhere between Will Smith and President Obama and whose presentation style and overall demeanor is infectiously irreverent (and startlingly similar to my own), and his presentation is frank and highly educational. One can only hope that his practical approach to being a "connoisseur of socially acceptable vices" becomes more commonplace among "serious" wine people.

The backyard pool of the Petroni residence

The "Tasting Room" at Petroni; that is, the Petroni Sonoma Valley residence

Quinn, our host at Petroni

Little Vineyards

Outside the Tasting Room at Little Vineyards

Family-owned and operated, Little (the family name) Vineyards reminded me a lot of Botham Vineyards in Wisconsin (where I worked). Fun stories behind their wine, friendly vineyard pets (a cat and a dog), and Heather, their gregarious tasting room manager who was not related to the family, and who moved among several different parties with ease and made us feel like we were long-time customers. (At least I hope that's how my customers thought of me...)

The Littles specialize in Syrah and Petite Syrah varietals, but their signature wine is a fun, easy-going blend called Band Blend (they also call their releases of this wine "tracks". We sampled "Track 6"). Band Blend came about because the wine-maker's brother (?) and his band mates would drink his good wine during practices in the cellars, much to his frustration. One day, the band came into their practice space and saw a barrel labeled "Band Blend," made just for them. Problem solved. In fact, all the Little family is quite musical, and their Tasting Room is decorated with guitars and other instrumental paraphernalia. I purchased a bottle of their most unique (to me) wine: A light, distinctive Port-style wine made from Petite Syrah.

We took advantage of the late afternoon sun during our tasting at Little.

Tasting Room interior

The vineyard dog loves to play fetch, but isn't very good at giving the ball back.

Fetching the ball in the vineyard.

Who doesn't want to be this dog?

Vineyard cat thinks she is supervising the tasting.

b wise vineyards tasting room

The Tasting Room for b wise vineyards in Kenwood on the Sonoma Highway

Spectacular wines. Knowledgeable staff. And the most beautiful and astounding wine cave I've ever seen... that I didn't actually get to see in person. Named after the owner, Brion Wise (pronounced like Bryan or Brian), b wise Vineyards somewhat recently opened a tasting room/cellar in town, so guests are no longer shuttled up the mountain to the cave unless they've booked a special appointment and are prepared to purchase by the case. In a somewhat less exclusive visit, our group was ushered into a glass-walled private tasting room to sample the wines, some of which were outstanding values. If I worked at a tasting room in Sonoma, this is a product I could get behind and a location I would love to sell from. I'm sending half a case of these wines home, and maybe I'll consider sending a résumé west...

The lounge area of the Tasting Room

Our private tasting room, looking out at the main Tasting Room