We went to Soda Rock Winery on Hwy 128 to do some wine tasting at the "Barn". The barn is a very…read morecool spot, not your typical winery. We were greeted by Heather, who also was pouring the wine. We sat outside as it was great weather. The scenery was nice and open with no other buildings in the surrounding area. We started off with a Rose' that was light and easy to drink. We then had four other pours of various wines all Cabernet and blends and one Petit Verdot. I really liked the Petit Verdot and the Cab Franc. Those were my favorites. Heather was a great host, vert personable and informative. We loved our experience here and would recommend to anyone to try them out.

This 5 star rating is simply designated to the tasting room associate who made the entire…read moreexperience wonderful - Heather! As someone who's been to Soda Rock before, I've never felt compelled to leave a review, but after my family and I stopped in yesterday, I knew I needed to talk about our positive experience. Heather was amazing! She was friendly, knowledgeable about the wine, answered our numerous questions, and I couldn't have asked for anything else. Heather was on top of it from the moment we arrived. She thinks of everything. Our group of four sat outside, and it was beautiful, and right away Heather brought us two carafes of water. Usually wineries bring us one and we almost immediately have to ask for a second. Well, that may seem simple, it really affected our experience right from the beginning, as we knew Heather cares about the people she is helping, thinks ahead, and executes her customer service perfectly. We had a great time tasting the wine and enjoyed the different varieties, but it was honestly Heather, who made yesterday's experience top-notch. Heather also let us know about some sales that were going on and worked with us to match us with the perfect wine to take home.

We stopped in for a tasting and we're so glad we did. It was a relaxed & refined experience. We had…read morethe chance to learn about their unique process and check out the distillery. Craig provided the perfect amount of education & humor with his collegial and engaging style. As self-professed bourbon aficionados, we were incredibly impressed (read surprised, delighted) with the straight bourbon. We can't remember a 5-year bourbon we liked as well as Sonoma Brothers. Wow! You gotta try this one. It's a keeper. Craig shared their secret is a blend of 3-5 year bourbons that give it a taste more like that of a much older spirit. Incredibly smooth and so drinkable it could be a problem haha! If you're in the area, do stop by and support this very cool, humble and approachable brand. You won't be sorry.

Popped in on a rainy Saturday to find this small tasting bar in an industrial park which seems to…read morebe the "Beverage District" of Windsor. Brandon, one of the owners poured our tasting (great price $15pp refundable with purchase) We tasted five spirits and each was better than the next although I was drawn more to the clear spirits like the vodka & gin while my husband really liked the bourbon, whiskey and brandys. The whole experience was great. We could see the whole production facility from our seats. We took home several bottles, too as the prices were really reasonable.

Ciao Bruto! A newer…read moreItalian wine and provisions shop from the lovely folks at Idlewild Wines nextdoor. The shop opened in 2022 and it's a welcome addition to the Healdsburg wine scene. I love local wines, but this Italian girl also loves exploring and trying these imported Italian wines and provisions too. Variety...the spice of life! The owners are extremely knowledgeable about all the wines they carry. Need a recommendation? Just ask! I've been in a few times so far to purchase Italian wines and treats including Antonio Mattei Biscotti di Prato (the best biscotti ever!), torrone (a nougat confection), pasta, and tomato sauce. They also carry Italian sardines, olive oils, cookbooks, wine decanters, and more. Follow them on social to learn about their Friday wine tastings (I still need to get to one), and give them a visit!

Finally back Yelping after a 2+ year absence due to the pandemic. It's great to be back!…read moreWe have been visiting Ciao Bruto for the past few months, it's a fabulous new Italian wine and Provision store (along with French Champagne) that is unlike any other wine and provision store in the North Bay, or even in most of the Bay Area. Large, excellent selection of high quality wine from every region in Italy. Piedmont, Sicily, Tuscany etc. etc. they are all covered and in EVERY price range. I have bought numerous bottles based off the recommendations of the owners, all have been exceptional. Add in a large selection of French Champagne and Italian sparkling wine and you have a truly unique assortment of Italian wine and French Champagne. If that was the extent of Ciao Bruto it would be great but the provisions part of the store is awesome! Specialty Italian ancient grain pasta in all shapes and sizes. Believe me, you can taste the difference compared to chain store pasta. Also a large assortment of tinned fish-shellfish, honey, spices, vinegars and oils, pickled veggies, various pestos and sauces, flour, chocolates and others confections, pasta making machines, Italian cookbooks and a whole lot more. All this imported from Italy! You can't quite completely "grocery shop" there but you can get specialty food, wine and provisions you simply can't get anywhere else. Ciao Bruto is the creation from the people next door at Idlewild Wines, also makers of great Italian Piedmont varieties such as Dolcetto, Barbara, Nebbiolo, Arneis etc. all grown in nearby Mendocino County. Service at Ciao Bruto is friendly and very helpful. Not sure about Italian wine, French Champagne or specialty food from Italy, no problem, just ask for help from Courtney whose expertise is French Champagne or Thomas whose knowledge is all about Italian wine and food. We are so happy to have Ciao Bruto locally here in Healdsburg!

I had one of my most memorable vineyard visits today, when I went to Albini Family Vineyards…read more Albini is located in both the Russian River and Chalk Hill regions. Don Albini is the proprietor of the vineyard and does everything the old-fashioned way. Don does everything with heart! The grapes that go into the Albini wines are hand-punched. All wines are entirely natural. He uses natural yeast and doesn't filter the wine. BEAUTIFUL! I found Albini Family Vineyards as I searched the Internet for wineries in Chalk Hill (a region in Napa Valley / Russian River area). I find that the red wines (Syrah, Zinfandels) have a heavy fruit taste, heavy on the back of the tongue, & full of body. I contacted Don via his vineyard website and made an appointment to go visit the vineyard (Note: This is a family vineyard and there is no formal tasting room. Appointments are a must!). When you drive onto the property, it is an unassuming looking house with several acres of primarily zinfandel grapes. Both Don and I got to the vineyard at about the same time, and he greeted me with a huge smile and a very friendly personality! He began to tell me about his family wine business - he is a self-taught wine maker (he learned everything by reading books on wine making). He is also from an Italian family who has generations of wine makers, going all the way back to Northern Italy. Don showed us the pressing / hand punch process, bottling machines, fermentation process, corking, and just about everything that goes into producing a bottle of his wines. The tour (more like a casual discussion) took about 1 hour, and we enjoyed every moment of it! He's a one-man show and his wines surely taste like it is made with tons of TLC!!! Albini Family Vineyards only sell two kinds of wine - Zinfandel and Merlot. This year, there are three varieties of wine available: First, is the 2008 Zinfandel (500 cases; Russian River Valley); Second is the 2008 Zinfandel Ponzo Vineyard (500 cases; Russian River Valley); Third is the 2008 Merlot (Russian River Valley). We did an informal tasting of the 2008 Zinfandel, which was full of fruit, and delicious tastes in the front of the tongue. 75% of the grapes are from his personal vineyard, 25% from Ponzo vineyard. Don mentioned that this wine was heavier tasting than the other Zinfandel Ponzo Vineyard (which 75% of the grapes are from another vineyard, 25% from his vineyard). I opened a bottle of Merlot for dinner tonight and everyone really enjoyed it. Very rich depth of flavors in the wine! If you join his mailing list (free to join), you'll get a 20% discount on his wines. Currently, wines are $28 a bottle for the Zins, but you get it for $20 a bottle if you visit his winery or if you join his free mailing list. The Merlots are $18 a bottle with the discount. Truly a good value for the money! I purchased 1.5 cases of his wine because I want to share this newly found gem with my family & friends. I have to say that when I left the vineyard, I walked away very calm and relaxed. I walked away more educated about wines. I walked away with a new friend in Don. Each time that I enjoy my wine, I'll think of the great experience I had visiting the Albini Family Vineards. Don is a wonderful human being, and this characteristic is apparent in his wines. Note: Don is about to harvest his wines and begin the process for the 2011 wines. Contact him ASAP if you want to get on the mailing list and enjoy his wines.

After visiting Don and seeing how hands on he is with his wine i have a deeper respect for the man…read more He walked us through his tiny barn operation and showed us how everything is done by hand in order to preserve the natural flavors and complexity of the wine. Don does not use a pump to move the wine from the barrels into the tank, it is moved with buckets. He also mentioned that sometimes he spends the night in the barn in order to "hand punch" the grape / juice at least 5 times per day. All of this hard work and love go towards making his handcrafted wines. He doesn't have any employees just his family, friends and sometimes volunteers who have bought his wine before. I may volunteer next year and help him out. 2007 Release info: Russian River Merlot 300 cases. The 07 Merlot is rich, complex and laced with spice and black fruit flavors. It is still young and evolving. This wine is very well balanced and should continue to improve over the next 4 to 6 years with proper aging. Russian River Zinfandel 188 cases. The 07 Russian River Zinfandel is a big, fruit - forward wine with firm structure. Aromas of dark plum, blackberry and toasted oak set the tone for this concentrated wine. The palate follows up with very ripe berry fruit, mulled spices and a touch of new oak. The finish is quite long and generous. I will be placing my order in about 2 weeks. Let me know if you wanna jump on it. The prices haven't changed if you are on the mailing list (Merlot $20.50 / Zinfandel $23.50).

Awesome friendly and knowledgeable wife-husband team. Love their dedication to small batch,…read moreinteresting and unique wines. I don't know any other place in Sonoma with this kind of offering.

Wowzaa! Super fun discovering smaller production and label wineries here in Guerneville. Cool old…read morebank building at the center of town where this wine shop is located. Paulina is the owner and local wine enthusiast. We were heading to the coast after stopping at a winery along the way. Glad we did. Groovy little town with restaurants, shopping and a tequila bar a few doors down the street. Awesome! My girlfriend and I had such a fun time (We bought several bottles) with this new discovery. We will be back. Thanks Paulina!

This winery was one of our wine tasting tour. I liked their 2010 Chardonnay, enrolled wine club…read more After an year of membership, I wanted stop mine. I called and left message, emailed them frequently few months. No one responded me. Still they sent me wine while they are not responding my emails or messages. Their wine is very pricey, every shipment I got 3 bottles. But I got charged $150-180s include shipping. Anyway I had to cancel my credit card to be out. Well, they started emailed me to update my information and Christina Foppoli called me and left message to update my info. I'm very disappointed with their service and pricey wine.

My wife and I were first introduced to Foppoli on a tour a couple years ago and have been club…read moremembers ever since. The wines are delicious, and my wife and I always get excited when we get the notification email every time a new three-bottle shipment has been released. The only difficulty we've ever had has been with their in-state shipper, who for some reason early in our membership didn't believe that my company's address was a real place. But that's not Foppoli's fault, and the problem has been sorted out for some time now. While I cannot speak to other customer's poor experiences, I have to say my own experience has been drastically different. As I say, we've been club members for several years now and it has been a very smooth ride. On another note, I have trouble with 1-star reviews based on something not being to the reviewer's specific taste. Like people that post reviews of restaurants like Alinea or The Bazaar and then bitch about the portion sizes and the length of the tasting menu. *That's what the restaurant is all about*; if you don't like that, then don't go. I personally don't care for Woody Allen movies, but I wouldn't give "Annie Hall" a 1-star review because of that. Bad customer service experiences are one thing, but as I say my own relationship with the family through the club has been trouble-free. Conversely, five-star reviews based on a one-off great experience are perhaps also equally useless.... for the reader to judge, I guess. Foppoli's raison d'etre is small-volume, high-quality production, and a no-frills tasting experience. As they say, you are literally guests in their home when you visit. Frankly, I found my time at Foppoli to be quite charming and a welcome relief from the million-dollar showcase tasting rooms at some places in CA. If you don't like that, fine. That's your taste, and I'm not going to criticize that. But keep it in perspective when writing your review. Is the wine well made and delicious? Do you think it's worth it? Are they serving their customers well? That's all that matters. And on those points, Foppoli has delivered for me.

***************************** 1,053 *******************************…read more I got invited to Eric Demuth Wine Tasting and Release Party, with his new label last week. Eric Demuth Wine and Vineyards doesn't open to the public yet, by appointment only. The winery is small house, by the vineyards, wine country living style, but winemaker Eric Demuth produced some of the nicest juices for Sonoma Coast and Monterey County wines. This winemaker, he sourced his grape, single vineyard only. His wine is good and very reasonable price point. He shared with us current and future releases. We got to taste 10 wines in total, what a treat it was. - 2 chardonnay $40-$45, beautiful chardonnay. - 1 pinot noir $30, low ACL, this can gage for year and perfect with food pairing, old world style which I love. - 1 syrah $40 I love this one, think of Rhone, I can't wait to stock up more of this wine. - 3 cabernet sauvignon $60-$75, all delicious, outstanding wines 92+ points wines. Eric Demuth is a second generation winemaker and he's so passionate about what he does, it shows in his wines. We got to meet his father, winemaker Chris Demuth, he makes only 24 cases for Demuth Winery label, we can't wait to get our hands on those bottle. If you love small producer winemaker, small lot, single vineyard wines, Eric Dumuth Wine Company is for you. I love to support upcoming winemakers, those that less commercialized and struggle to show wine lovers their talented skill, their love to give us the best juice that we can ask for. It was a fun afternoon in Windsor, Sonoma County with friends and wines, Julie K, Tara A, with snacks and celebrated life. Follow them on Twitter: @EricDemuthWines - Instagram: @EricDemuthWineCo Facebook: https://facebook.com/EricDemuthWines Trust your Somm.

Visited a couple weeks ago for work and ended up at this place with some people we met. Wine was…read moresub par and service was rude. The owner clearly had better things to do than try to accommodate us.

Loved being part of Passport weekend. Really enjoyed the…read morewine and the People. David was fantastic. Our classic rock band COFFEY PARK Was hired to play both days.

It would be easy to miss a small winery on dry Creek Road outside of Healdsburg. Don't pass it by…read moreit is wonderful. Van was our server and he was very interesting and had a lot of knowledge. We had fun talking with him. The prices of the wines were very reasonable and very very tasty. They had several inns that were amazing. I also liked some of their blended wines. My friend decided to join their wine club because we loved their wines so much and received a 40% off. It had a very cute little place to sit outside to taste. The wine inside is decorated with 60s 70s pop culture artifacts.