Van Ruiten Family Winery
"As a family we explore new opportunities, nurture those that can make a difference, and pass along knowledge gained from one generation to the next."
"As a family we explore new opportunities, nurture those that can make a difference, and pass along knowledge gained from one generation to the next."
Cultivating Jocelyn Lonen Winery has been a complete labor of love for its founding family. A passion for fine wine and a high-regard for the Napa Valley drew Lonen Curtis to the wine business in the mid-1990’s. After retiring from the high-tech industry, Lonen embarked on the single-minded, serious pursuit of making world-class wine. He planted his first vineyard and began to develop the Jocelyn Lonen Winery in 1996. Lonen and his wife Susan along with his daughter Brandi Jocelyn Pack and her husband and children moved to the Napa Valley the following year.
This was also a fabulous winery to taste at. They let us picnic in their beautiful courtyard, complete with bocce court, and supplied us with complementary glasses of wine to enjoy while we ate. The employees were chatty, knowledgeable, and not at all pushy.
Nice tasting room with a wide selection of wines is what you will find at Terre Rouge & Easton Wines. There was a wine festival that weekend and all the tasting rooms were bustling. Whats nice about Terre Rouge is that they actually had the space to accommodate everyone. So many wines, so little time.
Hours:
Tues-Weds Closed
Thur 11:00am to 4:00pm
Fri 11:00am to 4:00pm
Sat 11:00am to 4:00pm
Sun 11:00am to 4:00pm
Mon 11:00am to 4:00pm
The only wine of Carol's we have enjoyed is her Wild Thing Zin. “Wild Thing” is named for its attitude and uninoculated or “wild” yeast ferment is used to create it. Black raspberry fruit, vibrant and alive in both the nose and mouth, nice oaky-smokiness, hit of black pepper. Smoothly textured in mouth, the finish is long and lushly jammy fruit—dangerously good! Looking forward to visiting and trying her other wines soon.
Tobin James Cellars is not your traditional estate with vineyards, but definitely a fun winery to visit and often the place to stop by many that are escaping the heat of the Central Valley. If you are even slightly intimidated about your knowledge of wines, come here - they will put you at ease! The staff really wants to talk about things other than tannins, oak, and other terms so common in wine articles. If you are serious about your wine, theowners - Jobin James, Lance and Claire Silver - are completely open and passionate about the wines they make. But if you are a "grape-nut" like me who would like to have fun while tasting great wines without being judged by condescending staff members - this is the place to be. It is a pleasure to have this sterling place in our wine directory.*
Hours:
Daily - 10:00AM to 6:00PM
Stephen Storrs and Pamela Bianchini-Storrs begn Storrs winery with their first harvest n 1988. Both are trained winemakers at UC Davis, they have wrked at a number of wineries which include Domaine Chandon, Felton-Empire and Almaden before starting their own venture. Stephen and Pamela appreciate the cool Burgundian climate of the Santa Cruz Mountains. This winery grew to a comfortable 10,000 cases per year and in 2001 realized a dream with the purchase of land in Pleasant Valley district of Corralitos.
Beautiful vineyard and land. Frey produces organic and biodynamic wines- and is the oldest organic winery in the country. The Frey family, 10 out of 12 children run the vineyard and live on the 90 acres. The wine was tasty. I haven't had a lot of organic wines but I liked the organic Zin and biodynamic Petite Syrah.
The girl that poured for us was the single most welcoming and knowledgeable tasting room employee we dealt with that day. She was interested in what we were looking for but gently encouraged us to try some other wines they had available without being pushy.Most of all when you walk out of the winery you come away with such a great experience.
This winery is situated in a cave, which makes the wine tasting experience a little different, but pretty cool. Everyone was really nice. Like a lot of wineries, they charge $10 for a tasting fee, but at Bella you get to do much more than just sampling wine. The tasting tour began with the pairing of a Rosé with some portuguese sausage and some friend plantains. You then proceed to the wine caves, which were filled with live Spanish guitar music.