The father-son duo of the Merlo family work together to produce varietals of Merlot, Zinfandel, Sangiovese, Syrah, Moscato, and Cabernet Franc. Located on the Dry Creek Valley Appellation, the 200-acre (81-hectare) estate not only grows its own grapes, but also sells the fruit to other wineries. Wine barrel tastings are hosted for visitors to the place, while other events like Winemaker dinner, have its own fan base.
What a great experience. I love this tasting room. A must if you are going wine tasting in Sonoma County. Downtown Healdsburg is as quaint as can be and the wines here are excellent, and the people working here are super friendly.
This is a great vineyard and they make fantastic wines!
The view from the deck is beautiful. The tasting room itself is nice. The drive up to the tasting room is beautiful and they have a lovely estate with rows of roses and trees, next to the vineyards.
The service is fantastic and they are generous with the pours! I highly recommend going for a visit and enjoying the nice weather and scenery.
They make a number of really nice wines and bottle under a number of labels. You may be surprised just how many different labels they have.
They have some nice little snacks in the fridge there, but they are just enough to stave off hunger, so don't plan on getting stuffed with their snacks before tasting. I recommend getting a bottle and sitting on the deck with your own salami and cheese assortment.
The staff was great and wines are amazing. Vicky was very warm and welcoming. We went on a Friday evening it was busy but still attentive to our needs.One of the bigger wineries, open to the public, that gets a lot of foot traffic. But heck, the wines are great! so no complaining. Some really unique blends mixed in with the more traditional. Their at the vineyard only Gewurztraminer was heaven and the Ridiculous Red plus some good Cabs and solid Sauvignon Blanc.
Shadow Canyon is a mountain vineyard located on California's Central Coast planted to syrah and grenache. Located in the middle of the East-West corridor known as the Templeton gap, the vineyard lies at a 1,600' elevation approximately 8 miles from the ocean. The corridor allows cool marine air and fog to roll into the vineyard, which experiences daytime highs in the 80's and 90's, with nighttime lows in the 40's. This large diurnal temperature swing promotes a long growing season and balanced fruit development.
The tasting was a blast, the guy behind the counter was knowledgeable and funny. Why can't all tasting rooms have this kind of service? He listened to what we said and altered our tasting to fit our palate. Excellent service.
This is a first class operation! Every employee you see is smiling, friendly, and happy. The tour was fantastic and seeing the inside of the caves they built years ago was memorable. The tasting room was big enough and there was no pressure to purchase any wines or join the clubs. Every wine we tasted was explained in detail and needless to say, superb. We enjoyed seeing the sheep grazing on the hillside and then running back to the barn. This is a don't miss winery and tour in Sonoma County.
Winemaking traditions often begin around the table. Brutocao Cellars’ roots go back four generations to a Venice, Italy dinner table. When the Brutocao family came to the New World and married into the Bliss family of farmers, it was only natural that they would combine their passions and become grape growers and winemakers.
Today, the family still blends their Italian heritage with their rural agricultural lifestyle to make some of California's finest wines. Brutocao Cellars has tasting rooms in Sonoma and Hopland as well.
Krupp Brothers Estate is a sprawling collection of over 600,000 vines planted on over 1300 acres...and growing! This winery is located 6 miles in at the end of Soda Canyon Road off of the southern part of Silverado Trail. It is a partnership between Dr. Jan Krupp and his brother as well as ownership coming from a Gordon Getty trust as well as other investors. Jan told us that he loves growing things; after growing up New Jersey he left for California for his medical shool and was exposed to California's long growing seasons; as a result he never left the "golden state". The vineyard land was originally cleared for planting in the early 90's.
John Schwaesdall, A San Diego native, started making wine from some of the old vineyards in Ramona that were planted in 1950′s. He since has planted 4 1/2 acres of various red and white wine grapes. The vineyard lies among gigantic granite boulders that are found predominately in the Ramona/Mt. Woodson area of San Diego. These boulders are true natural wonders. One great granite boulder on the property weighs 80 tons and looks just like a cat. Another looks like Moby Dick. John won’t hesitate to show visitors the fantastic natural sculptures on his 6 acres of property.
