an awesome 2 day event! it was great intro & opportunity to check out sonoma specifically carneros wines & wineries! mellow for the most part, didn’t have the large obnoxious drunk crowds — so we appreciated that. went to the following: étude, cuvaison, 8th st. wineries(tin barn, talisman, ty caton, enkidu), anaba, bonneau, adastra, ceja, mantra @ grange sonoma. AWESOME discoveries: — 8th st. wineries area ****talisman(1 of our new faves)!!! excellent pinots!!! ** cuvaison — excellent cab, breathtaking views of the surrouning vineyards & rolling hills — étude love this so much — we’ll be back next year & will check out april in carneros.
William A.
Place rating: 5 Healdsburg, CA
This is an excerpt from blog review: The weekend of Nov. 21 – 22 was the Holiday in Carneros event, with over 20 wineries participating. The event is sponsored by Hospitality de Los Carneros(«HDLC»), which is a collective of Napa and Sonoma wineries located within the Carneros Appellation. Wine, Song, Love I don’t make it down to ‘the Valley’ — a/k/a Sonoma Valley, as much as I’d like to, so I was glad that this weekend didn’t have a lot of events to compete with Holiday in Carneros. I had previously stumbled upon the similar«April in Carneros» event last year, and had a good time, so I was really looking forward to going back. Taking my own advice from my post on the Wine Road Wine and Food Affair, I took the time to do some planning. The HDLC website helped by providing a well marked map, and a handy list of who was offering what. I was a bit surprised to see some number of Carneros wineries did not participate, especially the many of the ‘tin warehouse’ wineries on 8th Street.(Lets see some Appellation Solidarity.) But, there were more than enough wineries to visit for the day. Printing out the Map and the Event details, I laid out a plan that took me to mostly wineries I had not visited before, and had varietals, and descriptions that interested me. Having just returned back home after being in Portland all week(again), I decided to rest up on Saturday, and make a full day of it on Sunday. This turned out to be prudent, as several wineries reported that the crowds were lighter on Sunday, which allowed more quality time to interact with winemakers. I also followed my own advise about carrying a spit cup, and brought my own. For the most part, toting around a spit cup not only helped my tasting, but it also occasionally impacted what I was served. At one winery, a less experienced pourer gave me a funny look, in others I was offered tastes of wines not on the«menu.» Wineries visited: Roshambo, Anaba, Ty Caton, Parmalee Hill, Robert Stemmler Winery, Étude, Ceja. Event is well run, organized, and participating wineries do a great job. I look forward to their April in Carneros event, next.
