Stryker Sonoma

My family has been a member for a few years now and each time we have walked in to this winery, the hospitality representative, Lisa, has been very rude. This last trip was the last straw. We walked in after making a reservation for 5 and she informed us that she had us for 3. No big deal, but her rude looks and snide remarks were uncalled for. The views are incredible as the vineyard is gorgeous. However, there are PLENTY of amazing wineries in Sonoma/​Napa that I’d rather spend my money on in a membership. We will be cancelling simply based on the fact that Lisa is just so unpleasant, she makes the experience unbearable.

We got married here and it was incredible. We visited a few times before the wedding and the staff made us feel at home. They offered us any tasting, gave us great tips for the day of and genuinely helped us get to know the venue.
The wine is great and it’s very fairly priced. Our guests loved it! The views at sunset are incredible. The venue itself is also beautiful and not over done.
We highly recommend Stryker for events and also for tastings.

We had a great experience when we were part of a private in-​home tasting Stryker gave which was great and the guy giving the tasting was great.
Signed up for the wine club so we could get one delivery and decided we no longer wanted to receive deliveries (quite expensive for what you get). Turns out hidden in the fine print somewhere was a minimum of two deliveries, or a cancellation fee which they charged us.
Pretty disappointing as we would have been to the winery again on subsequent visits.

My husband and I just had a wonderful experience at Stryker Winery’s. Tim, Heather and Leon made us feel very welcome and were very knowledgable about winemaking and Stryker’s history. Being from Kalamazoo, the home of Stryker corporation, we were pleasantly surprised at the venue and product that this winery had to offer. Thanks again for your hospitality and we will be sure to stop back again when we are in town!

Note: Review solely on the wedding venue.
The ceremony venue was gorgeous and the reception was only a stroll away from the ceremony. We watched the sunset from our seats since it was held outside. The sunset was picturesque and the weather could not have been any more perfect.
Unique table setting: It was practically a bunch of fancy long picnic tables and chairs in a large square. In the middle of the square stood the dance floor with beautiful strung lights.
Pros/​Cons of this wedding venue:
Pro:
–Intimate venue if you have a small party of less than 150 ppl
–Gorgeous venue
–Friendly staff
Con
–In the middle of nowhere
–Geyerville is a little over 2 hours from the South Bay
–Housing for your guests can get pretty pricey (~$ 250/​night for the Holiday Inn)
–Highly recommend renting a shuttle to take your guest to/​from the venue
–Closes at 10:30pm
–Wine and Beer are served only – no hard A
–I was informed the Man’s (yes, Man’s) restroom only had one stall

Really nice small lot winery. Surprised by the quality and will be back for more. A little pricey, but great customer service.

Amazing views of the vineyards. Tasting room is beautiful and modern. Wines were okay and service wasn’t all that great. I went with 2 other people and we were charged for our tastings despite buying a bottle of wine. We visited 4 other wineries that day and purchased bottles at all of them — Stryker was the only one to charge us for our tastings. I would recommend this place mostly for the view from the tasting room and back patio.

My parents were SO excited to visit the Stryker winery — it was the only winery they were interested in visiting during their recent visit to CA. My dad grew up with the Stryker family in Kalamazoo, MI and we shared with the winery at the time of booking our tasting how my parents know the Stryker family and expressed interest in learning more about the history of the winery. My dad’s dad was good friends with Homer Stryker — they went to Med school together and my dad grew up with Lee, Patty’s dad, starting in elementary school. When I emailed the history and significance of the tasting with Brian, Tasting Room/​Hospitality manager, at that time Brian said that he would be delighted to share the history of the winery and Patty’s passion for wine & philanthropy and that he would take extra care in making our visit special.
We arrived at the tasting room for our scheduled sit down tasting and there was only one other couple tasting at the bar, just finishing up. Pat (new employee) was managing the tasting room and greeted us cordially. He directed us to a high-​top table that was set for only 2 people even though we made an appointment for 4. Pat finished with the couple and came over, put down two more place settings and began pouring wine.
Brian was in the office on his computer and did not come out to say hello or greet us. I could see Brian’s back and he was surfing the web. Pat even went into the office twice and suggested Brian come out and he still didn’t come out. He did come out once and got a glass of water, but did not acknowledge us at all. We were the ONLY people in the tasting room. I was so embarrassed but didn’t want to make a big deal out of it because I wanted my parents to have a nice time.
I bought my dad a very nice logo’d fleece and it had a spot on it from where the sticker was. Pat offered to get another one for me, but when he went into the office to fetch one to swap out, he quickly came out and said that Brian swore the stain would come out and we didn’t need to worry.
I shared our horrible experience with my friend who happens to be a Stryker wine club member. She was appalled and followed up directly with members of the Stryker staff who said they would reach out to me to discuss what happened — it has been several months and I was never contacted.
There are too many wonderful wineries to visit where the experience is memorable for the right reasons — don’t bother with this one.
#stryker #sonoma

What makes a good winery? Good wine and an experience. Sofie and I enjoyed our visit here with the Taste Alexander Valley event
. We dranks estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Tannat. The latter two I’d never had before and both were delicious! I prefered the Petit Verdot and Sofie liked the Tannat. The Cabernet was also quite good but the two new ones were quite interesting to enjoy with their unique flavors.
Good Wine!
We took the tour through the vines with an explanation of the vineyard history (a section of 90 year old vines grown in the classic «chalice» configuration. He had an interesting story about women being favored for the cutting because they do a much better job than the men so that on the sorting line before the grapes are sent to the stemmer/​crusher — there is less work to do. While men are faster — the women’s careful work ultimately saves money and produces better wine. (I myself feel much better thinking of 12 lovely virgins harvesting my grapes… but that’ just me. [ This, of course, may rancor those who believe in women’s rights and equality that women would be favored over men for something — but we will leave this topic or you to discuss over a glass of Tannat with your activist friends.]) I was additionally astonished that these women will work 10 hour days picking the grapes! (Compensation? Up to $ 1,000 a day. Skilled labor!) I have harvested grapes before to make a very bad Cabernet and can tell you that I was both exhausted and thrashed after 4 hours! The next day my body ached! (Makes me recall one of my chivalrous events when I helped my neighbor woman shovel a big pile of dirt into the back of a pickup truck. A man’s work right? I paced her for about a dozen shovels of dirt but gradually slowed down until I had to stop, lean on my shovel and say, «Who the hell *are* you!?» as she continued without a rest tossing shovel fulls of dirt into the truck without slowing down. She was an Native American from Nevada who could only find work doing construction — and as a woman they gave her the worst jobs but she kept at it because she wouldn’t let men get her down. She said they put her on a jack hammer for 3 days in hopes that she’d quit because on one wanted a woman on the team. She said she made up her mind to quit on the 3^rd day but before she had the opportunity to quit they hired her full time and everyone respected her. I know I sure did!)
Back to Stryker… they have a most beautiful setting for the tasting — the tasting room set on a hill with wide vistas of the vineyards — and big enough to «get away from the crowd» if you want to enjoy your wine without having to listen to the prattle of other patrons. I really like the design of the building — they have the wine in barrels that you can view from a glass window in the tasting room all stacked below in racks.
Fun facts!
— Stryker only makes 4,500 cases of wine a year and sells it all through their wine club!
— Stryker is owned by one the daughters of the founder of Stryker — the company that makes the best medical supplies in the world. (A solid stock to own!
)

Amazing view of Alexander Valley. These wines are some of our favorite, but we had an awkward tasting! My husband I were the only ones in this humongous (and very classy) tasting room, which could have need really cool, but the person pouring was just awkward. It definitely changed the experience. Still joined the club though and still love the wines.

I rarely write a review about a winery simply because the perception is that wineries are nice to visitors just because they want to sell wine. but have to say, I had the most amazing experience at Stryker. It was my birthday, my wife wasn’t drinking and it was 20 min to closing time. Pat greeted us with a warm welcome, gave us the best seat in the house and stayed a half hr after closing, without rushing us for one second, just to make sure we got the full feel of this amazing property. I have to say that he, along with the amazing wine, is the reason why I will DEFINITELY come back! Kudos to the owners to hiring such a great employee. He personified the greatness of the wine, the winery owners and what they stand for; greatness! See you soon!

The views here are amazing and the property is beautiful, but the staff were very snooty and treated our group like we were unworthy of coming in and tasting their wine. We had 11 people and each did a tasting, during which 2 people of our group had to ask to finish their tastings because the older blonde woman decided to just… stop doing her job. A number of people in the group belong to other wine clubs, and we frequently come up to wine country, so it’s not like we were inexperienced tourists. I think just because we were young and enjoying ourselves that she deemed us as amateurs,
I was really looking forward to purchasing a couple of bottles from Stryker but decided ultimately that half of my inclination for buying wine is to remember the good experience I had tasting it and this was a sour experience. There are a number of amazing wineries in the area, spend your time and money elsewhere unless you are above 40 and look «snobby».

Working in the wine trade I don’t join wine clubs very often… Lord knows I don’t need more wine… but I couldn’t resist. Winemaker Tim Hardin has a background making Pinot Noir and he brings the same deft touch to other varietals, wines of great purity and charm, great job Tim!
Everything about our visit was spot-​on, nice staff, beautiful architecture. Will recommend Stryker to my friends and to everyone on Unilocal

I am biased. I get free pours here because my friend is a club member.
But I found this place over 10 or 11 years ago, back when a good bottle of Alexander Valley wine was $ 20something. This place and it’s wine has only gotten better since.
Stryker is not cheap, but I am far more willing to pay $ 40 for a bottle here than it’s competition in the neighborhood. The wine is simply excellent, particularly the reds. I recently opened a stashed bottle of their 2007 cabernet, and it was some of the best wine I have ever had.
The staff here is super friendly. In fact, in all of wine country, Leon is my favorite wine pourer. He likes to pour big tastes. Of the best stuff.
Go there. VERY beautiful setting, amazing views and architecture, and great wine.

Roger roger, what’s our vector, victor? Yes, I had Airplane stuck in my head each time I heard that we were going to Stryker vineyards. You mean «Strike her?» It’s a shame movies like that aren’t made today.
Anyway, the grounds and the tasting room at Stryker are beautiful. The tasting room appears cantilevered at the end of the building with striking views of the vineyards below. The room is surrounded by a glass wall of windows and the room has soaring ceilings so there’s a great sense of openness here. The AC runs strong so it’s a welcome respite from the heat.
You may not be awestruck with all the wines that are poured (for $ 10). But they are fine and consistent. With a Unilocal check in or a Visa Signature card you’ll get a bonus pour. It’s a great space with good wine that doesn’t seem to get too crowded if you’re hoping to escape the masses. Surely this might appeal to some of you. Well perhaps not if you’re named Shirley…

We came in on a Monday and it was dead. Literally, we were the ONLY ones tasting. That’s pretty cool right? Well, it only made it super awkward the ENTIRE wine tasting. I would’ve loved to sit on their patio and enjoyed a more leisurely tasting, but we felt weird asking.
The wines were alright, but the tasting was only $ 10, so good deal. For $ 40 a bottle, we felt there were many other wines we’d rather buy elsewhere.
The guy working the tasting was nice, he offered us some brown bread because we mentioned we were going to have a picnic but needed bread. :)
The views are gorgeous, but the whole experience was just awkward.

Stryking views but less than stryking wines… at least those that were offered on the $ 10 bar tasting menu. In fact, none of the wines poured by the seemingly disinterested hostess were sourced from the beautiful vineyards out the window. We had hoped for a killer Cab but it never surfaced. This winery makes some good wine. It’s a shame that they don’t market it very well… at least not in their beautiful tasting room.

My parents are part of the Stryker wine club so I have come to this winery a number of times. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Their wines are fabulous, everyone who works here is friendly, and their tasting room and surrounding vineyards are gorgeous. A great reason to stop here is that these aren’t wines you can pick up at your local supermarket. This is your chance to experience them!
Their tasting room is modern with big windows looking out into the vineyards. From the tasting room you can look down to where they store wine barrels which is very cool. Tasting is either $ 10 or $ 20 depending on the growing region you choose to taste. Plus, a check in on Unilocal will get you a bonus pour. There is a gorgeous back deck and front lawn area. Kick back and enjoy some fantastic wine.

We hit this place kind of at random. We were in the area and the reviews were good — plus they are on the Visa Signature list, which is always a bonus. They do three pours for free with Visa Signature from the list. We chose to do different wines to spread our palates a bit.
My favorite was probably their new Sauv Blanc… clean and crisp. Didn’t like the Rockpile Ranch Red that everyone raves about, but did greatly enjoy the zins (definitely the big bold zin profile people associate with California).
Our server was young but experienced. She was an intern who stayed on staff after graduation — kept us as full of knowledge as we needed to be. Loved that we could take our glass out onto the patio or to the comfy chair in the corner. The tasting room has a beautiful view of the vineyards, and the gardens surrounding it are gorgeous. It was pretty quiet that day there (I’m sure the heat was keeping people home), so we had an opportunity to visit without the crowds.
I’m not sure I’d drive out of my way to come here, but it’s a good stop when you are in the area.

Note $ 10 for tasting — check in on Unilocal for an extra taste.
Great, beautiful winery with elegant tasting room and excellent wines. Try their 2005 Cab and be pleasantly surprised at it’s smokiness. Apparently there was a giant fire in Mendocino that year and you can really taste the smoke in the wine. The guy pouring was really nice and friendly, will be back if I’m in the area + have a free tasting pass.