Castle Vineyards & Winery

This was the first winery I stopped at so I can say with full confidence that the wines were fantastic. Even the chardonnay wasn’t disgusting! (What? Not a fan) Plus they had… OMFG…a syrah that I liked well enough to buy! I also bought a great pinot… but that’s not a shocker because pinot is one of my great loves.
Our pourer was super sweet and he was kind of like an oaky Matt Damon with subtle hints of Ben Affleck. What? He was cute.
Also…they’re changing locations so their wines are on sale right now. Shit… I kinda wanna go back to Sonoma right now.

Nice little tasting room in the center of Sonoma. They have an outdoor table where you can enjoy your samples. The only downside was that the employees weren’t very chatty about the wines, which is kind of a big part of the experience. Oh, well…

LOVE this nice, laid-​back quaint tasting room & LOVE their reds!!! came here twice this month & relaxed outside on the porch & their front yard under a tree, tasting 7 — 8 of their wines for $ 5!!! i finally found a winery where i liked almost all of their wines, especially their reds… like wines made just for me!!!
loved the following (the price is right too, avg. $ 24 — $ 30 a bottle):
— ’05 pinot noir, sonoma coast
— ’05 pinot noir, sangiacomo vyds, los carneros
— ’06 rubis, sonoma valley
— ’04 zinfandel, sonoma valley
-’04 syrah, landa vineyards, sonoma
-’05 syrah, landa vineyards, sonoma
i also enjoyed their ’06 viognier late harvest, but didn’t love it…
my new regular stop in sonoma!!! can’t wait to come back!!!

a modest and unobtrusive sign welcomed us in. love the non-​corporate-​like feel of the place. — - it’s as if aunt edna just happened to have bottles of wine laying around in her living room for us to taste.
the viognier was, by far, our favorite of the bunch.
my only criticism is that the pours were rather scant. though, overall, it was a good wine tasting experience.

Castle vineyards operates in a small looking residential house, but the wines wowed me. The tasting fee is $ 5 and they have about 8 wines that they pour. The granache was not on the tasting menu, but the girl who helped us poured it for us anyways. At the end they poured a us a late harvest vionier. It was like a pure sugar ray of sunshine in your mouth. For a small winery, they also had a port syrah, which they serve with their chocolate sauce. They only sell these wines in their tasting room and in Sonoma. So I must hold on to my late harvest vionier and port as long as I can!

Castle’s tasting room is a cute little house across the street from a cute hotel and a cute bed and breakfast. It’s just a nice spot for a tasting room, a bit off the Plaza. The little sign, which is cute as a bug, tells you there’s a tasting room, and so you walk in and it’s a cute little tasting room, a bit more like the ones you’d find in the Santa Cruz Mountains or Livermore than the ones you’d find in Sonoma.
The price is 5 bucks and can include up to 9 tastings. That’s a lot, to be honest, but they do it and set them up nicely. They do some good stuff in the drys, but I must prefer ports and desserts and they poured four of those the day I visited last and one of them was a Syrah Port that was Heavenly. I took a bottle of it with me to a Sweets Party and it got good numbers. And I really like the cute bottles they use.
The prices ain’t bad, especially on the ports, and it’s the only place in that area that really gets me excited to taste. The chocolate with the ports was a really nice touch.

I was very impressed with this place. For some reason I wasn’t expecting much since it doesn’t look like on the outside what I am used to going to for tasting, but I was pleasantly surprised. The people working were very friendly and even comped our tasting fee since we bought two bottles. This is a very nice little place right on the square.

Major benefit to Castle Vineyards: Something like 7 – 9 tastings of wines for $ 5. No joke. That’s awesome. Yes, the pourings are small, but holy shit– $ 5!
I really liked a few of their wines, namely a Viognier (they had two, and it was the non-​dessert Viognier). When they serve a port, they give you a wine-​chocolate sauce to try with it! Now that’s awesome.
My problem is their total lack of distribution (which she claims they’re working on). I would love to be able to buy this brand back home, but it sounds like it’ll be a long time coming. She said we could buy them online and have them shipped to us, but for something like $ 85, I’m not so sure I’ll bother.
Anyway, this was a cute, warm-​vibed place with lots of tacky souvenirs that gave me a laugh. The girl behind the counter was nice, but should’ve poured more and said less – which is all I’ll say about that.

I went up to Sonoma a few weeks ago with some friends to do the wine tasting/​massage thing and we stopped in Castle because my friend had seen it from her hotel across the street last time she was here, but didn’t get a chance to try it. It looks like a cute little house and when we walked in it was warm and cozy. The lady who was pouring was very nice and informative. The pours were really small (a sip & ½) but very tasty. I always thought I did NOT like chardonnay but this place changed my mind. I ended up buying the 2005 Chardonnay. My roommate whose always been more of a zin or cab gal got the 2004 Merlot. Plus they have this Port chocolate sauce that they give you at the end of the tasting. It was sooo good I had to buy a bottle of that :) I love this place for opening up my mind and my pallet. Thanks Castle! I’LL BE BAACK!

The Castle Winery tasting room, just off the Square in Sonoma, is really warm and cozy. In addition to being able to taste at the bar, there are also seating areas set up.
Our pourer was friendly and knowledgeable. They offer a wide arrange of wines. We left with a bottle of their Los Carneros pinot. I also liked their syrah and port quite a bit.

Not much to add beyond Vincent’s comments. The location is a bit deceiving, especially to the Garmin I was traveling with, which wanted to take us to the old vineyard location on Castle Road. You’ll actually find the tasting room on:
122 West Spain Street
Sonoma, CA 95 476
This past weekend I enjoyed the ’03 Sonoma Syrah and Gold medal Carneros Pinot Noir, but the wine that sticks out the most for me is their Ros. A blend that I’d ordinarily be embarrassed to admit enjoying, it sticks out, because I expected something akin to drinking grenadine and was pleasantly surprised by the dryness of the Rhone varietals.
The service was quite friendly. We were helped by Fred, who had a great sense of humor; a far cry from the undeservedly snooty location we’d visited on way to town. Fred gave us a referral coupon, good for four, to a tasting room up the street and a few restaurant recommendations.