Tasting Room Reviews

SF Gate, which is the online home of the San Francisco Chronicle, has an excellent series of articles called "The Tasting Room".

Two of the most recent articles feature a couple of my personal favorite wineries, BV and Charles Krug. I found both reviews to be spot on - BV's employees are described as "no-nonsense, but knowledgeable", while the staff at Krug (aka the Original Mondavi Winery) were "playful" and the entire group "agreed that we could have spent the entire afternoon bantering with the easygoing and knowledgeable employees" (I am quite sure my friend Ralph Murray (no relation unfortunately) was involved in that description!).

The reviews not only describe the "vibe" of the tasting rooms, but also the types of wines you can expect to taste as well as describing the options your group will have upon arrival. For example, BV actually has two rooms - one for current releases and one for their "reserve" wines. Had I known that the first time I went there, I might have been tempted to skip the current releases and head straight for the reserve room.