Healdsburg area wineries that we shouldn't go to?
 

I've been doing searches for recommended wineries to visit while we are in Healdsburg in a couple weeks. And the list is getting long! Too bad we won't be able to visit even most of them. Seems like you really can't go wrong.

Anyone have a bad experience at a winery or wish they had skipped it? Boring, ugly, pompous or boring servers, bad wine, etc? Might be easier to wittle the list down that way.

Sorry, can't think of a single one you shouldn't go to.

We've doing barreltasting every year (March) for several years and it really just depends on the wine and the year.

Here's a map of the Healdsburg wineries. We usually start at the bottom with the Davis vineyards and then move across the street to all those smaller wineries. Year before last, we got an entire case of "First Kiss" (believe it was Camellia Winery). Last year, they were out of "First Kiss" and hadn't even started on "Second Kiss" - or whatever the next batch will be called. So, you see, it really is an annual thing. You might find a gem selling for only $15 a bottle from a little-known vineyard while up the street another winery is selling something for $45 a bottle based on reviews of previous years and yet the current year wine is in no way deserving of the sterling reputation of past years. This is what winetasting is all about.

http://www.wineroad.com/maps/3/

Just go, park the car, and walk to visit whichever wineries suit your tastes. You're not obligated to buy anything, but I'm willing to bet you're going to walk away with half a case/case of something you might never have neard of before.

Enjoy!

Camellia Cellars is the maker of First Kiss and it's a fabulous wine at a fabulous price. They are on Front Street and there are 13 other small tasting rooms within walking distance. You could spend the entire day just there. :-)

bookmark

bookmarking too~

Adding to the wineries in that area:

We just picked up a case last month of Balletto's 2009 Zinfandel. Very rare, don't know if they have any left by now. However, do try their zins which they don't really make a lot of.

Balletto is in that courtyard with all the other small wineries, but it has a separate building.

Sorry, meant to say Holdredge has a separate building in the group of small wineries in Healdsburg. We picked up a case of their Gewurtztraminer.

Same day we also went out to Balletto's and got that zin.

Sorry, getting ahead of myself and getting the two wineries mixed up.