Hi,

We are headed up to Healdsburg for the weekend and are looking for some great wineries to visit. When visiting wineries, we enjoy tastings where the pourer has a great personality and will spend time talking with us about the wine. We prefer big reds.

We will definitely be stopping at Jordan as long as we can get a reservation and are interested in Alexander Valley as we enjoy the wine, but I haven't read any reviews of the winery.

From reading past entries, it seems Hanna, Wilson, Preston, and Ferrari-Carano are popular choices.

Is there anywhere else we shouldn't miss?

Thanks!

Here's a link to some daily wine trips in the area. Road trip #2 and #4 are very good. #4 is right there in Healdsburg. http://www.visitwineroad.com/trip2.htm

Some of my favorites are Lambert Bridge, Rafanelli (by appointment only), Nalle, Teldeschi, Dry Creek.

In Healdsburg, Sapphire Hill, Davis Family, and Camellia Cellars are very good and in the same area/walking distance. A lot of people like Rosenblum Cellars which is right next door to the Oakville Grocery (great place for lunch), but I didn't care for their wines as some were from other regions and tasting was limited. La Crema has some excellent Pinots.

http://wineroad.com/

So many wines, so little time. Enjoy.

Hi cristieCA

We have just returned from our first trip to the Russian River area of California. In Healdsburg we visited a very friendly tasting room called Williamson Wines.

They are very nice and pair the wines with food during the tastings. Their red wines are nice and bold. We purchased several bottle of Cab Sav and Merlot.

Stopping at Ferrari-Carano was very nice. Make sure you go to their reserve tasting room downstairs. It is so much nicer and less crowded (at least the day we visited). Not only are the wines nice the grounds and gardens are worth a stop. It was just beautifu. Remined us of Tuscany.

I will second Budman's suggestion regarding La Crema. Their Pinots were quite nice and reasonably priced. Their tasting room in located right in Healdsburg.

Enjoy your trip!

I think it is going to be difficult (if not impossible) to identify specific wineries were you are likely to encounter personable, knowledgeable pourers across the board. I’ve been in tasting rooms where the pourers ranged from part-time, uninformed college students to charismatic, wine gurus. And the willingness of pourers to spend time with you is typically a function of how crowded the tasting room is.

Pourer personality and knowledge aside, below are some recommendations in Healdsburg based on our recent trip to Sonoma. (Note that we were primarily looking for Zins so the wineries in the list are reflective of that.)

A Rafanelli (appointment needed)
Alderbrook
Armida
Mazzocco
Pezzi King (no tasting room, but if you are a serious buyer call them to see what they might be willing to do)
Rosenblum
Sausal
Seghesio
Wilson

I still say Preston. Its a small boutique winery with great wine. Lovely little picnic area and Lou Preston bakes bread to sell along with their own olive oil. Doesn't get much better than that!! Its on West Dry Creek, "behind" Ferrari Carrano

Thanks for all the input. I appreciate all the winery suggestions and the road trips from visitwineroad.com are a great resource. I do realize that it's no guarantee that we'll have the same experience with pourers as you did, but it is nice having good recommendations.

We got our reservation for Jordan! Are there any wineries in that area that you would recommend or should we just go there and then return to Dry Creek?

Thanks again!

Jordan is very close to Alexander Valley Vineyards as well as Sausal. Stryker Sonoma is another good choice in that area. Mazzocco is just west of Jordan.

There are several good wineries around Sapphire Ridge..all right next to each other. I have a Zin waiting for me at Sapphire Ridge in March next year. I bought it at the Barrel Tasting earlier this year.

There is a little winery BEHIND Sapphire Ridge. I discovered it looking for the restrooms and I can't bring the name up. They have a small selection of reds and whites. I bought a Zin from them that was just delicious. My brother loved it also and he's even pickier than I am and I'm really really picky.

MileKing has given you a good list.

I'd suggest that you download the maps from the wineroad.com website and chart which routes you want to take to which wineries. Try and group the wineries that you want to visit by Valley.

Alexander Valley - in addition to Jordan, we really liked Robert Young.

Dry Creek Valley:

Ferrari-Carano
Preston
Raymond Burr (need appointment)
Mazzocco - some awesome reds
Rafanelli (appointment)
Armida

Russian River Valley:

Rodney Strong/J (they are next door to each other. J may have a wine and sample food pairing)
La Crema
Hop Kiln
Davis Bynum

Healdsburg itself has several wineries all fairly closely grouped together in the downtown area.

crefloors, I am trying to locate Sapphire Ridge on a map and haven't found it yet. Can you tell me where it it? Thanks.

Perhaps it is Sapphire Hill?

www.sapphirehill.com

Front Street in Healdsburg?

Rodney Strong and J are on the corner of Eastside Rd. and Old Redwood Hwy..Hop Kiln etc are on Westside Rd. Not a great distance from each other, but not next door either. La Crema has a tasting room in Hbg.

For Alexander Valley, Sausal is one of my favs (very, very big Zins, including some from vines in excess of 100 years old) and Hanna's reserve wines (including one of the biggest Merlots I have recently tasted, you wouldn't even hardly recognize it as a Merlot).

For Dry Creek Valley I would also suggest Mauritson (try their Rockpile wines), Lambert Bridge (again, their Zins are excellent) and Armida (their maple ranch zins particularly).

As always, Silver Oak in Alexander Valley is also good, but widely distributed.

Lastly, Russian River...Porter Creek is good but my favorite is J. Rochioli (and while you are there you can stop by Hop Kiln which is actually right next door).

Healdsburg is a veritable wine paradise. We lived there for several years. Dry Creek appelation is known for zinfandels and Russian River appellation for Chards and Pinots. Keep that in mind when you are tasting. Don't miss Murphy-Goode in Alexander Valley after you have lunch at Jimtown Store.