want to spend two days exploring pinot noirs from san francisco
 

I will be in san francisco in early Nov 2011 and want to spend my weekend exploring wineries that feature pinot noir wines, hopefully including the Dehlinger winery. I have to return to San Fran at night, so I was hoping to hear from other winery aficionados how I can best use my time to hit as many pinot noir wineries as possible out of San Fran. Could anyone give me advice maybe for a drive to Russian Valley on Sat, then maybe Sonoma Valley on Sunday. I will rent a car and have a DD. Thanks!

The best pinot noirs here in CA are in the cooler, coastal Mendocino County. Remember that the varietal requires a climate much different than that in the warmer, inland Sonoma County and Russian River area (part of Sonoma), where cabs and zins reign supreme.

So, it is actually Anderson Valley that you want. http://www.princeofpinot.com/article/319 One of our personal favorites is Breggo, which has tasting rooms in both Boonville and further north in the town of Mendocino itself. See also, http://www.visitmendocino.com/press/...n-valley-grows

Anderson Valley/Mendocino is unfortunately a bit far from San Francisco for a day trip, particularly if you've been tasting all day. Ideally, you'd work your way up in a day, spend a night or two, then work your way back to SF.

Now, the Santa Cruz Mountains toward the south has some surprisingly good pinot noir wines. In fact, we had a bet with our daughter and son-in-law as to whether they were better than Mendocino. In a blind taste-off at our house last month, the Santa Cruz wines won, much to our total surprise! That little region would be a much more "doable" trip from SF, though perhaps not as scenic. See, http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-07-1...ric-site-lemon

According to <b><i>Wine Spectator</i></b> magazine the best California pinot noirs in 2009 were from Sonoma, which is easy access from SF for day trips. The Oct 15, 2011 issue is mainly about California pinot noirs, if you can find a copy somewhere.

Here's something they published earlier this summer, which is covered in more detail in the magazine: http://www.shankennewsdaily.com/inde...-of-90-scores/

To quote from the article <b>"Sonoma County remains the epicenter of quality and volume for California Pinot Noir, receiving a 99-point vintage rating for 2009, compared to 98 for Monterey, 97 for Anderson Valley, 94 for Santa Barbara and 91 for Carneros. Sonoma led the pack with more than 125 wines earning scores of 90 and above. But Wine Spectator stressed that quality was high across the board." </b>

They list 20 top pinot vineyards in the magazine article, including 5 from the Russian River AVA and 8 from the Sonoma Coast AVA, plus scattered others.

The winery you mentioned, Dehlinger, scored 95 on their 2009 pinot noir, so an excellent choice for a tasting.

Yes, Sonoma County makes great Pinot especially in the Russian River and Sonoma Coast appellations.

cmac3 - did you look at the Dehlinger website about visiting:

http://www.dehlingerwinery.com/Pages...erVisiting.htm

There's many fine pinot producers that you can visit but many of the best ones don't allow visitors or they only open their doors a couple of times per year usually for mailing list or club members.

Here's a few that you can visit that have some outstanding current releases:

http://www.woodenheadwine.com/wines/

http://www.redcarwine.com/

http://www.duttongoldfield.com/

http://www.williamsselyem.com/news/tourschedule.html (need to be on their mailing list)

http://www.portercreekvineyards.com/...home_main.html

There are many others but these are favorites.

Thanks so much for all the advice. I'll do all the research you all suggested!