Cheap Fun Wines in Sonoma

So the Cheap Fun Winers (and a couple Liquor Snob interns) went straight to the wine source this weekend when they visited Sonoma, CA for a wedding. We thought we'd talk about some of our experiences while on the Left Coast, and let you know about some of the wines we tried. First of all, it was frickin' beautiful, and if our camera wasn't on the fritz we'd have put up some pictures to prove it. Second of all, we drank some really, really great wine that was less than $20 out there - they had gas stations with better selections of California wines than our local wine stores. See below for the highlights.

Our first stop was at the Gloria Ferrer winery, where we tasted some sparkling wines - a Blanc de Blancs, a Brute Rose, and a Carneros Cuvee. Very tasty, but sparkling wine isn't really our thing, and we were kind of disappointed when we found out they actually had still wines and we were just in the wrong line. On the down side, some of it was kind of spendy - like $10/glass spendy; on the up side they liked our Liquor Snob hoodie.

Next, we went to a gas station across from our hotel and picked up some assorted Blackstone and Kendall Jackson bottles for less than a six pack of good beer at home. The real treasure, however, was the bottle of Reserve Chardonnay we nabbed from the Bonneau Winery for $19. We figure if it tasted as good as it did when we drank it damn near blacked out at 3 AM, it must taste great with a clean palate.

One of the weird down experiences we had whilst in Sonoma was at the Wine Exchange, a little store in the downtown area. Maybe we caught them on a bad day, or maybe they knew we were hung over idiots, but while they were very knowledgeable and helpful, it seemed grudging and on the snooty side. Plus, the guy who served us our beers at the tasting looked like Santa Claus's evil twin. Their beer list is off the charts, however, so we'd go back in a cocaine heartbeat.

The culmination of the weekend was, of course, the wedding, which was held at the Nicholson Ranch. Not only was the scenery absolutely gorgeous as we looked across a serene little pond with grape vines at our backs and mountains in the distance, but they made kickass wine too. Most of their online prices are steeper than we'd normally pay, but we highly recommend you go check the place out and have some dinner and a couple bottles if you find yourself in the area.

October 11, 2006

Cheap Fun Wines in Sonoma

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