Wine Questers Blog

Adding 82 more wineries!

Jim Preston — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:55:34 +0000

We are in Paso Robles finishing up a 3 day winery tasting room mapping trip here and in Santa Barbara County. We will soon add 48 winery profiles for Paso and 34 for Santa Barbara County. Most are new or recently open to the public on a regular basis – the criteria for WineQuesters.com. We [...]

The iPad is a stunnng success for us.

Jim Preston — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:45:17 +0000

Over Memorial Day weekend we drove from San Jose down I-5 / I-210 / I-15 to Temecula, back north to a friend’s home in Crestline in the San Bernardino Mountains, and across the L.A. basin to Santa Barbara and north on 101 back to San Jose. 1,052 miles. We mapped more winery tasting rooms and [...]

Pellegrini Winery in the Russian River Valley

Jim Preston — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:49:00 +0000

Pellegrini Winery is part of the little group of wineries along Olivet Road west of Santa Rosa. For a quick day trip this route is easy and convenient. Pellegrini is by appointment only but don’t let that stop you from making a call. The grounds and ambiance are nothing special but the family is welcoming [...]

Christopher Creek Winery – Russian River Valley

Jim Preston — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:36:51 +0000

Christopher Creek Winery is just south of Healdsburg in the Russian River Valley. It is a small family owned winery with a tiny and rustic tasting room. We’ve found that the family and staff are a delight to be with and very helpful. The picnic area is basically in the parking lot and would not [...]

Casa Nuestra – old time Napa Valley tasting room

Jim Preston — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:18:46 +0000

Casa Nuestra is a small old style tasting room on the Silverado Trail in upper Napa Valley. For those who think that the Napa Valley is highly commercialized this winery (and many others) will give you a shock. The grounds are more like a small farm than the typical winery and the property is forested [...]

Jordan’s Cab classic still great after 32 years

Jim Preston — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:07:40 +0000

1978 was the last year of a drought in California. The vines were stressed as were just about everything living in California then. A massive fast-track water pipe project that took up lanes of the Richmond Bridge saved Marin from drying up. Times were tough but when that vintage’s bottles were opened starting about 1980 [...]

Hotel Luca – Yountville, Napa Valley

Jim Preston — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:54:49 +0000

It wasn’t really our plan to stay in the Napa Valley after a Saturday video shoot at Clos Pegase Winery. Our budget is tight and Napa Marriott, always helpful that way, was full up and couldn’t take us. As we headed down Silverado Trail from Clos Pegase for a late lunch in Yountville we stopped [...]

Alfaro Family Vineyards & Winery Pinot is big

Jim Preston — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:08:06 +0000

The Santa Cruz Mountains Passport is one of the best. Buy a Passport and it doesn’t expire. You can visit each winery once, and there are plenty of visit. A mostly unexplored section of this wine region is on the southern end north of Watsonville. This past January we decided to see what is there. [...]

River Road Vineyards, a sleeper winery

Jim Preston — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:44:57 +0000

There are a lot of wineries to explore and discover in the Russian River Valley. It is tempting to only hit the biggies. However, there are little quiet sleepers throughout the valley. One of these is the River Road working winery on the west side of the valley near Graton. This is a little family [...]

Pedroncelli Dry Creek Valley

Jim Preston — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:07:48 +0000

While Pedroncelli wines can be found on store shelves nationally it is still a little family run winery at heart. The tasting room isn’t huge, the staff is friendly and happy to host you, and the wine selection and quality is excellent. It has an old-time winery ambiance. They source much of their fruit from [...]