Winery Article Section

Link: http://officialwinery.com/winery/Cline-Cellars.html

This series is going to spotlight some of the wineries throughout the US.  This first winery is located in the Sonoma Valley of California.  The Sonoma Valley is known for it's prime grape growing region where the weather and soil come together to produce grapes that make award-winning wines.  In this article, the author discusses their experience at the Cline Vineyards from the wines to the overnight stay at the location.  Read on for more.

This time of year the holidays take over and seem to throw everyone's daily tasks into a domino effect. We tend to be organized, driven, and focused people and yet even at that we scramble with the best of you to get even the most minute things done. Every year we promise ourselves to become more efficient and timely with our organization during the holidays and every year it's the same "..." Sound familiar?? Fa, la, la, la. With that said we are finishing our wine article regarding our wine travel to Sonoma from two months ago.

We left Jacuzzi and drove directly across the street to an older looking building that we later found out was an 1850s restored farmhouse. We passed a sign on the property that said Mission Museum but will save that for another visit.

The property was reminiscent of a family farm very different from Jacuzzi yet just as inviting. There were statues pouring water into various ponds and lots of picnic areas located throughout the grounds. We decided to walk the grounds first for a little bit since it was such beautiful day. The grounds were well kept and as we walked there were flower beds full of thousands of fragrant roses planted all along the paths.

Time to head to the tasting room. Seems our wonderful walk allowed us to get to the tasting room at the same time as a large tour bus. A tasting room staff member greeted us even though it was crazy busy and began explaining the wines....Her name was Maggie Cox and where our good times from the last winery started it continued on over at Cline and got even better. Maggie just had a way about her that made all the wines taste great. As we have said in the past, "your tasting room staff can make or break you". Maggie must help this tasting room cash roll. She was pleasant, informative and had a great sense of humor! As a matter of fact their atmosphere was fantastic as all the tasting room staff obviously were loving what they were doing and their interaction with each other showed that. It made our time there even that much more enjoyable!

We tried I believe every wine they had...not really but it seemed that way. It was the end of the day and Maggie asked What do you like most reds or whites? We explained since we do blogs we usually taste both red and whites, but our preference is RED!

We started with a 2007 Ancient vines Mourvedre, then moved on to the single vineyard Designated wines. With every wine was a great story of the vineyards. At this point of our blog I usually right down each wine we purchased however we purchased so many wines that we recommend you check their website. Better yet, go there for that direct experience! Maggie hooked us up with discounts for our purchases and we were very appreciative for that. The wines were good to great. Our experience because of Maggie was Fantastic. In fact KD wanted to "adopt" her.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that The Cline winery is the first winery you come to when entering Sonoma. Because of the wonderful time we had and the wine cost, if anyone ever asks "what wineries would you visit if you can only visit a few"? I would answer "well I would first of all start with Cline" and then go from there. We will describe the wines wine more in depth as we pair them with an entree in the future.

We rate the wines (Great)
We rated our experience............ (FANTASTIC)
Here are our Ratings: / Pass / Fair / OK / Good / Great / Fantastic

Disclaimer: Just because we like or dislike a wine or winery does not mean that you will have the same experience. Of course it's always worth a try, tell us what you think, in other words post a comment!

Aloha,
Ron & KD
The Wine Space

More on Cline Vineyards:

Sonoma Wine Event - Walk in the Vineyards at Cline Cellars

Registration and Continental breakfast begins at 8:30am Walk starts at 9:30am Wine tasting begins following the walk Event ends at 11:30am All are welcome to participate, keep in mind that the vineyard is not stroller or wheelchair ...

Publish Date: 05/03/2010