At Belle Pente, there’s no tasting room, per se, i.e.: no regular hours or dedicated tasting facility. My experiences with Brian O’Donnell have converted me.
Marcus Goodfellow led my wife and I through a wide ranging and intriguing Matello line-up at his new tasting room. Already liked his wines. Bought some recently and expect to buy more.
There’re a lot of wineries where I’ve had above average experiences (and wines), generating a positive bias. As a result, it’s likely there’ll be futures purchases and forgiveness for periodic underperformers.
Unti has been mentioned. I’d throw Nalle in there too. Great experiences with Mick Unti and Lee Nalle in 2003. I wouldn’t hestitate to buy either label when the opportunity arises again.
Super visits to Montevertine and Isole-e-Olena keep them squarely on my radar.
Can’t forget Bob Wood’s personally escorted tasting room visit to 7-Hearts / Luminous Hills this Summer. Opened my eyes to some of the producer’s possiblities (and a few purchases).
One of my fav visits was to Domaine de L’Edre in Vingrau, Roussillon. Two very hard working, welcoming, part-time wine makers, no English and my French quite limited. Great fun and better communication than at too many US tasting rooms.
I’ll forget someone, but: Anne Amie, Denner, Anderson’s Conn Valley, Herman Story, Booker, Epoch, Buehler, Alta Colina, Angel Vine. Off the top of my head.
Like some others, I really had a great experience at Sojourn. Their little cottage just off the square in Sonoma is cool, the people are friendly, the Riedel glassware is a nice touch, and the wines are great. A class act all the way around.
Loring…love the guy, love the wines
Anything trb. An afternoon hanging out w Will will make anyone a buyer.
Alpha omega. Jean rocks
harris/jones also trb wines but the tasting experience is uber personal.
Saxum…justin is a hell of a good sport and his setup is the coolest.
sqn. Best wine weekend of my life. M and M are the most amazing hosts.
Hobel…not a tasting per se but love the people.
Clos pepe nor really my style but pick up a bottle now and then based on a great experience w Wes
Persona…loren is just a great guy
Conn valley…maligned as he is, the todd is a very gracious host and a riot to boot.
If i may throw in an aside…napa valley wine and cigar. Never met warmer retailers than carrie and randy. Plus i dont think ive ever walked away sober.
I’ve had great experiences at a few places here in Oregon: Seven of Hearts/Luminous Hills, Domaine Drouhin, De Ponte, Winderlea, Johan, Brooks, and Youngberg Hill. As a result I’ve become a buyer of each of them and joined the wine club in a couple of cases.
One of the best winery visits I ever had was at Elyse. It was a slower day for them and Ray Courson tasted with us. He was pulling everything and opening it. We left with several bottles and had a couple cases shipped home. I’ve been a buyer ever since.
Conn Creek was another memorable stop. We stopped in mainly for me to hit the men’s room since it was a non wine tasting day. It was my wife’s day to choose what to do. Since I didn’t want to just use the facilities and leave, we paid for a tasting. We were there for four hours and had 18+ different bottles of wine, highlighted by a 6 year vertical of their Anthology Bordeaux Blend. The more we talked, the more they opened, which caused us to talk more…repeat.
We seem to have good experiences everywhere we stop so I have a long list! But when we go tasting I have generally done my homework and we make very few stops at places I think don’t we will be likely to be buyers. This year we have visited wineries in Woodinville, Walla Walla, the Willamette Valley, and Santa Rosa. I feel a more personal connection with most of the wineries we visited. And it seems like it is always a different reason. Sometimes it is the owner, or the winemaker making the stop more interesting, maybe someone opens something special or gives a barrel taste. Or maybe it is just really nice tasting room staff or the really good cheese they put out. Or maybe the winery is only open once or twice a year and they put on a nice release party. I guess I do feel more connected to Andrew Will even if I was tasting at the winery with everyone else on their mailing list and I absolutely bought more wine then I would have if I hadn’t visited.
Since they were brought up earlier in the thread, I was at Joseph Swan yesterday and Siduri the day before. Had fun and bought too much wine both places.
But probably my biggest surprise/favorite tasting room experience all year was at El Corazon in Walla Walla. They are well worth a stop if you are in the area.
Pisoni, Loring, Inman. I buy much of my Inman via retail…but still…a nice visit turned me on to them.
Pisoni and Loring provided memorable visits - even when money is tight I remember the hospitality shown to me and find a few $ to spare for an order. Great wines, great people!
Four tasting experiences stand out to me. SInce my wife was with me on all four occasions, she shares the experience and doesn’t complain when she sees the credit card statements.
Surh Luchtel. A friend of mine used to rep their wine and I had not had their wines. In setting up the tasting, Gary Luchtel suggested we do the tasting in his house since we would have to pass it coming from our previous appointment. We arrived at 4:15 and he had wines set up on the kitchen table. It started as a tasting and eventually turned into wine drinking. His dad came and went and another friend arrived and sat at the table with us. We left at 6:45 to make a dinner reservation, otherwise we might have spent the evening. We have also tasted with Don Suhr.
Angel Vine. In a thread on this board, I mentioned that I was likely going to taste in the Carlton area. Ed contacted me through the board and invited us to taste. A great experience and am a big fan. I hope to visit again in a month whenever I get my arrangements set.
Grochau. I made a Berserker Day purchase of his wines and was really pleased with the wines and set up a tasting on a Wednesday evening. We went to dinner with John at Park Kitchen later that evening. I’m a big fan.
Zepaltas. I had set up a tasting at Siduri/Novy for the third consecutive year (another great place for tastings) and fellow Berserker Mike Mikowicz and friends joined us. I had never tasted Ryan’s wines so we set up a tasting immediately following the first one. The wines blew me away. Number 4 in my Cellartracker holdings and reminds me to order my wine.
Some of the best tasting room visits I’ve had include:
Copain, Pride, Peay, Dehlinger, Saxum, Garretson, Sojourn, Lagier-Meredith (not a tasting room, just their house on the vineyard)
I’ve certainly had several nice tasting room experiences, but mostly because I’m already on a mailing list etc. However, one place stands out where I’m not a member: l’Aventure. I’m always treated well there and have only had pleasant experiences, including one time I mentioned that they were pouring a corked cab.
I’m really surprised no one has mentioned Rhys. Maybe its because its not technically a ‘tasting room’. However, If you ever have a chance to visit the cave, tour the vineyards or just otherwise talk with Jeff, Josh, Kevin & crew - I guarantee you will receive some nuggets of wisdom.
Others:
Heitz (I was just an infant wine drinker back in the late 90’s)
MacPhail (first time I really experienced the laid back nature of ‘Sonoma’)
Copain
I haven’t been to visit Clos Pepe, but I chatted briefly with Wes at a Pinot Days event. He’s a great ambassador for his wines and his style of winemaking.
Graves Winegrowers – Hilary and Simon are awesome — extremely personable and generous with their time.
Arcadian — visits with Joe are like hanging out with a best friend — the wine, as excellent as it is, always seems to take a back seat to good conversation; I enjoy that.
Quinta do Tedo — visited these guys on the rec. of Andy V., and my wife and I were treated very well by Hugo, one of the winemakers there, and he didn’t even know we were coming.
Niepoort — legendary tasting and reception of my wife and I make it a lot easier for me to spend my money on their wines.
Maison Ilan — I’ve never had more fun during a tasting visit than I did here.
Domaine de la Barroche — Julien was tons of fun to visit with.
Taupenot-Merme — great visit with Romain; am a happy and regular buyer ever since.
I remember, years ago, Dianna and I were playing over in Napa (pre-kids) and stopped in the Cakebread tasting room, just because we had the time. I found myself staring at this incredibly gorgeous young woman behind the bar…when all of a sudden it dawned on me, “I’m here with my wife.” Expecting to get a shot in the shoulder, I turn to her…and she is staring at this blonde, surfer looking guy who is also pouring behind the bar. Brilliant, brilliant marketing.
While not necessarily leading me to join their wine club, it was one of the more memorable tasting room experience I’ve ever had.