Big Group Traveling to Napa or Sonoma

Beringer should be able to accomodate you. IIRC, they have a separate room for their reserve tasting with the wine maker or something like that. Montelana may be able to handle 32 also.

With a group that large, my impression is you would have better luck in Napa. The other possibililty is to split the group into smaller groups of six or so. Hit the same wineries but in a different order so two groups are not at the same winery at the same time.

Andy

Kim, You're probably best off sticking to the larger, commercial wineries. In Sonoma, you could try Ch. Souverain, Ch. St. Jean, Ravenswood, Kendall-Jackson or Clos du Bois; in Napa, Beringer, Mondavi or BV ought to be able to handle you. You should definitely phone them up and make appointments for your group visit, as they might very well set aside a separate room for your group. Also, make sure that you allow for plenty of time for your visits.

HTH Mark Lipton

I'd also add Merryvale, as they did a nice spread in the cellar dining area for a group of 28.

Also, back to Beringer - they did offer an interesting tasting of "oaked" wines at several levels that was quite interesting. In Sonoma (Windsor) the Kendall-Jackson facility has some nice "sensory garden" tours, and should be able to handle that large a group.

The secret will be to make an appointment as far in advance as is possible.

Hunt

snipped-for-privacy@eudrup.ude

Joe, I've long loved visiting Dry Creek and was saddened to hear of the recent death of David Stare, but I seriously doubt if their tasting room could easily accomodate 32 unannounced (or maybe even announced). It certainly never hurts to ask, but visits of groups that large puts a huge strain on the tasting room staff and typically only the bigger operations are willing/able to put up with the hassles.

My $0.02, Mark Lipton

Most of the smaller places would be overwhelmed by a group that large. And most of the places in Dry Creek are smallish tasting rooms. I would stick to the large ones like Ravenswood, Ferrari Carrano, Simi, Chateau St. Jean, Arrowwood in Sonoma. There are many in Napa that can accommodate big groups and even a few of these have good wines. Whitehall Lane has a large tasting area as does Merryvale, Peju has a large tasting area but crappy wines, Clos Pegase has a large tasting area, has good wines and is interesting to see as is the Hess Collection of Art though the wines are only so so.

Viansa in Sonoma also has a large facility, and I saw a bus there when I visited.