Returned from 10 days in Sonoma/Napa with some very mixed feelings. Some really bad feelings in some cases.
Spent the majority of my time in Sonoma County - particularly the Russian River and Dry Creek areas. Spent time at my favorites. Porter Creek, Davis Bynum, Rochioli, Raffanelli (getting harder to get into). Schug and Cline down south. Unti was really really good. Havent visited Alderbrook in some time and was glad I did ! Kenwood's tasting room staff are consistently one of the best around. Also had some poor experiences. My brother and I waiting for a spot at the tasting counter at Quivira, which was fairly busy at the time - about 10 people at the counter. Waited patiently for attention. Apparently not forthcoming. After a few minutes, 2 older couples come in and are immediately attended to by one of the tasting counter people. Still no service or even acknowledgement of us. Time to go elsewhere...
I'll tell you that I've been visiting Napa since the early 80's. I'll also say that the transformation I've witnessed over the last 10 years has been poor in my book. The lifestyle thing has become really annoying. I can understand charging for tastings. Generally for $5 you get a taste of the wines that built the wineries reputation plus a wine or two that is special to them. Thats fine. Recently though, for $5 you get a taste of their largest production wines as they don't want to sacrifice their smaller lot wines in the tasting room. They'd rather sell them off to members. Almost no chance to taste them if you're not on their membership lists (and I used to be in the industry). Particularly disturbing was Pine Ridge. $10 to taste 3 wines (Dijon clones Chard, a Merlot and another red that was forgetable) . Tasting room person was nearly monosyllabic. I'm sorry but thats way out of line. Yes, tasting rooms are expensive to maintain, especially in todays economy - but $10 ? They're trying to make money at that rate. Won't be going back.
To finish on a positive note, I enjoyed S.Anderson (seems to be gearing up for a name change), Cosentino, Shafer and Turnbull. The Stags Leap is still one of my favorite appelations anywhere, but visiting isn't anything like it used to be.
Vidas