Taft Street Winery Sonoma County | Sebastopol, CA

Taft Street Winery Wine Tasting Notes

A very low-key outfit, with a big patio off the side of the tasting room, where a group of locals (or owners?) sat sipping wine and eating cheese merrily. Inside the small, unembellished tasting room, the bar was "crowded" with a group of three, laughing and sipping wine. The host, Kaitlyn, quickly acknowledged us and set us up on a small table made from a barrel in the center of the room. She showed us the tasting menu and simply said, "let me know what you want to taste".

Before I get to far, I should mention that when we arrived, we got out of the car with our puppy, Stella, a small chi, and there was a big black Lab on the patio, one of the women got up and cheerfully asked if we wanted to bring Stella inside. "If we can", we said, and the woman thoughtfully offered to put the big Lab in the office to ease the potential dog-on-dog tension.

After a little while the group of three at the bar readied to leave, after buying a couple cases of wine. It was the end of the day, and the group was obviously having a good time. I call that kind of purchase a "wine wallet" buy. You get wine wallet after you've visited a few tasting rooms, did a few tastings, and suddenly you're ready to buy the whole winery. Nevermind drunk driving! Drunk buying is rampant in wine country! Got to be careful!

Anyway, we moved over to the bar and Kaitlyn kept us moving with our tasting. Meanwhile, the group on the patio were laughing it up, and it turned out that they were the owners.

This experience was what wine tripping is all about. It felt like we were hanging out at somebody's house, welcomed to taste their wines. No rush, no bells and whistles , no scripted dialogue... just hanging out enjoying wine.

Taft Street Winery Wines

Pick	Rating	Vintage	Type	Varietal	Name
	90	2006	Red	Pinot Noir	Sonoma County "St. Bernward Acre"
	87	2007	White	Viognier	Alexander Valley
	86	2007	White	Gewurtraminer	Mendocino County
	84	2007	Red	Rose	Rose of Pinot Noir - Sonoma Coast
	80	2007	White	Pinot Gris / Grigio	Russian River Valley
	80	2006	White	Sauvignon Blanc	Russian River Valley