Peter Cellars — Attraction in Sonoma

IG: eatgosee I strongly favour small wineries with small volume production focusing on turning out good quality wine over eye dropping yields. The personal nature of sitting with an owner or manager to talk about not just in detail about each tasting but also the operations and realities of running a winery is the reason why I go on a wine tour: otherwise I would just find a wine shop and drink my way through the samples. Step forward Peter Cellars who runs precisely this from a vineyard that you would have to know was there otherwise you risk driving passed it. The Incredible Adventures Tour Company from San Francisco brought us here for about an hour where we tasted our way from a rose (highly recommended) upwards to Cabernet Sauvignon and ultimately a Syrah. There were about 6 wines all together. Peter talks you through the profile of each wine, the production process, its awards (many are award winning) and of course whether you enjoy it or not. If this is not enough, there is a family dog that likes to make an appearance at some point. Wine is of course available for sale should you want to take some away with you. You need to book in advance however as unplanned visits are not accepted. I recommend making this a pit stop together with a collection of other smaller vineyards in the area; I would not want to drive out of San Fran (where you are likely coming from) just to come to this vineyard unless I made such journeys regularly and lived...

If you like wine from Sonoma then I highly recommend Peter Cellars for a stop (yes, that's a play on the name for those that know!). Peter has won gold and double gold prizes for his wines (rightly so) and is happy to pour a decent sized glass and tell you about his winery.

There is no hard sell and we bought some to take home to the UK. The wine is truly excellent, it speaks for itself, and pricing reflects this in a good way.

The tasting is on a veranda surrounded by olive trees and vines and on our visit we met four very beautiful and friendly labradors. The winery is very do-able on a day trip from San Francisco.

We found Peter Cellars through Edge of the World Tours in San Francisco which I also highly recommend. Ask...

The wine here was lovely. The experience was…lacking. Peter’s dogs were great, but they jumped on a woman who was obviously scared of them and Peter did little if anything to accommodate. Throughout, Peter gave off the vibe that we were lucky to be in his presence. He didn’t share much about the wine making process or tasting notes. I didn’t really care to hear multiple times how many double golds he has or how much better he is than the other wineries. But the Pinot...