The Best Weekend to Live in Sonoma County

First stop: Trione 

        This week I am going to talk about place about that is familiar to all of us, Sonoma County. People travel from all over the United States and world, to visit Sonoma Wine County. Each year more than 7 million people travel to a place that many of us call home during our years at Sonoma State. Sonoma Wine Country includes regions such as Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley, and Los Carneros, along with nine other areas that are labeled American Viticulture Area's. Best known for producing great wine, Sonoma County also has a variety of upscale restaurants and other tourist attractions. For the sake of this post, I am going to focus on the wine tasting aspect. 

         One of the most exciting times to live in Sonoma County, in my opinion, are the weekends barrel tasting occurs. During these two consecutive weekends in March, an association of wineries called Wine Road, puts on an event that hundreds of winieries have participated in for the past 34 years. During barrel tasting weekends, wineries sample their wines that are still in the barrels and allow customers to buy “futures.” This year Barrel Tasting took place last weekend, March 2-4 and this upcoming weekend, March 9-11. Over the years Barrel Tasting has turned from event attended by wine connoisseurs to a social event attended by large groups of college students, at the distaste of a number of wineries.

         The past two years I have attended Barrel Tasting, and let me just tell you, it is a great time. Each year my friends and I have rented buses to take us from winery to winery, a trend that many of my peers partake in as well.  Tickets can be purchased ahead of time on Wine Road's website, which is linked above, or day of, at any of the participating wineries. For one flat rate, participants can visit as many wineries they choose to during this three day period. This year, a pre-sale, weekend pass was around $33. This is definitely money well spent. 
         The group I went with last weekend consisted of two, 21 person buses, for a grand total of 42 people. If you plan on having a large group it is important to check Wine Road's website for a list of wineries, because some do not welcome large groups. From the hours of 11am-5pm our buses stopped at 4 different wineries, Trione, Wilson, Mozzacco, and Armida (we only got "asked to leave" one), and ended in Healdsburg Square. These are only a small number of wineries that participate in this event and depending on how many people you go with and what kind of "vibe" you are looking for, the options seem to be endless. 
       If you have never experienced Barrel Tasting you are missing out! I can promise that you will not regret going, whether or not you even like wine.