Touring Season

It's that time of year again. We've had visitors for three of the past weeks and we'll have more over the next four. We love to entertain at the winery so please do come by for a visit. I thought I'd share a few tips for visiting us.

First the earlier you can let us know you'll be coming by the better. We can swing things at the last minute sometimes, but other times we may have blocked the day out for vineyard work at another vineyard or have another appointment. Saturday's are usually the best day, but with enough notice we can do any day.

Let us know how much time you'd like to spend. About an hour seems to be the shortest visit we have, but we've also had people stay for 4 or 5 hours. If you have time we will prepare some snacks in advance. Also let us know of any special tasting requests in advance. I usually will pour 4 or 5 wines of our most current releases and sample from a barrel or two. If you'd like to try something from the library though we'll have to bring it from home.

Woodside is usually a few degrees cooler than you'll see on a forecast. In the summer the fog will also hang around the vineyard making it a little breezy and cool. A sweatshirt is a good idea. If you'd like to see the vineyard remember to bring good walking shoes, sunscreen and a hat.

The road up to the winery is very busy on the weekends. There is also a lot of bicycle traffic. Plan on a few extra minutes more than you'd expect. Map out your route in advance. We get really poor signals at the winery on our phones and often can't call out. We might not be able to guide you in. If you do need to reach us text messaging seems to work best in the winery.

We have two large dogs at the winery. One is still a puppy and she gets easily excited. She has done fine with other dogs and small children, but you will need to mind after them. We usually try and wear the dogs out with some fetch before visitors arrive but they do have a lot of energy.

There are other wineries in the area. Varner, Woodside, and Great Blue Heron will take appointments. Fogarty, Michael Martella, La Honda, and Domenico all have tasting rooms. Rhys is one of our closest neighbors but I understand they only set up tours on pre-determined days. Many people want to do Ridge also. You can see Monte Bello from our cellar door. It's about 7 miles away, but it takes about 90 minutes to get from us to Ridge.

It's about 2 hours to Napa from us so a lot of people like to come right from the airport, visit us then head to Napa. Just let us know your plans and we'll make sure you get on the road in time and recommend best routes. If you're planning on staying in the South Bay we'll probably make it an excuse to have a party. We can also recommend hotels and restaurants for your stay. The South Bay is actually fairly cheap on the weekends for hotels, most hotel traffic is during the week for business so many local hotels have low rates on weekends.

To reach us for an appointment it's best to email at info@stefaniawine.com or call 408-242-8598.