Every year the first weekend in March is set aside for the Russian River Wine Road Barrel Tasting. Almost every winery in Sonoma County is pouring wine this weekend, including some that are only open to the public a few days a year. Most of them are pouring barrel samples, and a lot are selling futures. This gives you a chance to find some great wines before most people, and buy them for a great price! We obviously visited many more wineries than I am showing in these photos, but I can't shoot and publish every winery we visited. Here is a sampler of what the weekend had to offer.

We start out on Friday, when most of the wineries start, at the southern end of the Alexander Valley. Field Stone is built right into the hill to help keep it cool. While they have a lot of good wines, the Petite Syrah makes it worth the drive. Click on any picture to see a larger view.

Just up the road is White Oak, with it's interesting metal sculptures. The wine is also very interesting. You can see the old Zinfandel vines just outside the window. I had to get a case of the Zin futures!

Slightly further up the road is the new tasting room for Stryker Sonoma. It has great views of the valley from the tasting room. The barrel room is down a flight of stairs where is is built into a hill.

Murphy-Goode was pouring their wines in the barrel warehouse. The "Tasting Queens" were also enjoying the barrels!

Further north we ran into some fellow members of the Orange County Wine Society at the Geyser Peak Winery, always a favorite place to stop. We said hello to the winemaker, then went upstairs for a tasting of the reserve and "Block" wines.

At the northern end of DryCreek Road, David Coffaro features a high end viewing area in the middle of his barrel storage and wine tasting area. I think all those great sounds are enjoyed by the wines, so they have some enhanced flavor.

We ran into fellow OCWS members at many of the wineries, including Meitz and Talty, as well as Siduri where they found a different way to get into the tasting area!

The scenery in Sonoma County is fabulous, and along with the wineries , provides some great photo ops. The shot of the barrel room below was taken with existing light at Ridge Winery. The old, head pruned zinfandel vines are at Talty Winery.