Last night we attended the Taste of Sonoma SF at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. I believe the event was a great success. Winery turnout was great with over 70 present to my count. The majority of wineries were pouring 3-4 wines so there were plenty of wines to sample. The average price point of most of the wines was somewhere around $20-$30 per bottle. This was great since I think many people target this price point for everyday drinking. The quantity and variety of food was a bit lacking in my opinion but I was primarily there for the wine so I didn’t mind too much.

Not surprisingly, we were drawn to the Cabernets from the Alexander Valley. I enjoyed many and now have a long list of wineries to visit on our next trip. Overall I found the Cabernets they were pouring to be a little less fruit forward than Napa but possessed really great balance on the finish.

I used a voice recorder to keep track of my notes but it’s going to take me a while to get around to transcribing it. I can hear my voice, but due to the room noise, it’s a bit tedious to dissect. There were also some great Pinots from the Russian River Valley that were done in the Burgundian style – really nice earthy wines without the intense alcohol nose found in many California Pinots.

We also met a nice couple, Sarah and Phil through our LiveJournal posts. It’s strange how technology connects us. When reading a person’s blog, one gains a sense of knowing the person. It was nice to actually connect with people offline that we met online. They seemed to be having a good time although Phil and I shared the same sentiment that the food was lacking.

An interesting thing I noticed was that people were not spitting the wines at all. I was part of a small minority. All in all, I probably drank less than 2 glasses over 3 hours. With all the swishing and spitting, I ended up looking like I had wooden teeth by the end of the night. I intended to drink no wine at all but there were not enough buckets so I had to drink some. The wineries were giving HUGE pours so most people looked pretty drunk as the evening wound down.

Here are my my teeth normally:

And after about 80 red wines:

Finally, a reminder note to my single male friends: I’ve said it before but if you are a single straight man and like wine, go to wine tasting events. Every time Jenn left me alone I was approached by a woman. There is always a huge disparity between men and women at these events and the single women always seem eager to meet a man who enjoys wine.