Top 10 Fun & Unique Winery Experiences in Sonoma: Beyond Just Wine Tasting
Balletto Vineyards, a family owned and operated winery, produces award winning 100% estate grown wines from the Russian River Valley. This is single vineyard wine with a true sense of place.
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Vineyards surround the tasting room. It is beautiful here. On the drive to the front door, one passes a landscape blanketed in vineyards, row after row. Grapevines surround you and roll away slowly up and down the hillsides lost in the distance, a 360 degree view from their building. They even have a Field of Dreams Baseball diamond surrounded by vines.
This is the Russian River Valley AVA. With all of these vines right here on site, it is no surprise that at Balletto Vineyards, they offer a Self Guided Vineyard Tour & Wine Tasting. They encourage visitors to enjoy a no-appointment necessary step outside and enjoy the outdoors kind of experience.
After the walks, you can taste wines from the vineyards. Along the way, learn what goes on in a vineyard during the year, sustainable farming practices and other interesting tidbits of information. Marker signs along the pathways tell the story of the family, the Russian River Valley vines and the winemaking process.
There is always something new in the vineyards with the changing seasons from new growth to flowering to an abundance of grapes. Due to this tour being outdoors, you should call to ensure if open with possible closures due to weather or vineyard work during busy season.
Immerse yourself in the vineyards and, at the end of the trail, visit the tasting room to enjoy a more sensory experience of the location with a tasting of the wines themselves.
Many winery locations have views of vineyards but not many allow you to walk among them and take the road less traveled.
This property is set among rural Russian River Valley for a relaxed and calming feel, listen to the birds chirp as you meander down the wine road. The wines match the views in quality of experience. They offer a nice selection of both white and red wines as well as a little bubbly of course. This is Pinot Noir and Chardonnay country after all.
A walk through the vineyards is a fantastic way to learn more about how important ‘place’ is to the final product in your glass, the wine!
At Balletto, they are as much grape growers as they are winemakers. The family has 700 acres of Estate. They use only about the top 10% of the grapes grown for their own label with only the fruit deemed worthy enough by the winemaker himself, Anthony Beckman.
If you ask me, that means that us consumers get the BEST of the best when it comes to drinking Balletto.
This is a special grape growing region with varying complex and sophisticated flavor profiles with each site. It is important to the winemaker to show this in every estate grown bottle produced by the family.
They work the land and know where the perfect grapes from each distinct block in the vineyard will be. Beckman is laser focused, perhaps a little obsessed even, about the particular sites and the unique statement in the glass that each vine should be making. This obsession is just what I am looking for when choosing from the massive amount of wines on the market today. Focus and clarity.
That is a big part of the philosophy here. They also care about an extremely light winemaking touch so that the vineyard itself defines the wine. A simple coaxing in the right direction when needed.
The vineyards and tasting room are located in the SouthEastern region of the Russian River Valley, where the ebb and flow of the Pacific Ocean fog provide the cool climate in which Pinot Noir and Chardonnay thrive. A very special place in the hearts of lovers of these grape varietals.
The vineyard walk takes you past acre after acre of sustainably farmed vineyards, with views of a working winery, water features, a baseball ‘field of dreams’ (such a cool and unique marker to Balletto) right amongst rolling hillscapes and that Russian River Valley terroir.
Yes, please.
Balletto Vineyards
Web: https://www.ballettovineyards.com/
Address: 5700 Occidental Rd, Santa Rosa, Ca 95401
Phone: (707) 568-2455
From The Website ~
Tasting Room:
Open 7 Days A Week | 10am – 5pm
No Appointment Necessary For Groups Of 6 Or Less
Groups With 7+ People, Please Contact The Tasting Room
Holiday Closures:
Fourth Of July, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day & New Years Day
Self-guided Tour:
Please Call 707.568.2455 X 101 To Ensure If Open, Possible Closures Due To Vineyard Work Or Weather
Sip With Us:
Tasting Fee Of $10 – Waived With Purchase Of $40+ No Appointment Necessary For Groups Of 6 Or Less
Pet Friendly:
Welcome dogs of all sizes who enjoy the company of others. Leashes are required.
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