2022
After Connect Live 2018 was over in San Francisco, what is a Local Guide suppose to do? Well, of course, take a day trip to California Wine Country to drink wine, in particular, drive up to Sonoma County from San Francisco!
Established in 1976
Iron Horse Vineyards is located in the city of Sebastopol in Sonoma County. It's in the Green Valley region of the Russian River Valley. Low-key. Laid back. Not overly crowded with visitors. Iron Horse is one of Sonoma County's most beautiful, small, independent, estate, family-owned wineries. They grow all of their own grapes that they use to make their limited-quantity estate-bottled wines.
Being Google Local Guides, of course, we had to come here and put Iron Horse on Google Maps.
Iron Horse is charmingly rustic with incredible vistas. Ermes felt very much at home here, like being at one of his local Italian wineries. The weather was very nice for late October. Warm.
Funny, how being Local Guides, we take pictures of anything and everything.
I did not know @ErmesT caught me in the act of taking photos of the gorgeous Fall colors (pumpkins, pumpkins, and more pumpkins) and those breathtaking, picturesque gentle-rolling hills. I was in awe and impressed. I am used to seeing the Napa Valley wineries on very flat HWY 29.
Heehee, I captured @ErmesT in action. He was taking his 360 photos with his Ricoh Theta V.
360 Photo-Taking Tip: Noticed how @ErmesT hides behind objects so that he is not seen in his 360s for Google Maps.
Iron Horse charges $30/per wine flight tasting. You have to call ahead to make a wine tasting reservation. Your tasting fee is waived or becomes free if you decide to purchase wine at the end of your tasting.
@ErmesT and I decided to try the Sparkling Wine and Pinot Noir (Red) Wine "Flights" (aka "samples")
What we didn't realize was we were going to be served 6 flights of Iron Horse's Sparkling Wines and 5 flights of their Pinot Noir.
Let me tell you, it was a very pleasant 2+ hours of sipping and chatting with the Iron Horse Wine Tasting staff and the other visitors that October Tuesday afternoon!
What put Iron Horse "on the map" is their sparkling wines which they follow the French way of growing and making.
We started with a vintage 2015 Blanc de Blancs, called Ocean Reserve, in partnership with National Geographic. The winery contributes $4 for each bottle sold to establish Marine Protected Areas and reduce overfishing around the globe. There are only 1,000 cases of this particular California sparkling wine.
Iron Horse is in the heart of Sonoma County's Green Valley region of Russian River Valley. The predominant soil-type is called “Goldridge”, a sandy loam that has excellent drainage and is perfectly balanced, making it the most coveted for growing Pinot Noir. Here, we started first of the 5 Pinots, a 2013 Estate Pinot Noir. Iron Horse produced only 3,300 cases of this particular vintage.
A Successful Wine Tasting Adventure
We learned a lot about Sparkling Wines and Pinot Noirs. @ErmesT learned that even the sweetest sparkling wine served to us, the 2013 Iron Horse Russian Cuvée, was nowhere as sweet as what he is used to in a Prosecco.
And sipping the 6 different Iron Horse Estate Sparkling Wines at their Tasting Bar overlooking the incredible views was a unique experience he will never forget.
We both liked the first Iron Horse Estate Sparkling Wine, 2015 Ocean Reserve Blanc de Blancs, and the fourth Iron Horse Estate Pinot, 2015 Iron Horse Estate Home Block Pinot Noir, for both their smooth, complex fruity taste. 
@ErmesT liked it so much he purchased Home Block to take back for his second annual Italian Wine Meetup on November 24 to try with his Local Guide meetup attendees.
Going Wine Tasting in California Summary
If you are wanting to visit a less commercialize, family-run winery in Northern California wine country, definitely make a wine tasting reservation at Iron Horse. The place is small, intimate, with very friendly, knowledgeable, attentive wine tasting staff.
Not all wineries do this.
It is wonderful that Iron Horse makes three types of wines from only the grapes grown on their estate, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and their signature Sparkling Wines because if you are short in time you just need to visit just this one winery to try all three.
Bring friends so you can try all three types and some snacks. Iron Horse does not serve food, only water from a self-serve water dispenser or come after eating a meal.
Drinking all those wine samples does hit you if you have not eaten prior. You don’t want to drink and drive. @ErmesT and I did have to stay a little longer and drink water because we were both tipsy. We didn’t have a “designated driver,” a third friend who did not drink, with us. This was very easy to do with views like this to look at while sobering up.
Read more details about our wine tasting adventure at Iron Horse, check out our shared Google Photos 70+ photos & videos album.
Watch Our Wine Tasting Adventure in California Recap Video
Read our Iron Horse Vineyards Local Guides Reviews on Google Maps
Karen's Review: https://goo.gl/maps/ABJjFqBfkhp
Ermes’ Review: https://goo.gl/maps/j1U7ekWe7uv
Learn more about Iron Horse Vineyards
Thank you for sharing this wonderful post @KarenVChin
I hope to go wine tasting tour in SF next time! But I have no idea yet, so this is a good tip:-)
Thank you!
JAPAN LOCAL GUIDES
Hahaha, @KarenVChin
hiding behind a barrel was my secret, now revealed to all the community ?
@SP31 It is so difficult to take a 360 with no people in there
Well, to reach quickly the point, yes, I was very curious about Californian Sparkling Wine, compared with Prosecco wine, that was the subject of our second international wine meet-up, this year hosted by @AntonellaGr: RECAP-Ebbrezza-Wine-Meet-up-II/. and the answer is: there is no answer.
The two wines are not comparable:
- Iron Horses sparkling wine is a Chardonnay, transformed in sparkling wine using Champenoise method (and for this reason is also called Californian Champagne) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparkling_wine_production. The process for producing Champagne is very complicate, it require a second fermentation in the bottle, and a long time. Wine is aged for years, and in several place all the process of the second fermentation and the preparation for the final stage is made manually. The result is an important, well structured wine
- Prosecco is sparkling wine, produced with Charmat method. The wine is reaching the market quickly, the taste is sweet. Drinking Prosecco is easy to drink, a perfect wine for a party. What makes Prosecco so special is the limited production area, and the soil.
Next year I would like to visit the cellar of a Californian winery, if possible. The experience that we had at wine meet-up was impressive, from this point of view. A bit less than a mile of galleries, with the bottles aligned on both side
The bottles in the middle of the gallery are near the end of the second stage of the Champenois method. I am expecting to see the same in the Californian Wineries ?
The landscape was beautiful, the same kind of landscape that we have on Prosecco hills, so my feeling was immediately to be home (the only difference: Pumpkins everywhere)
As you said, we also tasted red wine. Pinot Noir, an important wine, full body, very persistent. During the test I was expecting an higher content in alcohol, because in Italy this kind of Full Body wines are starting from 13% alcohol, up to 14.5%
Do not be surprised by our smiles. Tasting wine is something that need time, between a glass and the next one.
You have time for making friends, and for enjoying the nature
In our case we went for a late lunch with our new friends (maybe it was an early dinner), but this is another story, and I am sure that Karen would like to write a post about that restaurant ?
A smile is the only way to close this kind of post, a post about wine, friendship and glasses
