Fall Tour 2004 "Cool Climate Grapes: Cool Climate Tastes" Santa Cruz Mountains Tour Slides	The tour group braved a deeply rutted dirt road and headed into the Santa Cruz Mountains to see what vineyard conditions exist in this unique American Viticultural Area.  We visited Mount Eden Vineyards at the 2,000 foot elevation as well as lunching, touring, and tasting at 1,600 foot Burrell School Vineyards.  As one of the coolest mountain wine regions, we were able to ask questions about the challenges in making wines, especially reds in a cool climate such as Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc.  Of course, we tasted all these wines including variatals that thrive in cool zones; Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
	Spring Tour 2004 "The Art of the Blend" Napa Valley Tour Slides	"Art of the Blend" is really about the impact a winemaker has over the final product.  Each winery produces many different lots of wine which originates from a block of a particular vineyard.  The skill of the winemaker comes into play when blends are made from the different lots to make the "master blend" that you and I, the consumer, will buy. Our tour started at Mumm Napa where we tasted the high acid still wines that are blended to make the final sparkling wines.  After a great lunch at Rutherford Grill, we descended upon Markham Vineyards to see and taste how they blended their great lineup of red wines.
	Fall Tour 2003 "Making Wine in the Vineyard" Dry Creek Valley Sonoma Tour Slides	The tour theme for Fall was "Making Wine in the Vineyard" where winery manipulation is minimized to let the vineyard terroir show in the finished wines.  We invaded Dry Creek Valley for this year's Fall Tour and had a great time visiting Peterson Winery, and Talty Vineyards.  The enthusiam and passion  of Fred Peterson and Michael Talty was easily tasted in the glass but the highlight of the tour was asking questions of these two gifted winemakers.  We walked the vineyards, punched down the fermenting wines, tasted new and aged wines, kicked back and "hung out."