What are the better wine websites that do a compare and contrast of the
different wineries in California? There seems to be a lot of them, but
none are all that comprehensive or really talk too much about any
particular place.

Thanks

Jon Nadelberg wrote:
> What are the better wine websites that do a compare and contrast of the
> different wineries in California? There seems to be a lot of them, but
> none are all that comprehensive or really talk too much about any
> particular place.
>
> Thanks

Hello, Jon!
What exactly do you want to compare? If you're interested in getting
people's preferences for which winery's wines they like or which winery
is good to visit, you can use Google Groups to search past postings to
this group (just like you might search back reviews from ba.food) or the
search functions of various wine-related web forums like WLDG
(http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/) or Mark Squires's on eBob
(http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/).

HTH
Mark Lipton

Mark Lipton wrote:
> Jon Nadelberg wrote:
>> What are the better wine websites that do a compare and contrast of the
>> different wineries in California? There seems to be a lot of them, but
>> none are all that comprehensive or really talk too much about any
>> particular place.
>>
>> Thanks
>
> Hello, Jon!
> What exactly do you want to compare?


Well, what I'm interested in is if someone has never been to
Napa/Sonoma, and they don't know what winery has what, or even the
names, is there a site that lists the ones there, and what they offer
and how they compare to each other?


> (http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/) or Mark Squires's on eBob
> (http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/).
>

Thanks! I will take a look at those.

Jon Nadelberg wrote:

> Well, what I'm interested in is if someone has never been to
> Napa/Sonoma, and they don't know what winery has what, or even the
> names, is there a site that lists the ones there, and what they offer
> and how they compare to each other?

Aha! Now I understand what you're looking for. AFAIK, there is no one
site that is comprehensive. The problem is that the CA wine industry is
so fluid: wineries come and go, get bought up and change their wine
portfolio with disturbing frequency. What I would do (and have in the
past) in your position is to take a hierarchical approach:

1. Start with the websites of regional growers' associations (e.g.,
Russian River Valley or Paso Robles) to get an up-to-date list of who's
there making wine, get links to winery websites, tasting room hours, etc.

2. Go to each winery's website to see what wines they make and what's
currently available.

You won't get a lot of comparative data with this method, so that's
where the previous advice comes into play. You can Google for trip
reports in this group to get a lot of good, first person accounts of
visits to wineries. Or, you can always ask here or on the Web-based
forums for specific recommendations.

HTH
Mark Lipton