Louisa M.
Yelp
This was a seriously delightful tasting! I was looking for a new winery that I've never tried and stumbled across this gem. If you are looking for a small family winery with a boutique feel, The Terraces may be the place for you!
There are positives and negatives to wineries like this -- the best thing is the intimate, homey vibe. You literally taste the wine while standing around the working kitchen of a house. Appointments are required and necessary for tastings, so call as far ahead as possible. You'll have to use the call button intercom at the gate when you arrive at the property. When we pulled up, hostess Monica met us in the driveway to escort us to the proper location for our tasting. It was like visiting a friend's home. Since this is a tiny little operation, we were able to see the employees hard at work (it's crush time after all). We were even able to taste some grapes straight out of their bins!
Monica led us upstairs to the main house where there was a nice set-up of two glasses and several bottles of wine, along with price sheets, pens and paper for tasting notes, and a dump bucket (sadly lots of wineries don't provide those unless you ask, which may make some folks uncomfortable). I really appreciate when wineries provide these things because that shows me they are a place for real wine lovers. I normally carry my own notebook and pen but I had left it in the hotel room so the pen and paper definitely came in handy.
We tasted with the owners and employees who wandered in and out during their busy workday. That was so much fun! We talked about Burning Man with Timm the winemaker, waxed poetic about food, and of course chewed the fat about wine. The wines here were very good, with the Zinfandel and Spotted Cow dessert wine being truly exceptional. I loved that the wines were lovingly crafted with care but their prices weren't in outer space. This is what wine drinking and wine making should be all about: good, tasty wines at reasonable prices. There's no $185 Cabernet here. Best of all, their reasonable $25 per person tasting fee is waived with a two bottle purchase. Even if you are on a budget, a two bottle per person purchase won't break the bank: most wines hovered in the $30 to $60 range. We left with a little over half a case because the wines were such an excellent value.
The only (very minor) negatives I can think of are that if you are new to wine tasting and the Napa Valley in general, a small tasting experience like this may make you a bit uncomfortable. Remember that spitting or dumping is NOT a sign that you do not like the wine! If you feel weird about that, you need to get over it! We dumped almost everything in our glasses but purchased a lot of wine here. Nobody will take offense, they will see it as a sign that you are a serious taster. Also, you may feel intimidated when the winemaker is tasting his wine right next to you. This didn't bother us at all but I thought I should mention it for newbies.
I highly recommend this winery and I will definitely be back for another visit in the future. Lovely hospitality and lovely wines.