Wayne H.
Yelp
We've been to the Walt in Napa, across the street from the Oxbow but decided to give the Sonoma location a spin since we happened to be in the area. The tasting experience is more or less the same--you'll start with a glass of chardonnay, then move onto 4 single-vineyard pinot noirs from Willamette (OR), Anderson Valley (Menodocino), Petaluma Gap (Sonoma), and Santa Rita Hills (Santa Barbara). As with the Napa location, the wine educators are really knowledgeable--not just about Walt wines, but the vineyards, vineyard management, and even AVAs. If you're into pinot noir and interested to see how different clones grown in different regions are expressed differently in the wines, you'll really enjoy the tasting at Walt.
For me personally, although I love the exploration of pinot from Oregon to Santa Barbara, the winemaking style isn't my favorite. These are some very lush, high alcohol pinots, one topping out at 15.1% (The Corners, Anderson Valley)--Dry Creek zin territory--and some of the elegance and expressions of terroir are simply overpowered by very dominant fruit, new French oak, and explosive alcohol. I can understand many people might love this style of pinot, but it gave me palate fatigue pretty quickly.
That being said, if you're looking to include a tasting or two in your day trip to Sonoma, you will be blown away by the hospitality and learn more than you could ever want about different pinot clones, diurnal shifts and how terrain can impact it, soil composition, etc. A+ tasting experience, even if I wasn't the biggest fan of the wines.