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About This Business:
We have committed ourselves to building our Estate winery and vineyard. There are six acres of Cabernet Sauvignon planted and between the two of us, and… read more »
42 reviews for Sunce Winery & Vineyards
42 reviews in English
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Review from Bryan H.
Rohnert Park, CA
12/3/2011
I don't know about the rest of you who live in this area, but it seems that whenever someone from out of town visits, the conversation will quite often drift to the wineries here in this beautiful county. Whenever the conversation goes there, we inevitably take our guests here.
Sunce is our default winery for occasions such as these, as we can always count on a pleasant staff, wonderul wines, and a great locale. The wines they have are quite varied, so there should be something for every type of wine lover to enjoy. The staff have been friendly and pleasant every time I've been there, always willing to tell you something interesting about the wines or even share a joke or two. There is quite often (almost always) something in the crock pot to munch on, and it usually goes pretty well with something that they are pouring.
One of the best things about Sunce is the environment. It is a small tasting room, and things can get crowded, but there is an outside area with a window, so you can do your tasting outside. It is also the most family-friendly winery I have ever been to. Of course, if you are out for an entire day of tasting, find a sitter. But if you are only going to one winery, the kids have ample room to run around in the bocce court. The staff have never made me, my family and friends, and even my kid feel anything but welcome. My wine fridge may not have only Sunce wines in it, but there is more from Sunce than from any other winery.
Oh, and if you haven't had their Malvasia Bianca dessert wine, then you haven't lived your life to its fullest yet. Golden candy that comes out of a bottle! -
Review from Michael G.
San Jose, CA
10/26/2011
I LOVE Sunce.
I discovered them a few years ago during the annual Barrel Tasting (March) in the Russian River and Dry Creek area. Right from the start Sunce stood out with the perfect triumphant of great wine, fantastic family-style casual atmosphere, and a beautiful winery.
First the wine. They have a huge variety, are not afraid to experiment, and are extremely generous on barrel tasting, and wine tasting in general. Frane (the winemaker and co-owner) is brilliant. He is able to create not only fantastic Merlot's, Pinot's, and Cab. Sauv, but can also put together blends that are surprisingly good (and I'm a picky drinker), like Cab-Shiraz, their super-tuscan Trois Amis, and the little heard of Petit Zin.... really worth a try. One last point on the wine is that most are in extremely limited releases, so you have to go there to buy them.
I love the staff. They know what they are talking about, but are casual, really friendly, and most importantly they are fun to joke around with. The owner, Janae, is always around, really nice (she even took pictures for my wife and I during the Crush Party this year), and extremely generous with her wines. She does not quickly brush you off like other wineries, when you have questions, want to try something a bit different, or if you have any problems (I had a few bottles that cooked a bit in the sun, which was my fault, a little while back and they replaced them). In short, it's because of the people that I choose to do a pickup, rather than delivery, for the wines (I became a member a year ago).
The winery is very casual. Bocce ball court, always free food to try with the wines, surrounded by a beautiful vineyard, picnic tables, bbq, etc. As a member, they will do barrel tastings anytime for you as well. I'm a member of a number of other wineries, but most of them have a bit of a haughty atmosphere. These guys don't.
In short, if you are looking for great wine, a friendly and unpretentious atmosphere, and a beautiful winery to take pictures at then you should definitely visit them. -
Review from Gersey C.
Santa Rosa, CA
6/3/2011
Sunce is the word "sun" in Croatian. And the pouring staff absolutely shines with happiness. They are a tribute to all things that Russian River wineries should be: welcoming, jovial, and memorable.
The cute, little tasting room is perched on the side of a narrow driveway that butts up against the neighboring property's fence. Inside is an spartan, open floor space with a serving bar which receives a steady flow of patrons. The doors are hand-carved, high-relief, European artifacts. The patio deck aft of the tasting room has a serving window which the servers gladly employ. This is a perfect way to taste while playing bocce ball on their private court that is just beyond the deck.
This establishment cares about the details. Evidence of this fact: their complimentary hor d'oeuvres which resides in a crock pot in the corner of the room. The snacks can range from a hearty soup with beans and/or stewed beef, to bbq pulled pork for assembling your own sliders.
Sunce sometimes closes their door to the general public for events, so plan weekend trips accordingly.
Wines: The heavier reds and dessert wines are the most memorable, so I can report that their Nebbiolo is decent, tannic enough to remember, but not offensive.
The highlights of their wine list is dessert! Both the bianca port and the late harvest dessert option (can't remember the grape of choice for it) were sweet like honey, smooth, and refined. Sunce's dessert options were less sugary and less viscous than KJ's famed late harvest Chardonnay and therefore, might appeal to a broader audience as well.
I constantly encourage my visitors from out of town to partake in this special place and hope that it never changes. Go there, but don't ever ruin this hidden gem with the likes of rowdy tour buses full of bacchanalian frat boys/sorority girls! On one unfortunate visit, that happened to me, but other trips to Sunce have always been wonderful! -
Review from Josh S.
3/7/2011 1 Check-in Here
What a treat this way. We stopped in as part of Barrel Tasting and was surprised to find that they were tasting 19 wines! For was big of an event they had going on never once did I feel crowded which was nice. They were offering some amazing pulled pork sliders, I had two!
The people doing the tastings obviously knew what they were taking about, were very knowledgeable and not afraid to talk to you. After trying most of their 19 wines it is hard to try and recall any particular ones, but I remember liking the Mourvedre and the port which the had some dark chocolate chips to pair with.
We did not taste any of the wines out of the bottle as I think we were overwhelmed by the number of wines to taste out of the barrel. I liked the setup here and imagine I will be back next year. -
Review from Nick H.
Novato, CA
6/12/2011 1 Check-in Here
This place is awesome. We had a picnic here and were allowed to bring the dogs. Their mourvedre and Cabernet franc were amazing. The lady doing our tasting was very nice too. I wish we had more time to play bocce but the people we were with had to go. It's a fun place and I wish I had a little more money to buy a couple bottles of their wine.
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Review from Dennis M.
Santa Rosa, CA
07-30-11 I went here to help bottle and box the wines. It was a lot of work but also a fun experience. Sunce gave me a bigger appreciation for the amount of work it takes to make wine even though my experience was only a tip of the iceberg. Much like a birth of a baby and skipping 9 long months. I helped bottle and box at least 1000 cases of three different wines.Those who helped were feed a catered breakfast and lunch being that its an all day event for bottling boxing and sampling the leftover ounces of wine that l could not be bottled. At the the end of the day all who help were greatly rewarded. I would jump at opportunity to help again.
Listed in: Great Wineries
3 Previous Reviews: Show all »
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6/2/2011
Went here for my birthday with my wife to get wine glasses from my favorite winery. Janae and… Read more »
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Review from Natalia J.
Santa Rosa, CA
4/13/2011
When I first started wine tasting, I was excited to meet all of the places my friends spoke of so frequently. In one trip, we ended up at Suncé. I like how small the tasting room is and the bocce ball court, the patio, etc. However, the customer service was lacking terribly, which made for an unfortunate experience. It's been 6 years since I've been back and I'm not sure what's worse - being ignored for 10 minutes while standing right in front of the tasting room bar, being started at by the staff (no "Hello", no "Can I help you?"), or being treated poorly, as if I knew nothing, when spoken to. 2 times at Suncé is all I needed to never go back. With all of the wonderful wineries in the area, there's no need to stop here.
UPDATE 4/18/11: I just got off the phone with the owner/manager at Suncé and, because my recent experience was during an event, I wanted to clarify.
My most recent experience was during Winter Wineland (Jan. 2011) which is always a pretty busy event. I understand that several people arrive at wineries together and that it can be overwhelming, but as I told the manager on the phone, I went to over 20 wineries between Winter Wineland and Barrel Tasting (March 2011) weekend and was not treated that way anywhere else. The only staff I would have interacted with at Suncé during Winter Wineland were women. None of them were particularly friendly but the wine was good. It is a beautiful location with tables and a bocce ball court outside, right next to the vineyard. It's a great place to be. My review is based upon my experience with the staff, not the location, not the fact that it's family-owned and operated or the fact that the family lives right there on the property, etc. If they had a bad day, that's unfortunate because those experiences are the ones I'll remember. -
Review from William A.
Healdsburg, CA
9/2/2008
A friend of mine was an advocate of Sunce for years, and liked their events (wine club crushing, bottling etc.) I had tried their wines a few times and was never overwhelmed.
But my last visit, I like small wineries and succumbed, joined their club. For the next 12 months they hosed this up so bad, in so many different ways, and were rude, I refuse to ever support this winery again, nor will I ever recommend it.
So ya thought old William wasn't coming back from Mexico did you...... -
Review from James G.
Foster City, CA
6/26/2008
We came out to Sonoma to visit some East Coast friends who wanted some downtime away from the City. Sunce came highly recommended by their dining companions. It was our first stop in our first tour of Sonoma. Sunce left a wonderful impression of the Sonoma region. I much prefer Sonoma to Napa because of it's non-commercial feel.
I enjoyed the Riesling here at Sunce.
The Barbera left a lasting impression too. Reasonable prices.
I'll come back as I joined the Sunce Wine Club - you get a 12% discoundt for picking up your wine shipment directly at the vineyard instead of having it shipped. All the more reason to make a special trip to Sonoma to check out the other vineyards!!!
Nice and homey atmosphere. Bocce ball available for your amusement. Nice picnic tables and outdoor seating available too!
more laters...
See my list:
A DAYTRIP TO SONOMA (see: ) #497Listed in: A Day-Trip to Sonoma
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Review from Jeff P.
Oakland, CA
Updated - 9/30/2009
Two years later . . . .
They're still offering an insane amount of tastes for free and have a few wines on special.
On this trip I found their "Cal-Ital"s and their Tempranillo the most enticing.Listed in: Russian River Valley Wineries
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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9/30/2007
Tiny winery that makes small lot wines yet has a large amount of wines for you to try in their… Read more »
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Review from Natalie G.
Sunnyvale, CA
5/6/2009
I hate giving one star reviews, but honestly, this place was asking for it.
First of all, we showed up in a large group (about 15 of us), but our amazing organizer, Tara H., had called the winery to make an appointment, so we thought we would be fine. When we got there, they claimed we never had an appointment and basically sent us outside so we wouldn't crowd their tasting room. Also it was raining outside, so that was *really* awesome.
Once we got outside, they started pouring their wine for us through this tiny drive-thru-type window in the back of their tasting room. We had to knock on the window to get their attention when we were ready for the next taste, because naturally, it was cold and rainy outside, so keeping the window open would be stupid, right?
Eventually a couple of the girls we were with decided they were going back inside because it was ridiculous to stand outside. They soon discovered that every time the tasting room staff would close the window to us outsiders, they would start talking trash about how obnoxious our group was. Excuse you, Sunce Winery, you sent us outside and kept your window closed the whole time except to pour us puny tastings. We may have had a lot to drink, but I really don't think that we were the obnoxious ones.
The worst part of all was that their wine just wasn't that good. I may have forgiven them a bit if I actually enjoyed what I tasted, but I didn't. Apparently they also complained about how our group wouldn't buy any bottles, but really, it's not because we're cheap--it's because your wine is nothing special. -
Review from Angela C.
San Francisco, CA
12/13/2006
My favorite small Sonoma County winery - Dave and I randomly stopped here a few years ago, met the winemaker Frane in the tiny tasting room and 2 cases of wine and a wine club membership had us hooked. This place is the definition of small, family-owned business!
Across the board: complex and interesting wines that reward patience of leaving them in the bottle for a few years - or don't - they'll still be delicious.
Frane and his wife, Janae, are from Croatia, so they are Zinfandel masters. And Pinot Noir masters. And Bordeaux-blend masters. And Italian varietal masters. Plus, they throw fun bottling/labeling parties and cook-outs! -
Review from Grace C.
Bay Area, CA
1/5/2009
I love this winery! Everyone who works for the winery is super friendly and willing to answer any question you have about their wines. You won't walk away empty handed. It is one of my pits stops when I have out of town company because it is such a fun experience for all.
They will let you try anything you like and tend to pour heavy handed so you can get a little tipsy if you aren't too careful.
I love their Barbera! -
Review from Tara H.
Sunnyvale, CA
5/3/2009
Only get the second star because I feel bad for the husband/owner who has no idea how horribly his wife & co are treating their customers. I made a group reservation a week prior to coming; we show up and are told to go outside in the heavy mist/rain for our tastings (they couldn't decide on a price either although I'd been previously told $5).
We go outside, and after about 30 minutes of standing in the mist a few of us move inside (I guess they didn't notice us move...) while we're standing at the counter we hear them trash talking the rest of our group saying we hadn't made a reservation and that they just wanted us out of there... so we left w/out making the wine purchases we were planning on making. Moved onto the next place (Adobe Road) which was FABULOUS! -
Review from Christine N.
CA
4/21/2010
+ What a nice family winery!
+ Their wines are decent and cheap! The kind of place where you can buy 6 bottles and not feel guilty. Good random Tuesday wine. Or good wine to make sangria out of.
+ I really like their whites and port
- Since they were so busy, they didn't pay a lot of attention to us. They were still polite, though. -
Review from quiahuiteuh a.
El Cerrito, CA
3/6/2011
Wow! What a fun winery! Stopped here for the barrel tasting weekend and while some wineries were letting you try from 3-6 of their barrels, this place had more than a dozen! Some really cool Italian varietals that you don't see many places. Also one of the few places that had some of the bottled versions next to the barrel so you could readily compare. They were also serving pulled pork sliders which were awesome. They also had a cool little blind tasting station set up and if guessed any of them right they gave you 35% off that bottle. If you guessed all four, they gave you a free bottle of wine! How cool is that? Staff were all super friendly even though it was a busy weekend. Some of their wines really good while others were meh. I walked away with a bottle of their Rosato and Barbera. The overall experience however was great!
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Review from Krissy M.
San Francisco, CA
11/18/2009
This hurts.
Sunce looked so promising - the landscaping/deck is beautiful and there was a small group of interested people already in the tasting room. The perfect setting for enjoyable wine tasting.
I wish!
The customer service was downright awful. Half the people in the room had full glasses of wine, and the rest stood there ignored.
I tried to make light of the fact that we weren't getting served, "it's busy today!" - forget it! The woman glared at me, poured a drip of wine and walked away.
Sure, the tastings are free but you couldn't PAY me to go back.Listed in: Russian River
Comment from Janae F. of Sunce Winery & Vineyards 12/26/2010
This is horrible...I'm so sorry. Email me your shipping… More » -
Review from A K.
Lutz, FL
6/6/2011
When we showed up, we were the only people there. I was impressed with the grounds and the patio/bocce ball court in the back. Cathy took care of us and because we were the only ones there, let us taste some extra wines. We purchased the Malbec that was on discount for Memorial Day because we loved it. Cathy then recommended several other wineries to go to including Harvest Moon and Pellegrini. She was very helpful and we had a great time!
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Review from Tom S.
Placer County, CA
2/24/2008
Small winery, tiny size tasting room. Fun people own & operate.
I like the Sunce' whites better than the reds.
I think that the wines are overpriced for the quality. -
Review from Jen W.
2/16/2010
Sunce was recommended to me by a wine bar manager in San Diego and on my most recent Sonoma County trip my group stopped in. We loved it. Everyone in the tasting room was friendly-the wine pourers and the visitors. The wine, for the most part, was also good and reasonably priced.
The sun was out, we sat on their picnic benches, enjoyed the tasting, opened a bottle and enjoyed the afternoon. Great experience. -
Review from Julianne C.
Sacramento, CA
7/14/2008
Great little find. So many tasting rooms are all full of strong reds and maybe a single dry white. Ugh. Not Sunce! They had a bit of everything plus breadsticks and tapenade to cleanse your palate. Great attitude, great wines. Loved the dry riesling and Barbera dessert wine.
Plus: Lots of other tasting rooms located on same street. -
Review from Courtney Y.
San Jose, CA
3/16/2009
We come to the Annual Barrel Tasting with a group of people every year and this place is hands down everyone's favorite.
You get there and it's packed. They have an outside set up with about 8 different barrel tastings outside. They range from Cab, Sarahs, Pinot, blends, to a port. The place is packed but they do a good job of allowing everyone to taste anything that they want.
This year they served a couple of delicious snacks for everyone to much one. 1. They had this really delicious cheesy bread. I think I had about 3 of them. They put some sort of cheesy onion topping and then bake the bread. Sooo good when your sippin' wine. 2. They also had this chicken gumbo type stuff w/ okra. This was also good but last year they had tri-tip sandwiches and I liked those better. Having to hold a bowl is too much trouble. 3. They had brownies... I actually didn't have a brownie and didn't try their port either, but it was there right next to the big barrel of port. I heard from a friend it was very good.
Another unique thing about Sunce that puts them apart from the other wineries is they have a blind wine tasting contest. They serve you 4 different wines and give you a paper that makes you choose from a list of 5. You then have to match whatever one you tasted to the list. If you get all 4 right you get a free bottle of mystery wine, along with a coupon that would give you 35% off of any bottle you got right. With the help of my friend Randy we got all 4 right!!! SCORE!!! They also had these little breathalyzers that my sister made me get. It was extra but the lady said she would give it to me.. THANKS!
Inside they have several more of their wines in a bottle to taste. I don't even know how many they had there were so many. I ended up trying a number of them and purchasing their cab and pinot from the blind wine tasting since it was 35% off.
Overall, we had a fantastic time at Sunce and will for sure be back next year! -
Review from Tom D.
Washington, DC
8/14/2007
I had not heard of this place prior to our visit -- no wonder given the production of many of their wines (most of them are about 20 cases) -- and that they are not distributed nationally.
They make a lot of interesting wines -- Barbera, Nebiollo, Malbec, a Bordeaux blend, Zinfandel.....
Certainly worth a vist. They have a tasting room off of the square and think you can also visit their winery as well.Listed in: iso vino?
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Review from Danielle S.
Austin, TX
3/19/2009
This place is really cool. I went here during Barrel Tasting 2009, always looking for new places, and enjoyed our visit a lot! I'd love to go back when it's not really crowded, and get a better chance to talk to the people who work there. From what I did experience service-wise, the staff is really great. Also, the gumbo they served was really great!
I liked a lot of the things they had. In the tasting room (which is really cute), they were serving 5-7 wines in the $18-$30 range. The only downside to the barrel tasting was their setup. I wish it was a bit more spread out (they had a huge deck!), as I found it hard to get to some of the futures they were serving.Listed in: wine
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Review from Thu S.
Mountain View, CA
7/30/2009
Sunce provided a great tasting experience. The tasting room is in a small cottage and minimalistic, but very cute and charming. Don't let the small space fool you though because the service and wines are excellent. There's a nice patio on the side, and in the back of the house if you want to break for a picnic lunch. The energy is casual, fun, and friendly, so if you're a poser-wine-snob looking for the touristy-upscale Napa/Disney experience, you'll be disappointed. However, for the true wine fanatic you will LOVE this place.
They also won me over with the table full of fresh homemade tortilla chips and a huge pot of a Mexican chili cheese casserole.
Purchased Wine:
06 "Young Buck" Zinfandel
07 Zemlia's Blend 50/50 Barbera and Nebbiolo
08 Riesling -
Review from Jennifer H.
San Francisco, CA
5/14/2010
A joy to visit, sample, and buy wines here.
Always a sweet visit, good or bad weather.
The wines are elegant and the variety allows you to stock your cellars with fine wines that fit all occasions. Do try the white port for a sensational dessert wine, or the barbera for summer bbq's. The variety offers is wonderful, with clean yet complex flavors, there is joy in sampling Frane's efforts of providing a resonant finished product that is wine.
I always visit during barrel tasting and buy every year. The tours I set up are always happy with Sunce as one of our stops. You will always be pleased and i recommend this winery knowing a person will find something they will really love -
Review from Jeff S.
San Francisco, CA
3/19/2008
Everyone else has already said it - At Sunce you'll find great wine made by great people. I was there for the "Russian River Wine Road 30th Annual Barrel Tasting". I'd never even heard of Sunce until I luckily noticed it was doing the Barrel tasting AND right by the Winery we just left - talk about convenient!
So that particular day they had TWELVE barrels open for tasting. Everything from Zins to Pinots to Cab's to Ports, and a good variety in between. All their wines are good but if you go through and taste a variety (read: as many as you can!) EVERYONE is bound to find several bottles that hit their pallet right and taste amazing - I know I did. Everyone working was super friendly and welcoming (especially Mark the wine pouring Fire Fighter!), the food was amazing, the setting was gorgeous, they got me completely sauced, so of course: it was a fantastic time. I'll definitely be adding them as a regular stop when im tasting and've been eying up the wine club ever since. -
Review from Susan W.
San Jose, CA
10/26/2009
The tasting room on Olivet road is quaint with views of the vineyards. (It's just down the road from DeLoach.)
We got here about 20 minutes before 5 pm, and the server was a bit brusque. She was even more concerned when someone rolled in at about 3 minutes to five, which made us look "less evil".
As it was, we were able to draw her out a tad, and were able to obtain some information on the wines.. The wines were pleasant, and I learned that some of the barrels are made from Hungarian oak. instead of the standard French or American.
We tried their Sweet Zora, a Merlot fortified with Grappa, which was rather fun. (we even bought a bottle)
We left at 5 so to not overstay our welcome, and would go back again. -
Review from Sonia S.
San Francisco, CA
8/22/2011
I am really bad with names, but the woman that was there in the tasting room last Thursday (8/18/11) was the best! She was so nice and sweet, very talkative, had a lot of knowledge of their wines. She made the experience a great one! I like how understated the tasting room is, until you look around and see all the medals they have won. I will definitely be bringing people here!
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Review from Darien W.
San Francisco, CA
1/28/2011
I love Sunce. We have been coming here for years and this is one of my favorites. The owner is Croatian and so the wines they make are a bit more European than California wines (which I also love)....more tannin and less fruit. Lots of unique small lot varietels, including dessert wines.
Great setting, casual family environment, they will let you taste almost everything even out of the barrels sometimes. They often have free food to compliment the wine and half price bottles on certain lot ends. Their harvest party kicks keester and I have always received great service at the tasting room. They aren't bubbly and fake-friendly like some wine pourers but they know their stuff and take care of you. Free tastings usually as well. What is not to like? -
Review from A K.
Brooklyn, NY
4/15/2009
It was Easter Sunday.
I pondered my options for the day: DP vs. BYOBW race. The maddening crowds and mass amounts of drinking associated with both seemed unappealing at best.
Sunce Winery offered the perfect solution to spend the day. This cute little Sonoma winery is located about 1 hr away from the city and has a bocce ball court! A free bocce ball court!
The wine tastings were also free and complete with cheese and bread snacks at the tasting counter.
Now I am not a wine connoisseur, but this was certainly good wine and a great atmosphere for a lazy Sunday in the sun. Next time your parents are in town or you and your friends are looking for a different way to spend the day, rent a zip car and get yourselves over to this place. It will be worth it. -
Review from Jennifer B.
Oakland, CA
12/29/2009
Sunce has a great variety and a lovely tasting room. The hostess and pourer were both friendly and professional given a very busy room. Since it was wine club pick-up weekend, they had homemade clam chowder out, free to anyone who wanted some. They also had a great holiday sale going when we stopped in, and added those wines to the tasting menu.
Listed in: Sonoma County, Forget about "dine me"
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Review from Mandi J.
Santa Rosa, CA
11/14/2010
Free tastings which was nice for a change. The girl at the counter was attentive and sweet. Most their wine was good. Their Pinot, not so good. They have a white port that was yummy and their Viognier was great. They also had gumbo in a crock pot to snack on. We will be back!
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Review from Stephanie B.
Saint Louis, MO
3/20/2009 1 Check-in Here
For barrel tasting 2009, this was the sleeper winery that came out of nowhere and knocked my socks off. Their set up was a little strange and it was hard to taste the many futures, but the Tempranillo and Mourvedre were wonderful. I can't wait for them to be available. It's off the beaten path, but well worth the drive and visit.
Listed in: Happiness in a Barrel
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Review from Allison K.
San Diego, CA
5/23/2007
Arguably the best wine in Sonoma if not all the Valley! This is my boyfriend and my fave stop when in wine country and we never leave with fewer than 3 bottles. Their tasting is substantial so be prepared to leave a tad tipsy...and all the wines are beautiful on the palate and wonderful for any mood/season/food/occasion.
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Review from Molly B.
San Rafael, CA
3/11/2010 2 photos
My husband has been a Suncé member for going on six years now, so in our first year of dating we went up there quite a bit. Probably because he wanted to impress me - they treat members like gold at Suncé. Most importantly, their wines are incredible. Frané, the Croatian winemaker, is a genius as evidenced by their consistently fantastic meritage. The result is consistently amazing wine. Some of our very favorites are the nebbiolo, le trois amis, their pinot and meritage. They are trying a Carignane this year which I'm very excited to try.
Over the years their prices have climbed, so its definitely worth it for us to be members and to buy futures at barrel tasting. Be prepared for a very down-to-earth casual tasting room where the wine matters more than anything else. Their tasting menu is usually at least 15 wines strong. We ususally venture up to Suncé on weekends and are greeted by Cindy and Chandra behind the bar, who take fantastic care of us. Cindy has treated us to a private barrel tasting and a gift bottle of Nebbiolo to celebrate our engagement that we drank at our wedding. You'll probably meet the tasting room manager Kimberly if you go during the week who is incredibly sweet and has Suncé wine running through her veins - in a good way! Yes, we do get better service because they know us and we've been members for so long, but there's nothing wrong with rewarding loyalty. The tasting room is small, but there's lots of space outside and when its nice out they have a walk-up window adjacent to the bocce ball court. There are copious picnic tables and benches to sprawl out on and enjoy the scenery. -
Review from A M D.
Aiken, SC
6/8/2009 2 photos
This was the first stop on our winery tour and we loved it! It had the most wonderful charm. They wine was good too! The staff was knowledgeable and friendly. I would absolutely recommend stopping here to get away from the crowds at some of the larger vineyards.
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Review from R. M.
Menlo Park, CA
5/2/2010
My friends and I happend upon this winery several years ago and it is still my favorite winery to visit whenever I am in the area. I love that it is small and intimate. I love the Bocce ball court and of course I love the wine...my favorites these days are the 08 Pinot, the Meritage, Mouvedre and the Les Trois Amis.
Now that we live in California and have become wine club members, we are lucky enough to visit 4-6 times a year. Hands down, the wine club is the best value wine club you will find anywhere. Unlike other wineries, they don't just give you a 20% discount off their list prices. Instead they give you great bottles of wine that would cost far more than the annual membership. Additionally, the futures you can purchase at the barrel tastings in March are a steal (50% off for wine club members). Yes, I do usually have to wait until the fall before it is bottled, but it is well worth the wait to get great wine at those prices.
Even if you don't join the wine club, I would suggest becoming a fan of the winery on Facebook. They run specials every month that are really great deals - Last month we got a case of Pinot for $244 and they were selling a great Merlot for $144 a case.
To be fair, I will say that the website never seems to be up to date, but it isn't that big of a deal to me. It just adds to the charm of this small but great winery. -
Review from Jhoanna A.
New York, NY
1/13/2010
It wasn't too crowded when my girlfriends and I stopped into Sunce for a tasting during a girl's weekend celebration. Sunshine, a beautiful deck, and plenty of pours...we had a great time. I guess your experience depends on the crowds (or lack thereof).
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Review from Trina B.
San Jose, CA
12/13/2008
Love them!! It is really the people behind the winery that make this place so great. The staff is very nice and helpful, even on barrel tasting weekend when you know they are overworked and stressed. They will pour everything you want to taste, there is no attitude, and it is family run. In the couple years I have been coming I have seen the crown grow so they are doing something right! They have a great variety of wines, let you try them all, and have great attitudes on top of that. Very relaxing winery where you try things, ask questions, enjoy their patio, and just relax and enjoy your wine tasting experience.
