ABOUT FOOTHILLS WINO

At Foothills Wino we originally used a star-award system in the style of the Michelin Star rating system for restaurants. In our original rankings, we focused primarily on the wine coming out of each winery. 

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It became apparent to us that in addition to wine quality ratings, information about the experience of visiting wineries is what new visitors to the region craved. Yes, the Sierra Foothills produces wonderful, small lot, hand-crafted wines, but it is also beautiful. In recent years there has been an influx of capital, and the facilities are becoming as attractive of a draw as the wines. So, we have re-done everything.

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Now, we rate every winery in three categories: (i) wines, (ii), facilities, and (iii) hospitality. Each category is awarded a rating of: 

10- World Class

9.5- Exceptional

9.0- Excellent

8.5- Very Good

8.0- Good 

If a winery scores an 8.0 or higher in each category, it is placed on our maps and written up. If not, it is simply not mentioned. We are not here to embarrass anyone. 

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How do we base the ratings? As objectively as we can! 

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We do the majority of the wine ratings by blind tasting. We try not to hold bad vintages or a few bad experiments against a winery and try to judge them more on the overall quality of the wine. Our visits are mostly anonymous because we want to experience the tasting rooms in the same manner as a stranger to the region rather than the way the winery treats a VIP. We try to let our personal tastes influence us as little as possible and try to judge on quality, not preference. 

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Here are some general things we look for: 

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Wines

- overall quality (intensity, complexity, cleanliness, typicity, etc.)

- overall selection and availability 

- price (only considered in extreme cases) 

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Facilities

- cleanliness (the most important consideration)

- architecture, design, history, etc. 

- vineyards, landscape, views, etc. 

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Hospitality

- service staff competence, knowledge, friendliness

- tasting flight design and pour size 

- pairings... do they compliment or detract from each taste of wine (a poor pairing will get scored lower than no pairing)

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Some extra notes on Hospitality...

 

Tasting room staff... we understand it is difficult to hire experienced and knowledgeable staff in these remote areas. We do not expect every pourer to be a Sommelier. We do expect them to have some basic training on how to pour and to have a base level of knowledge about wine, the region, and the specific winery. We expect them to be honest about what they don't know and to know where to find the answers for our questions that are beyond their knowledge level (and yes, we keep asking until we get to that level). For example, we do not expect a pourer to know the rootstock of the estate Petite Sirah vines, but we are very interested in seeing how they handle the question.

 

Pours... a tasting room must give a decent pour of each wine. No one can evaluate a wine without at least an ounce and half (preferably 1.7 ounces) in the glass. Measured pour mechanisms pour too little, are not to be trusted, and tell us that you don't trust your staff to know what a proper pour is. If you are worried about losing money, charge more for your tastings, or give fewer tastes. Four proper pours is better than six skimpy ones. 

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We share the positives on the site, but we do not mention the negatives. (Our negatives are available to all wineries, though, so they can see what we feel they need to improve on). 

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Noteworthy Wineries

 

We also list several "Noteworthy" wineries. These wineries do not have numerical rating scores published. There are various reasons a winery might be considered Noteworthy. Here are a few examples: 

- new winery, ownership, and/or winemaker and we need to evaluate more vintages  

- wineries that are exceptional or better in a category but are otherwise not rated 

- wineries that are very small and/or have no public tasting room 

- wineries that have requested to not be rated, but would be highly rated if included 

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All evaluations are made by and/or contributions are made by our Panel of Wine and Hospitality Experts.

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We do not ask for or accept any money, wine, or benefits from any winery we evaluate. No one can buy their way onto our site. (We do accept sample wines for evaluations and we allow our panel to accept industry discounts when offered, but we understand that some wineries are not able to afford this practice). 

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We constantly revisit wineries that are rated and that are not rated. Our evaluations are constantly being updated. It is our hope that many more wineries will make the lists in the coming years.