Winery: Three Sticks
Ownership: Owned by Bill Price III (the 3rd is where 3 sticks come from). Bill also has other wine producing interests in his portfolio, including Classic Wines, LLC and Price Family Vineyards, LLC, as well as vineyards that include Durell, 111 Wilson Vineyard, DuPont Vineyard, One Sky Vineyard and Gap’s Crown Vineyard.
Location: Their tasting room is in downtown Sonoma, CA.
Types of Wines: They are most known for an array of Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays.
Wine Price Range: $40 to $90
Production Size/Distribution: They produce about 4500 cases annually and are distributed in 16 states, but mostly just to restaurants. They offer a wine club and wines on allocation.
Tasting Experience Options: Tastings are offered by appointment only, Monday through Saturday at 10:30, 1pm and 3:30pm. These time slots are for their Focused Tastings: 4 Current Current Release Wines at $40 per person or their Seven-wine Current Release & Library Tasting, which is $80 per person. They also offer food pairing tastings with 2 options at either $85 or $200 per person.
Tasting Experience Rating: We rate the overall experience at 94 points*.
Wine Rating: 91-94 points* for the 4 wine tasting flight.
The Good: The space their occupy is a wonderfully restored historic adobe house. The landscaping on the patio is beautiful and the attention to details in the house are amazing. They share a bit of the history of the house with visitors. The wines are elegant and interesting. We tasted a Sonoma Coast Chardonnay which was fermented in a concrete egg allowing for unique texture and citrus notes not often seen with Chardonnay. We also tasted a couple of Pinot Noirs that really highlight where the fruit is grown: 1 from Santa Rita Hills and 1 from Russian River. The fun surprise wine for us was a blend called Castenada of Syrah, Marsanne, Grenache Noir, Viognier and Grenache Blanc. The wine associate who did our tasting was very personable and fun.
The Bad: The downside for us was that the tasting seemed to focus a bit too much on the history of the building and the renovation details instead of more about the wines. They do, however, provide a detailed account of all the “wine geek” details on a card for each of the wines.
*Ratings are on a 100 point scale.
90 to 100 points=Outstanding
80 to 89 points=Good
70 to 79 points=OK (not good but not bad)
60 to 69 points=Wish we had gone elsewhere.
Below 60 points=Run fast in the other direction.