Wine Tour – $12.00 plus shipping
Wine is a fragment of the universe caught in a glass. Look deep into the depths of a Cabernet Sauvignon, follow the spiraling bubbles in a flute of champagne and anticipate the sip that will awaken and liberate your senses. Like art, wine creates moments in which memory, desire and the present combine. A fluid counterpart to poetry and literature, wine is a magic door to a world where harmony and laughter reign.
There’s the sense of community engendered by the simple opening of a bottle of wine. The sound of a cork popping (one of the reasons I’m sure people are so loath to give up the cork for the more effective screw-top) is associated with parties, with celebration, with joy. Sharing a bottle of wine is a communal experience that brings people together and is a way of ‘breaking the ice’ when you first meet someone. Wine-tasting is a fabulous way to experience the beauty of the Napa and Sonoma countryside as well as the delight of discovering relatively unknown and delicious wines.
With my Wine-tasting in Carneros CD, you can take a driving tour of wineries in the Carneros Region of Sonoma and Napa Valleys in your own car and at your own pace. This CD allows you to learn about each winery and listen to the owners talk about why they make wine, what they love about living in Carneros and how their families became involved in wine-making. If you’re planning a trip to Sonoma and Napa this is a great way to begin.
If you live in the Sonoma/Napa area, Wine-tasting in Carneros not only makes a great gift, but it’s a wonderful way to entertain out-of-town guests. For example, do you have friends and family coming to visit? Do you want a fun way to entertain them without stress? Or do you need some free time without feeling guilty? This CD driving tour will give your friends and family a day or more of wine-tasting in wonderful, small, family-owned wineries in Carneros where they will feel welcome and comfortable whether they’re familiar with wine and wine-tasting or not.
A map and tracks for each winery make it easy for anyone to pick and choose the wineries they want to visit. In addition, $40.00 worth of tasting coupons for wineries are included with the CD.
This is a great way to entertain guests or, if you’re new to the area, an easy and entertaining way to begin your acquaintance with the myriad wonderful wineries in Sonoma and Napa Valleys.
Available through this website
Cheers, Corinne
Becky Larson of Larson Family Winery writes: “Corinne has done an excellent job capturing the essence of each winery. I loved the comments from the various winery principals, the selection of music that accompanies each track and, with all those coupons included, this CD is a must-have for anyone planning on touring the Carneros region.”
Jo Ann Truchard of Truchard Winery writes: “Corinne has done a fabulous job of giving a picture of Carneros—bits of history and personalities, all with wonderful musical background. General wine knowledge is also offered to make your wine trip more enjoyable.”
Wine Business Monthly
November 15, 2008
New Products
Wine Tour CD for Carneros Region Released
Wine Tour CD, created by Corinne Van Houten, allows wine tourists to navigate the wine country in the Carneros region of the Napa and Sonoma valleys in a unique way. The CD allows wine tourists to learn about each winery and listen to the owners talk about why they make wine, what they love about living in Carneros and how their families became involved in winemaking. The CD comes with a map and tracks for each winery in the area, and each track is set to a musical interlude provided by the Baguette Quartette, a San Francisco Bay Area group led by accordionist Odile Lavault.
| Corinne Van Houten |
The CD retails for $15 to $18 and is sold online and at selected wineries, including Schug Winery, Larson Family Winery, Jacuzzi and Cline wineries, Homewood Winery and Bouchaine Winery. For more information, visit www.corinnevanhouten.com.
Pressings
TheWineBuzz
September/October 2008
Planning a trip to Napa or Sonoma? Consider packing a copy of Corinne Van Houten’s CD Wine Tasting in the Carneros Region of Sonoma & Napa Valleys ($17.50 includes shipping, at www.corinnevanhouten.com).
This CD is meant to be popped into your car’s sound system as you embark on a tasting tour of the Carneros region, which straddles the two most famous wine valleys in the country. (Van Houten is also working on an audio file for iPod-toting cyclists).
She begins with an introduction to winetasting basics (she suggests spitting but confesses that she doesn’t) and tips for touring (bring a cooler in hot weather, and don’t tell the entire tasting room is you don’t like a wine). There’s also a four-minute crash course on winemaking that packs in a lot of info. Then you’re off to the wineries—11 of them—armed with background information on history, vineyards, wines and winemaking philosophy, often told by the winemakers or owners themselves.
Most of the wineries are small, such as Ceja Winery, owned by a Mexican family who once tended the vineyards as migrant workers. But there’s also the large sparkling wine producer, Domaine Carneros. Others include Cline, McKenzie-Mueller and Bouchaine.
Van Houten concludes with an overview of restaurants in the region. Sound quality is good and background music by Baguette Quartet and others sets the tone for relaxation and fun. Van Houten’s voice is pleasant, and her genuine love of wine and enthusiasm for these wineries shines through.
Included in the package is a map along with a listing of tasting fees at the various wineries and recommendations on some special wines not to be missed. And there’s a bonus: $40 worth of coupons for tasting rooms along the route. How can you go wrong?
Donna Marchetti, Editor in Chief
Carneros Wine Tour
Author and art historian Corinne Van Houten has released a new CD of a tour of the wineries of Carneros. Even if you’re reasonably familiar with the small wineries hiding in our cool southern hills, I bet you’ll learn many interesting facts as you listen to the CD, perhaps in your car as you visit.
It would be a great resource to lend to visiting guests to get them out of your hair for a day, or to give them before they come to Napa.
A map and tracks for each winery make it easy for anyone to pick and choose the wineries they want to visit.
The CD includes $40 worth of tasting coupons for wineries. It costs $14.95, $17.50 from her web site (www.corinnevanhouten.com) with shipping.
Paul Franson, NapaLife
1/22/08
Marin IJ
Cuisine Scene: Tour before you quaff
December 2007
Corinne Van Houten loves touring the Wine Country so much she decided to turn her passion into a business. The Terra Linda resident has just released a new CD, “Wine Tasting in the Carneros Region of Sonoma and Napa Valley,” retailing for $15.
It’s an audio driving tour of 11 wineries: Roche, Cline, Schug, Robledo, Larson Family, Homewood, Domaine Carneros, McKenzie-Mueller, Bouchaine, Ceja and Truchard.
“Each one has its own track so you can choose which wineries you want to visit and in what order,” Van Houten explains. The CD also comes with a map detailing their locations, and $40 worth of coupons for complimentary tastings at four of the wineries.
The idea, she says, is for people visiting Sonoma’s Wine Country to listen to the CD in their cars as “something to whet your appetite for these wineries, and to get familiar with what each winery is about and what the wines are like when you want to tour Sonoma County.”
Van Houten, who conducted interviews with either vintners, the owners or key personnel at each winery she briefly profiles, also does the narration. Music’s part of the experience; a different tune is linked to each winery. Van Houten says she’s particularly proud that the French group, Bagette Quartet based in Berkeley, donated songs to the soundtrack in exchange for credit.
With a doctorate in women’s studies, art history and literary criticism from Emory University in Atlanta, one self-published mystery novel about art, “A Feast of Small Surprises,” under her belt and a second novel in the works, Van Houten’s no stranger to dreaming up projects.
“When we first moved out here five years ago from Paris, I couldn’t wait to get to the Wine Country,” she says. “My husband noticed I was up there all the time. He said, ‘Why don’t you do something productive?’ I thought the idea of a CD would be cool.”
It’s available at Cline, Homewood and Larson Family wineries in Sonoma, Enoteca Sonoma in downtown Sonoma on the Square or online at www.corinnevanhouten.com.
