Welcome to our newest series, The Somm Set. Each month we’ll be sitting down with a guest sommelier and uncovering their guilty pleasures, cellar staples, and everything in between! Follow as they hand-select their favorites from our warehouse, giving you the inside scoop on cellar must-haves!

This month on The Somm Set, we’re excited to feature Andrea Robinson, Master Sommelier. Join us as we explore everything from her passion for wine, favorite wine and food pairing, and her newest endeavors.

Love of Champagne & Bordeaux
Read Our Interview With Andrea Robinson
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This week from Andrea Robinson:

All of the world’s great wine regions share one thing in common: moderate climate, with the temperate, sunny weather during the growing season that fine wine grapes love. People love that climate, too, and living in the heart of Napa Valley, it’s not lost on me how beautiful it is and how fortunate I am to wake up here every day. It sure made quarantine the most tolerable it could be, and I’m truly grateful.

With that in mind, this week’s Somm Set offer focuses on my home turf as well as the equally beautiful Sonoma and the pacific northwest, so even if you can’t book a ticket just yet, you can still get here by dinnertime – just bust out your corkscrew, and follow your nose!

You know well that the best vintners will tell you that “great wine is made in the vineyard,” meaning it’s all about the soil and growing conditions, and the winemaker’s job is simply to harvest great grapes and not mess them up! The extraordinary fame in the wine world of Napa and Sonoma stems from the fact that you can find the best of nearly every classic grape here.

The reason is the incredible climate diversity in a small area, thanks to the geography. There is plenty of seacoast influence in parts of Sonoma and Napa, perfect for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes which thrive best in a cool climate (plus increasing excitement with Syrah from these areas). Away from the coastal influence, there are sun-soaked valley floor locations for Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, and Cabernet, and wind-whipped hillside vineyards as well for many top-quality reds. Throughout, there are, of course, incredible places to take in the scenery, red carpet hospitality, and delicious lifestyle.

The Staglin family were among the first to warmly welcome me and my budding family here when I arrived in 2004. It’s been great to “grow up” with Shannon and their amazing wine estate, whose bottlings, while not cheap, still punch above their weight in quality for the price. Check out the Dalla Valle offerings as well, for another iconic estate passing the baton to the next generation and producing since the 1980s extraordinarily ageable wines. I was lucky to be invited by Naoko Dalla Valle to their private 30 year vertical just with the internal team a few years back, and so you might want to check out my notes here to inform your purchase.

In the Pacific Northwest, Quilceda Creek and Woodward Canyon were stalwarts of every wine list I’ve ever written and deserve their continued fame. The first year I served as the keynote speaker at the International Pinot Noir Celebration, Seth Bergstrom drove me around. That was well over a decade ago, and I think the wine world has seen their wines go from strength to strength.

I hope you’ll check out the wines in this offer and prime your palate for an in-person visit to our beautiful wine country soon. Besides wine, we’ve got hikes, spas, outdoor yoga…and even if you come in the off-season (a really smart strategy to avoid the crowds!), our rainy season is pretty beautiful, too!

Check out all the wines mentioned below!