Where to Go Wine Tasting in Napa Valley

One of the most common questions we ask consumers is "where should I go wine tasting in Napa?" There's no right or wrong answer as just like cars, houses, clothes and mobile phones, each one provides a unique experience waiting to be enjoyed. "A common issue when going wine tasting in groups is finding a winery that everyone will like", says Sarah Elliman, VP at CellarPass. "It's why from the very beginning, we included an advanced search feature on CellarPass that allows our guests to search by popular points of interest such as varietals offered, types of tours (barrel tasting, cave tour, vineyard tour) and what ammenities the destination has to offer such as scenic view, architectural appeal, etc", contiunes Elliman. "By entering the "likes" from the entire group, CellarPass provides a great list of wineries that match the selected criteria and in seconds they can make a reservation so everyone in the group of friends or family are happy."

So back to where do you go? It's easy. You should always start at CellarPass as it provides quick winery recommendations on the homepage and rotate frequently- so check it often. For even more ideas, CellarPass took it a step further by receiving recommendations from popular bloggers and other wine coutnry visitors of where they like to go visit and published the Quick Wine Country Getaway ideas (Napa Valley and Calaveras County) which allows you to book the whole itinerary as, or just book potions of it. "The getaway ideas have been a big hit and we're currently preparing another set which will include Sonoma and Seneca Lake which we're all very fond of, so be sure to keep your eyes out for them in the coming weeks", continues Elliman. "Some of us managed to get a sneak peak of the Finger Lakes region in April and we were all blown away of the hospitality and quality of the wines that were offered to us."

With no winery created equal, we'll always have our favorites and here's a great list of wineries beyond the wine country getaway ideas.

Napa Valley (View Complete List)
Burgess Cellars- The view is spectacular, but the Cabernet is a total sleeper- meaning that Burgess should be on every wine list, but then there wouldn't be any left for us here since they are very limited production.
Reservations are highly recommended as Burgess is very small, but big on wines!

Domaine Charbay- Expect bare bones, rustic charm, but be prepared to be blown away of the wines and other goodies that are offered. Be sure to say "Hi" to Sunny and Snifter for us.

Cade Winery- After stopping at Burgess, head up the hill just a bit further to Cade Winery. Be sure to make a reservation for the outside patio in Spring through early Fall as the view here is magical. Looking South, you can chillax with a group of friends, surrounded by tall pine trees while savoring 90+ point wines.

Clif Family at Velo Vino- -Soon to be the center of the Napa Valley cycling universe, bring your bike and an appetite for an early espresso (summer only) or an after-ride glass of Sauvignon Blanc. The tasting room is beautiful and the patio out back is a great place to hang out and meet up with friends before and after a long ride in the valley.

Flora Springs Winery & Vineyards- If you head North on Highway 29 towards St. Helena, you will drive right by Flora Springs which is in the center of "South of St. Helena Mecca", where you can peruse Dean and Delucca's hundreds of cheeses, fresh produce, delicious baked goods and the local secret butcher shop that we'll be sure to leave out here- you'll see it when you are there. Make a reservation for their Rooftop so you can get a nice view of the upper valley from there.

Vine Cliff- Tucked back in the eastern slopes of Napa Valley for good reasons., Vine Cliff quiet, romantic and secluded from the "hustle and bustle" of the Napa Valley west side.  We love it because of the way you approach the winery, filled with mountain-side gardens, ponds and if you are nice to Mark or Pete, they may even let you hold an ad hoc picnic lunch. Reservations are a must as they only offer private tours.

If you are spending a couple of days in the Napa Valley, be sure that you sneak over to Sonoma County for an entirely different experience. CellarPass offers a great list of wineries to choose from.

CellarPass Reports Double-Digit Growth in Reservations and Site Traffic

CellarPass, the leading destination to explore, book and share wine country experiences announced that their website is recording unprecedented growth which has been contributed by their national and regional marketing campaigns, sponsored events and addition of their wine country getaway ideas to Napa Valley and Calaveras County wineries. Further analysis of their unique visitor traffic have shown an increase of affinity for the CellarPass.com  which has swelled by 59% in the last 30 days.

"Our staff has been working very hard to not only add more wineries to our reservation service, but to expand that into other verticals such as restaurants, transportation services and more", says Sarah Elliman, VP of Sales and Marketing for CellarPass. "This work has shown early signs of success and expect this to grow even more as the tourism season kicks into high gear in the next couple of weeks", continues Elliman. "With the season kicking up, our staffers have been really busy getting new wineries added on a weekly basis which is a win-win for everyone." Cade Winery, Glenora Wine Cellars, Flora Springs Winery & Vineyards and Clif Family at Velo Vino are just a few of the many recently added to CellarPass.

CellarPass has recorded significant growth to their website which is known for being the leading destination for visitors to explore, book and share wine country experiences. In April, CellarPass processed over 8000 guests, proving to wineries that when given the opportunity to make a reservation, guests will take advantage of the service. "May is showing unprecedented growth over April in the first 11 days and we expect to set another all-time record for number of reservations and guests handled by CellarPass", contiues Elliman.

To see a complete list of CellarPass' comprehensive list of features for their popular reservation management service, click here. To see a list of CellarPass' wineries, click here. For more information, contact Jonathan Elliman at (707) 255-4390 or via technology@cellarpass.com. Follow CellarPass on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/CellarPass, on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/CellarPass and our Blog at http://www.CellarPass.com/Blog to get the freshest updates.

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CellarPass Maintains Industry Leadership Through Technology and US Coverage

CellarPass, the leading destination to explore, book and share wine country experiences announced that it has completed the much-anticipated service upgrade which includes many new features that were co-developed with some of our leading winery clients. Features that include a completely redesigned backoffice reservation management interface and integration with popular calendaring systems such as Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Apple's iPhone and iCal and many more. Now, not only do consumers get to use the best technology, they are using the reservation system that offers the most nationwide service.

"We've been working on the latest phase of development for over 6 months now and by working closely with our subscribers, particularly our power users, our development team has delivered more industry firsts for this vertical than any other reservation system for the wine industry", says Jonathan Elliman, Chief Technology Officer for CellarPass. "When we initially launched our reservation service, we came right out of the gate with features and integrations that to this day, none of our competitors have", says Elliman.

Launched in March 2010, CellarPass took the industry by storm by offering seamless integration with Microsoft's Retail Management System, which is the leading Point of Sale system for the wine industry. Then in April 2011, CellarPass launched their integration with OpenTable so that visitors to the Cellarpass website can book with wineries and restaurants. "The integration with popular calendaring system is another first", says Jonathan. "So many wineries have chosen CellarPass over our competitor's simply on our system's interface alone, but we like to think that it's our whole platform that makes the difference too." CellarPass is already in the works of expanding their coverage to include transportation services, activities and more.

With the latest upgrade to the CellarPass service, when consumers or wineries make reservations, they immediately have the option to add the appointment in their own calendar, whether it's on their iPhone, desktop, iPad or any calendar program that is iCal 2.0 compliant. "The calendar integration takes CellarPass to a whole new level as wineries can now sync their CellarPass reservations with their company's internal calendar, allowing employees to plan their resources, being space, hosts, tableware or what have you", continues Elliman. Guests get the conveniece of store their reservation information in their smartphone's calendar with details such as confirmation number, winery contact info, event details and more.

Since January 2011, CellarPass has doubled the number of guests processed through the system with over 4,000 guests in April alone. The trend is expected to continue to grow as CellarPass launches more wineries in other regions such as Finger Lakes in New York and Calaveras in California's Sierra foothills over the next 2-3 weeks. CellarPass already manages over 30% of the wineries in Calaveras County and a handfull in the Seneca Lake wine country have already launched ahead of the official June launch date. CellarPass already has growing coverage of Sonoma County, Napa Valley and has begun expanding into other grapegrowing regions such as Virginia, Oregon and Washington State.

To see a complete list of CellarPass' comprehensive list of features for their popular reservation management service, click here. To see a list of CellarPass' wineries, click here. For more information, contact Jonathan Elliman at (707) 255-4390 or via technology@cellarpass.com. Follow CellarPass on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/CellarPass, on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/CellarPass and our Blog at http://www.CellarPass.com/Blog to get the freshest updates.

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San Francisco Pink Out Sponsored by CellarPass- Sold Out

CellarPass, the leading destination to explore, book and share wine country experiences closed out a great evening in San Francisco on Tuesday night at PinkOut 2011 aheld at Butterfly Restaurant. The first half of the tasting event was attended by over 100 media and trade representatives, giving an opportunity for a CellarPass test drive. Unaware of such a service existed, many were very excited to see how much information CellarPass provides on wineries, tasting rooms, restaurants and more.

The second half of the evening allowed over 140 consumers to sample Rosé wines from Spain, France and the United States. Paired with the wines were "heavy" appetizers prepared by Chef Lam such as his strawberry & salmon spring rolls and Kobe beef sliders that had everyone asking for seconds. Just as the media and trade welcomed the advent of CellarPass, consumers were even more excited as many took the opportunity to book winery tour and tasting reservations with Cade Winery for the coming weekend right on the spot.

"This is the second year we've sponsored this event and no doubt it has become a 'must attend' event as it sold out rather quickly- no tickets available at the door, which is a really good sign for Rosé", says Sarah Elliman, VP of CellarPass. "Not only did it give consumers a chance to take a test drive of CellarPass, but the media and trade folks were equally interested, which is a good sign for us as 'reservations' is still a new concept for most, but is quickly becoming accepted as a great way to plan your trip to wine country", continues Elliman.


Tim McDonald of Robert Oatley talking with Joel Quigley of Creative Furnace


Some of the sassy shoes found at PinkOut


One of our favorite Rosé's found at PinkOut


The Kobe Beef Sliders prepared by Chef Lam at Butterfly were a huge hit

Take a test drive of CellarPass yourself by logging onto http://www.cellarpass.com/ which is filled with wineries ready to provide you the red carpet treatment. Make a winery reservation today!

CellarPass Set to Release Major Upgrade to Platform and Service

CellarPass, the leading destination to explore, book and share wine country experiences has announced that they will be completing a major upgrade this week which will include many new features to their web-based reservation management system designed specifically for the wine industry. Enhancements will include integration with popular calendar applications such as Apple's iCal and Microsoft's Outlook program and more.

"We've been spending the last 4-5 months working closely with our major winery users, consumers and concierges in order to meet our company's mission of providing the leading reservation management system for the industry", says Jonathan Elliman, Chief Technology Officer for CellarPass. "We've been focused on three key areas and so far we've delivered two major phases in the past 8 weeks which places us in a perfect place just before the major tourism season kicks into high gear", continues Elliman.

CellarPass' software upgrade this week will add the support for adding reservation details to popular calendaring systems such as Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Apple's iCal, Google Calendar and other systems that support iCal v2.0. Beyond the calendarding integration, CellarPass will also release a completely redesigned backoffice reservation rescheduling interface which has been optimized to work with the popular web browsers like Safari, FireFox, Chrome and the recently released Internet Explorer v9.

Now when guests make reservations, they have the option to immediately add the reservation details to their own calendar while the winery too can add it to their own locally-kept calendar. Doing so will allow employees to synchronize reservation information with their own personal calendars stored on their PCs, smarthphones and more. The integration with external calendaring systems is another technology first for the wine reservation industry developed by CellarPass. Other firsts include the easy-to-use concierge interface and the only reservation system to have direct integration with popular Point of Sale systems such as Microsoft's Retail Management System, Submerce POS and VinNow.

"We're very excited about the pending release as it's been under development for some time and we know that our subscribers are looking forward to the enhancements", says Elliman. "The feedback and ideas have helped us make the system better and better and without that valuable feedback we would not be where we are today and we have them to thank for our continued success."

Winery subscribers to the platform will be automatically upgraded on the morning of Wednesday, May 11th while release notes will be made available to provide further details.

Are you a wine consumer looking for cool places to go wine tasting? Check out CellarPass.com for what we call are "undiscovered gems" of the wine country. And in just a few short clicks, you too can be joining us at the tasting bar, barrel, vineyard and more!
To learn more, visit the CellarPass website at http://www.cellarpass.com/
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