CA wine tasting terrace

[disneyfifs]

Hi All,
Just wondering if anyone has done the wine tasting terrace at the California Adventure Park? I'm trying to decide if this would be a good function to schedule for a family reunion of about 35 people? I was hoping to do the wine tasting and listen to the wine expert then have dinner on the patio right before the Electrical Light Parade starts. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[got2travel]

I had not heard of it before so I had to look it up. From what I see on disneyland.com it appears to just be a place to buy a taste, glass, or bottle of wine. I have purchased wine from that 'bar' before. You just walk up, order, and they pour. They will answer your questions and help you pick a varietal. Whenever I've been there, it was not a formal lecture or anything, just chatting with the bartender.

It is a nice, relaxing location. And the adjacent Wine Country Trattoria is my favorite table service in DCA.

With so many people you may be able to set up something for the group. I'm not sure if you'd be able to have dinner on the patio then watch the parade. I believe those spots are reserved for folks who purchase reserved parade seating. But again, with so many people, vacation planning may be able to set something up for you.

And if you ask real nice, maybe they could get Michael Jordan to give a wine talk. He's a Master Somolier and Executive Chef at Napa Rose in the Grand Californian. I love his wine talks since he doesn't talk above you as some wine experts do. And he'll tell you even with all the knowledge he has, it really just comes down to what tastes good to you, not what the 'experts' say you should like.

 

[fairycat]

Ok here is where I am a total expert!!! The wine tasting is my favorite thing to do at the park.

Sadly because of the personal cutbacks, they don't tend to have the tastings start till approx. 2pm now. But that should work for you.

Typically the wine testings offered are one white grouping, one red grouping and the port and cheese grouping. Occassionally they have other options available as well. The straight wine tastings are typically $10 per person for four wines, I believe the Port tasting is $15, and they also offer cheese and fruit platters that are wonderful to share.

Now the one thing for your group to keep in mind is typically it is done at the counter if you want to do the tasting with a CM you would have to do it there. BUT you can also have the tastes set up so you can take them to the tables with sheets that tell you about every wine. Because of how busy it is up there I doubt they could do a private tasting for you but it couldn't hurt to ask.

I also am curious when you are going? I have heard that the food and wine festival is going to run longer this year so maybe you might over lap that and find other options as well.

I also want to add that at least one, possibly two of the CM's at the Wine Tasting area are somiler's. When Robert Mondavi was the sponser, Disney paid for their training. Many of the CM's are very knowledgeable about wines and are great to chat with! Harold, Greg and Elizabeth are my favorites!!

I also wanted to add that the wines tend to be very good from the California regions, but occassionally from Europe as well. They mostly serve smaller vineyards and things you would not typically see in other places, but the good news is you can usually find a location to buy the wines in the real world if you like them.

 

[disneyfifs]

Hi Got2Travel, Thank you for the info. I guess I still have a lot of research to do for my plans. I'm so happy to have such great resources here at DisBoards. That is so cool about Michael Jordan, even if we can't get him to speak it's an interesting fact to share.

Hi FairyCat, Thanks for your expertise. Sounds like this probably wont work for our group event, but I'm sure going to go! Our reunion is not planned until Nov. I am just a wanna-be wine expert so I'm looking forward to it and to learning a lot. I'll keep an eye out for those CM and tell them they came highly recommended.

Thank you again!!!