My wife and I had tickets for a winter Wineland 2023 Sonoma WineRoad weekend. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for that weekend (1/14-15/2023) is for up to 2" of rain to fall in the Healdsburg area, where many wineries are located. That may not sound like much, but the past two weeks in the Bay Area has seen record amounts of precipitation with flooding in many places, including the wine country. Yesterday, a woman was found drowned in her car when she was overcome with floodwaters on a road that could be taken by many people on a weekend wine tour. The flood waters rose so quickly she was unable to escape. They didn't find her until the next day; her car was 100 yards off of the road submerged in about 6 feet of water. More than a week ago we contacted WineRoad.com to see if we could transfer the tickets to another day. We were unable to make voice contact with anyone. Their outgoing message simply says there are no refunds and if you can't attend then you can give your tickets to someone else (why would anyone put someone else's life at risk?). A couple days ago we called again; this time the voice message said that "We're expecting a rainy weekend, so find a cozy fire!" Meanwhile, still no refunds or transfers to another day. We contacted several of the wineries involved in the event and were told by one that the wineries get nothing financially from WineRoad. They were also appalled that WineRoad wouldn't reschedule the event.
In short: it is clear this organization cares more about its bottom line than about the lives of its customers. I cannot recommend them under any circumstances.
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- EIN 94-2799597
- (707) 433-4335
- Po Box 46 Healdsburg CA 95448-0046 USA
- www.wineroad.com
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Nonprofit Overview
Causes: Chambers of Commerce & Business Leagues
Mission: The mission of the wine road is to increase awareness of alexander, dry creek and russian river valleys through education and marketing while promoting sonoma county as the year-round wine country destination.
Programs: The wine road hosts three major events each year: winter wineland, barrel tasting, and a wine & food affair. Collectively these events brought approximately 21,000 visitors to the area to taste wine and learn about the region. Over 100 wineries participated in each of the events. The wineries that participate in winter wineland focus on 1 varietal, offering vertical tasting, library wines or new releases for a more in-depth tasting experience and to help guests learn the nuances of that one particular varietal. Barrel tasting is a unique opportunity to taste wine while it is still in the barrel and it is an educational experience that demonstrates how wine ages in the barrel. The wine & food affair focuses on wine and food pairings. As part of this event, the wine road produces an on-line cookbook with winery recipes to educate consumers on wine and food pairing guidelines.
public relations/marketing:working with a public relations manager, our executive director travels to various cities to educate the press about the uniqueness of the wine road -- the confluence of the alexander, dry creek and russian river valleys. Working with the press, we strive to attract tourists to the area from those various cities. In the past year we traveled to 3 cities, meeting with many different journalists. The wine road also hosted journalists in our area, taking them on a detailed touring experience that they could subsequently share with their readers. These activities generated 22 published stories, resulting in exposure to millions of readers.
website/map:another primary component of the wine road mission is the website where information is presented about the enjoyable and interesting activities that are offered by the ava's, including maps for visitors to plan their intinerary. Along with interactive online maps, the wine road produces and distributes 400,000 printed maps a year via their members, visitor centers throughout the state, chambers of commerce, and in reponse to consumer map requests via our online form. Wineroad. Com averages 30,000 unique visitors per month.