Sterling was the low point of our recent winery to...

Sterling was the low point of our recent winery tours.

Generally, when you make a reservation at a winery, you are greeted on arrival and begin a friendly tour or tasting with knowledgeable staff who are happy to tel you about their wines and winery. At Sterling, though, we arrived for our 4:00 tasting/aerial tram ride to be met with long lines and an assembly line type experience. This had all the class and elegance of a day at a down-market Six Flags.

On arrival, after retrieving tickets at the ticket window, we stood in a crowded, roped off line for more than half an hour in the blistering heat waiting on the tram. There was no place for older people to sit, and children were running wild. There's a short video that runs on loop about the history of the winery, but it is not very informative or entertaining.

If you've dressed up for a day of visiting wineries, be warned that there are misters blowing water on the crowd as you stand in line, which are hell on the hair and makeup. Unfortunately, no fans.

I knew this would be more commercial but was taking first timers and thought they'd enjoy the tram. Instead, we spent at least half of the visit discussing whether to just bail.

Once we finally reached the tram, we rode to the top and the assembly line continued. We lined up again for the first wine tasting, as sauvignon blanc, where the woman pouring repeated the same two sentences to each person in line.

We following signs for the "self guided" tour, which was totally devoid of information. There were a few tv monitors with subtitles describing some of the process, but for the most part we were staring at production facilities with no idea what we were looking at.

The next stop was a merlot station. The wine was just horrid. It burned my throat. I dumped it out. I never dump out wine.

We then pushed through crowds and walked past more things that were not explained to us, to wait in another line, this time a cheap cabernet. I drank it because I'm only human, but it was not good at all. Again, the pourer just repeated the same sentences to everyone as he poured.

Finally, we arrived on the terrace, which is the only reason to visit this winery and the only reason I gave this review two stars. The view is simply splendid, unmatched by any other I've seen in my many Napa/Sonoma visits. Really, it is stunning. I wish we could have enjoyed it more, but there were children nearby who would not stop screaming and the parents did not even seem to notice. Also, it was hot, hot, hot, and the few fans available were simply inadequate. Why they do not have overhead fans on the terrace is just baffling.

On the way out, I decided to go to the bathroom. I saw water (I hope) running down the floor from one of the 2 stalls, and when I went in there was trash and paper all over the floor. I decided to wait. Then, we went to wait again in line for the tram back to the bottom, where we got to hear the tram operator yell at people to take the shuttle van down the hill to avoid the wait. We were so relieved to reach our car and leave Sterling behind.

If you want to visit a winery with basic cheap wine, screaming children, bachelorette parties, and assembly line type service, then this is the place for you. The view makes up for a number of sins, but even with that I would never visit this winery again.