Starlite Vineyards

Our group of four enjoyed the tasting at this vineyard, which included a small pairing. The tasting with pairing is $ 25.00, which is waived with purchase of a bottle. We shared tastings with no problem.
The owner, Arman, was very generous with his pours, and we had fun talking with him and the other man working with him, whose name I cannot recall. The room for tasting is small and modern, and was an ideal place to chat while tasting the wines. We especially enjoyed the Zinfandel. This is a small, relatively new vineyard, and we look forward to seeing how they progress in the upcoming years.

We discovered Starlite Vineyards a year ago when we were headed to the area to pick up some of our wine club wines. We had started the day with a very clear directive: No more wine clubs! We simply already had too much wine. Our front room looks like a wine shop.
That decision held true until we got to Starlite. The wines are delicious and incredibly drinkable for all palates. The tasting room is tasteful and very refined. This is the perfect place to go to when you want to talk to others who also really appreciate wine and food. This is not the place you want to go to if you’re falling off a drunk bus, though if you have just fallen off one, they’ll be very nice and still give you great wine with a lite food pairing. Just don’t expect a commercialized wine experience with giant gift shop. Come here if you just appreciate great wine.

A pretty cool tasting room experience. The tasting comes with a food pairing. There’s only one guy who works in the tasting room and he’s really friendly and informative about the wines and the area (he grew up in Sonoma County). I would suggest checking in on Unilocal,if you do, they offer a free tasting. Otherwise, tasting fee is $ 25. Wines are a bit pricey but really good to taste.

I stayed at the guest house for the weekend with 2 other couples. Cool old house and lovely front and back yards.
Our stay included the wine tasting with paired food. The wines are excellent, but pricey at $ 60ish.

I really love this vineyard. The wines are top end. The pairings are fabulous. Definitely a great stop!

I highly recommend Starlite Vineyards. I enjoyed every single wine that I tasted, which is highly unusual for me, and I go wine tasting pretty frequently. Also, I’m generally not a fan of white wine, but their Viognier was fantastic.
Arman and his family made us feel very welcome in the tasting room. They were very knowledgeable about the wines and seemed passionate about it. My husband and I had a lot of fun speaking with the hosts as well as the guests.
We enjoyed it so much that we signed up for their wine club without hesitation. Looking forward to my next visit.

Amazing service and knowledge from Gary and Arman. They went above and beyond. We had a wonderful time. Such a lovely experience! Try the Cabernet and enjoy the food pairings. You won’t regret it!

I am writing this review to tell people to beware of Starlite Vineyards and the owner Armna Pahlavan. I rented a house and signed a contract in January 2014 to rent the Starlite Vineyards house for April 2014. I rented the property through Healdsburg Property Management/​Sonoma County Vacations. I paid a deposit of half along with a security deposit. All was set and confirmed by both parties and a contract had been formed. Thirty days prior to arrival, I received the final guest arrangements and paid the remainder of the balance. I booked our airline tickets from CHICAGO to SAN FRAN for my husband and myself, and 4 of my clients (all who flew out from Chicago), rented a car, and drove from San Fran to the Sonoma and Napa area on Friday morning. On Friday morning at around 10:15am, I called the property management company, and confirmed we were good to go. I had already received the door code, lock box code and gate code. He said to just show up whenever we wanted. I was planning a weekend of entertaining my clients at the Passport to Dry Creek weekend on Saturday and Sunday and had planned a day of wine tasting in the Napa and Sonoma area Friday before the event.
Later in the afternoon on Friday, I received a voicemail stating that the owners were now refusing to rent out their house to us. and there was nothing in the area because everything was sold out in the area. The best she could do was find us something in the Santa Rosa area, which was geographically distant from where the originally property we rented was located. She said the property owners had their own clients coming, and they didn’t want to rent it out. After several conversations both via email and on the phone between her and the property owner, they offered us a Holiday Inn Express, rooms at a Hyatt or a house in Santa Rosa with one of the rooms containing bunk beds. None of those even compare to the rental of a private home on a vineyard with a hot tub and views of the vineyard.
After talking to the owner, Arman Pahlavan, he was very aggressive, not sympathetic, and rude. He was arrogant and egotistical and couldn’t care less that he ruined our weekend. He was very argumentative and told us to take it up with our insurance. I find the whole situation to be unacceptable and we found ourselves very inconvenienced. He refused to honor his commitment. I would strongly advise anyone to not visit this vineyard or try to stay here. There are so many more vineyards and owners who are pleasant to deal with and visit. He is not.
We come to Napa and Sonoma multiple times a year and got married there last May. We would never recommend this place and would tell anyone we know never to go here. Stay away. The owner is a fraud!

Very good wine and a nice wine tasting experience, but whoever is setting the prices is out of their mind. I buy wine in the $ 50-​$ 100 range all the time, so don’t have a problem spending the money — if the quality fits the price. The Zin for $ 60 is reaching. The Cab for $ 125 is insane. Many superior wines in the $ 60 range quickly come to mind. And worse, I suspect they know this because the prices are only presented to you after you’ve finished your tasting and had nice conversation, creating a very awkward shock and pressure to buy. Three stars for enjoyable wine, but they need to get their prices inline with what they’re offering.

Best. Zin. Ever. We had a fantastic experience. Gary, the tasting room manager, welcomed us with phenomenal wine that was paired perfectly with food. We finished off with a tour of the grounds. Very elegant. Very impromptu. No RSVP needed. Pretty sure all guests get the same top notch experience. Must do again!

I signed up a for a membership @ Starlite during my tasting visit. That’s a mighty fine endorsement from me. Because:
1. I’m a moderate wine snob. My preference is for smooth fruit forward wines that have a clean mouth feel. My favorite varietal is pinot noir, a notoriously difficult grape for winemakers.
2. I’m a cheapskate. I look for and mostly drink wines that win competition prizes and cost less than $ 15. Starlite is a price tier above my usual level, but I decided to commit to a membership because these wines are so good.
Small tasting room. Open only Thursday thru Sunday.
During the tasting routine you’ll be served small bites of cheese, crackers, pates, salamis, & whatever food compliments the wines. Of course the industry standard patter of wine facts, figures and accolades are proclaimed by the server. Time wise, a visit takes about a hour.
If you love pinot noir, Starlite is a must visit.
Update Nov 2015. Dropped my club membership after two pick-​ups. Wine is still wonderful. Price point for me (a fixed income senior citizen) is too high to justify on my budget.

This winery tasting experience is very similar to the sit down «private» reservations only tastings I have done at Caymus, Schramsberg, and others. But rezeez are not required here, as we just stumbled upon this place by chance. Their Zins are the stars here, but they also have an excellent Cab, which it should be at $ 120.
The hosts on the day of our visit (October 19, 2013) were extremely knowledgeable yet still engaging. We really had a fun time with them, and not what we expected when we first walked into this nicely appointed quiet tasting room. The gentleman took his time as he meticulously prepared each of us a plate of small bites to pair with each taste. Nice touch!

Unilocal check-​in deal states 1 free tasting per person, and in the small print «Whisper „yelp“ to the tasting room attendant. Otherwise, you will get charged. Don’t shout it out!» How cool is that? It was even cooler when we were cashing out, as I assumed only one tasting would be gratis, but was more than pleasantly surprised when they comped all four of us. Maybe because we purchased a couple of bottles? Well the Zins were $ 60 each, but it was still very cool of them since per another review the tastes are $ 25 each.
Our hosts also said their wines are seldom found at retail outlets, pretty much only sold to restaurants. So for a less raucous environment, and some hard to find excellent wines, this is a highly recommended stop on your winery tour.

Fantastic experience! Loved the the wine and food pairing. Wines are special. Art in tasting room an added bonus!

We never got to taste any of the wines! The website says that no reservations are required, so my husband and I stopped in. When we got there a gentleman was helping a group of 8 that were obviously all together. We felt a little awkward and sat down at a little table near the seated tasting area at the bar. The customers paid more attention to us than the gentleman who was preparing the food to go with the pairings. We felt like we were seated at the children’s table at a holiday dinner. While everything seemed nice, we decided not to stay and got up and left. Had we been made to feel a little more welcome we probably would have reconsidered.

Starlite is a very small production winery, with a very intimate tasting setting. In fact, when we arrived to do our tasting, we were informed that at 5 pm, we were the first people to taste there all day. Seems unreal for Sonoma wine country where every winery has lots of foot traffic every day. Although the wines are quite wonderful at Starlite, I imagine people are staying away because of the prices!
Starlite hosts a seated food and wine pairing tasting — there is no other no other option. You get four little bites (small pieces of cheese and an onion jam which was quite memorable) with four wines. Sitting at the large marble table, we tasted 2 zins, 1 cab, and 1 viongier. We tasted the viognier right in the middle — which I thought was incredibly strange because you always taste whites at the beginning and finish with reds (if you like white wine that is!).
Every wine tasted wonderful… the viognier was outstanding. But here’s the catch… that’s the least expensive wine… at $ 50. And it only gets steeper from there. The cab tops the charts at $ 125. Holy moly. The pourer explained all of the wines, but Starlite just isn’t a habit I have deep enough pockets to keep. I believe the tasting was also $ 25…just something else I can’t get on board with. I just can’t knock off more than one star because the wines are great, but it’s simply too expensive to give 5 stars to.

Despite the 94 points sign they have prominently displayed above their entrance sign I really was not impressed by any of their wine. They did have a little pairing of food with each wine (4 wines in all) but still not worth the stop. On one pairing I actually wanted the food more than the wine — some sort of grilled onion tapenade. I was also shocked by the prices of their bottles — between $ 48 -$ 55
The guy working there when I went was a little awkward and immediately made me feel unwelcome when he #1 tried to not honor my free tasting pass and #2 shockingly looked with sadness when I said I was tasting by myself.

What a lovely tasting experience. We went on a Saturday mid day and we were the only ones in this intimate tasting room. Their wines are paired with small bites of cheeses and salami. Each wine is explained fully and they all were quite good. You are seated at a marble top table and relaxed. A very enjoyable experience with lovely wines to taste and buy. Highly recommended!

Starlite was a nice stop — one of the few wineries that offer a food pairing with the tasting. The tasting room is small and feels like a kitchen that you would entertain in. It had a very casual feel. The ones were fine and we enjoyed using a Unilocal offer for a free tasting.

We stopped here on a day in the neighborhood yesterday, because of Unilocal reviews and a great tasting deal. Best decision of the afternoon!
The gentleman hosting the tasting we did was fantastic. Taught us a lot and really took the time to answer our questions as well as tell us all about the wine they make. We were shown the owners art colections and given a nice little tour of the vineyard after getting a VIP tasting of an out-​of-​this-​world ’84 Bordeaux. Both guys were very hospitable and we had such a great time.
Fantastic wines, beautiful tasting room/​experience, lovely property and people … can’t wait to return! Cheers :)

The first thing that struck me about Starlite was how the owner, Arman, warmly introduced himself and his family. This was our fourth stop of the day and I was glad to find a personable place, as opposed to larger tasting rooms where employees recite wine descriptions, barely spend any time with you, and offer no sense of the character of the vineyard. Starlite really is a boutique vineyard. The tasting room is intimately sized and manned by just the owner himself. Arman took us to walk the grounds and explained basics about viticulture and the business of winemaking (whereas we had to pay extra for a grounds tour at other places). We learned so much from just talking to him, and he was the first who actually took an interest in who we were. He also remembered our inn keepers, which impressed on me that he will remember his other visitors as well.
The quality of the wine is exceptional. I’m new to wine tasting, but I’ve liked the wines from Starlite the best out of all the places I tried in Alexander Valley, as well as from San Benito County and Central Coast. We bought the viognier but also liked the cabernet sauvignon. We were very impressed with the food pairing, which featured mustard, melon, and roast duck, and helped to bring out the flavor of the red wines.
Arman’s passion for the arts really shows through. The tasting room is decorated with beautiful large art pieces. They also host music and dinner events that feature string quartets. It’s a shame we won’t be in the area for that!
Thanks Starlite for being the highlight of our weekend stay in Alexander Valley!
Also, I found this helpful article:
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