Peak Adventures deviated from its regular physical activities to travel to the Sonoma vineyards to enrich the palates of Sacramento State students, alumni and community members with wine tasting.

“The barrel tasting festival is something that they do every year,” said Brad Pointer, operations manager for Peak Adventures. “All different wineries come into one central place.”

Pointer thinks this trip has been good for Peak Adventures.

“It is their crack of the barrel,” Pointer said. “So you can really feel the energy of the whole wine country coming into one place. We started offering that a couple of years ago and that has been a popular one.”

Pointer said that the amount of wineries they visit depends on a whole set of factors including if the participants would like to stay longer at a particular winery and if there is a scheduled winery tour that may be worth the wait.

Alcohol is involved with this event so the students or community members have to be at least 21 for the trip.

“Sac State is comprised of quite a diverse body and lots of the students are older,” Pointer said.

Pointer said the problem when people want to go wine tasting is selecting who is going to be the designated driver.

“This is easy,” Pointer said. “You can come with your friends and transportation is included. We have already done the research on where we should go and you get to meet some new people.”

The day drip costs $65 for students, $73 for affiliates and $81 for community members.

The participants met at Peak Adventures 8 a.m. Saturday in which they left at 8:40 a.m. after a brief speech by the trip leader and introduction by each of the participants.

One set of participants, Alek and Nancy Darr, are Sac State alumni who met at the dorms on campus and were excited about this trip.

“It is fun not having to drive there,” Alek Darr said. “This time of the year is perfect and I think the weather is going to be great.”

Nancy Darr said this was their first Peak Adventure and that she found out about this trip through the Sac State Alumni Association.

“The Alumni Association is trying to do more joint ventures with some of the things on campus,” Nancy Darr said. “The alumni advertises plays and musicals here on campus and special activities that they let us know about.”

Jenelle Taylor, student, has been to Sonoma, but never been to the wineries or vineyards in the area in which this was her first Peak Adventure.

“I really want to walk through those vineyards,” Taylor said. “I am not really that interested in the tasting of the wine. It is more the nature aspect of it.”

Taylor’s favorite wine comes from Argentina.

For Idwings Silva, Peak participant, wine tasting is a new experience for him in which this trip will deviate from the norm in terms of traveling to Sonoma because it is usually for his work.

Silva has been a part of Peak Adventures before in which he participated in the Point Reyes trip, which was also a first for him.

“I loved it,” Silva said. “It was my first time camping.”

Silva likes looking up the activities on the Peak Adventures website to perform activities he has never done.

Ibukun Hambolu, student, was looking forward to finding out more about wine.

“I only know a little bit,” Hambolu said. “I only know Pinot Grigio is a sweet wine. I am tired of ordering the same thing because I know what it is.”

Hambolu’s only other wine tasting experience has been at Olive Garden in which she laughed wondering if that counted.

The wineries on the itinerary were the Benziger family winery, Imagery Estates and Pelegrini Wineries.

The participants were required to bring a valid ID, water and lunch.

Colin McAteer can be reached at [email protected].