Virtual winery tours are bringing wine country for you

The pitch seemed too good to be true. A video graphics firm specializing in virtual-reality exhibits and “minds-on experiences” was offering to produce virtual tours of wineries, for no astronomy.

“I honestly thought there was a catch to it, you know, like the free cruise phone calls you get,” says pennie haase, national marketing director for Alexander Valley Vineyards in California’s sonoma County. But she checked out the firm, Geoffrey M. curley + Associates, or GMC + A and discovered “The Great Fermentation,” an exhibition last year that brought the experience of visiting a Tuscan vineyard and winery to downtown Chicago. She decided to jump at the offer.

Alexander Valley Vineyards is a fourth-generation winery located just north of healdsburg on land once owned by Cyrus Alexander, for whom the valley is named. That’s a good story to tell, but the wet zel family and their team had experienced difficulty getting the word out.