Wine Country- Part 2

On Tuesday we started off our day at Grgich Hills in Napa.  It was the winery that opened the earliest (at 9:30am) and we were there right when they opened!  The only other couple that was there that early was a couple from Hendersonville.  The people at the winery were joking that Tennesseans like to get started drinking early :)  Grgich Hills was one of our favorites since every wine we tasted was fabulous!

Grgich Hills barrels

It looked like it was going to rain all day, but luckily it held off for us!

Next we headed to Domaine Carneros for a tour and to taste some sparkling wine.  I had always wondered the difference between sparkling wine and champagne and we learned that it is the exact same thing. It can't be called champagne in Napa because there is a province in France called champagne and only grapes that come from that province can be called champagne.  But there are a couple wineries that can call it champagne in Napa since they were grandfathered-in to the rule.  We loved the tour guide and we learned a lot on the tour.  Not to mention that we tried almost every sparkling wine they had while learning about the process.

The view was wonderful!

Then we headed to a place called Gott's Roadside (which used to be called Taylor's Refresher) for lunch.  It was so yummy!  We hadn't heard about this place before, but we had driven by it twice that weekend and it was always packed!  I mean so packed that the line was probably 2 hours long.  Since it wasn't crowded when we passed by we decided to try it out and we were glad we did!  It was nice to have a filling lunch before going to more wineries!

After that we were off to Frog's Leap.  After the tasting we did a self-guided tour of their property.  We asked to buy a bottle and walk around the property but apparently this county doesn't allow open bottles of wine on their property.  That was a little disappointing, but it was still beautiful there.  We enjoyed walking around the property, looking at their orange trees, goats and various other fun things on their property!

Next we headed to Gundlach-Bundschu.  We loved this winery!  We were really disappointed that they only do cave tours on the weekend, since we heard it was incredible!  Maybe next time!

After tasting the wines, Michael and I bought a bottle and sat by the river and talked for the rest of the afternoon until they closed.  So beautiful!

Gundlach-Bundschu grapes

After a day full of wine drinking we decided to go to a cheese shop we had heard about.  It was really yummy and we bought a few cheeses to bring home!

Then we drove around downtown Sonoma until it was time for dinner.  Below is a picture of Sonoma City Hall.  Sonoma was the cutest little town!  We fell in love with it!

Then we went to dinner at girl and the fig, which was so good!  

Then we walked a couple blocks to the Swiss Hotel, which is a really old hotel downtown.  We heard that we had to try their signature drink, the glariffee, which is a coffee-like drink.  They don't tell you what's in it, but it was really good (and strong)!

The next day we headed to Ravenswood for a tasting before meeting up with Ryan.  Their motto is "no wimpy" wines and that was definitely true here!  I'm not a big red wine drinker and it was mostly red wine, but all of them were really good!

Then we met up with Ryan to get a tour of his operations.  He doesn't have a winery yet, so he buys his grapes from various vineyards.  He took us to his bottling, testing, and wine storage area.  It was really cool to see what all goes on behind the scenes. We also got to test a wine he is considering selling straight out of the barrel, which was really cool.  It was a late harvest white grape (i.e. lots of sugar) so it is a dessert white wine (muscat).  It was really sweet, but so good!  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but I wish I had because it was so cool and not at all what you imagined the wine making process would be like.

After that we all went to eat at Fremont Diner, which is a new roadside diner in Sonoma.  It was really different. I was a little surprised when I ordered my gourmet grilled cheese sandwich and there was asparagus on it, but it was really good!

Then we headed to Wine Country Chocolates to taste some chocolate.  Yum! After that we headed to Benzinger to take their tractor tour.  Benzinger is a biodynamic winery and we learned a lot about the whole process.  I had always wondered what the difference between biodynamic and organic is and there is a huge difference!  There are only a few biodynamic wineries in California because there are such strict requirements.  Half of their property has to be dedicated purely to wildlife, in other words, they can't grow any grapes on half of their land!

Our tour was pulled by a tractor

Beautiful grounds!

Entrance to the cave

Inside the cave

The door to nowhere :)

Next we headed to Benzinger's sister winery.  We hadn't planned to go here (and we hadn't heard about it before) but since we took the tour at Benzinger we had a free tasting at Imagery, so why not?  Their wines aren't sold in stores, and you can only buy the wines from the winery so it was cool to go there.  They also have an incredible art gallery.

Next we headed to Seastiani winery.  Everything in Sonoma is named Sebastiani after the family and since its the oldest winery in Sonoma we figured we should try it.  It wasn't our favorite, but we are glad we went.

Then we headed to Cafe La Haye for our anniversary dinner.  It was incredible!  I highly recommend going if you are in Sonoma.  There are only a few tables in the restaurant, so its a very intimate little restaurant. 

It was pouring down rain, but we wanted to try a new tavern in town called HopMonk.  We made it there just before closing and ordered one of their specialty beers.   It was a nice change from all of the wine we had that day!  I think the picture below is the only picture Michael took all week.  Haha

I thought I could fit all of my pictures into two posts, but they post was getting too long, so Part 3 to come soon!