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!

Wine Country- Part 1

Michael and I went to Sonoma and Napa Valley this past week for our third anniversary and my birthday and it was so wonderful!  It's so beautiful there and it was the perfect spot for our vacation.  We had a busy schedule planned and that was just what I needed!  Before this vacation, I had only been away from Patrick for a couple of nights so I needed busy days so I wasn't sitting around and missing him all day!  Michael wasn't a big wine drinker before going, in fact I don't think he had ever ordered a glass of wine at a restaurant or bar before;  but now I think he is a big red wine fan!  Michael also has a good friend from high school, Ryan Donnelly, that lives in wine country and has his own wine labels- Miracle One and Bluebird.  We got a lot of advice on places to go from him and his recommendations were great!  

  

We flew into San Francisco on Saturday afternoon and headed towards Sonoma.  We hadn't eaten yet so on our way from San Francisco we stopped at In N Out burger which was so good!  Then we went to Cline Cellars, where Michael's friend Ryan used to work. They happened to be having a big event that day called a pick up party (Earth day = lots of celebrations in wine country).  Sonoma has a pick up event two weekends a year so it was nuts when we got there!  There were a few people passed out on the front lawn and Michael and I kind of looked at each other both thinking that this is not what we thought wine country would be like!  Luckily, the hostess explained that this was a rare occurrence and that the pick up event had just ended for the day and that everyone would be leaving soon.  We made note to avoid all of the wineries that were participating in the pick up event the next day!   Michael and I tasted a few of the wines and then bought a bottle and went out by the pond to drink it.  The winery had cleared out by then, so it was just us and it was so relaxing after a full day of traveling!

Outside Cline Cellars with Jacuzzi winery in the background

Then we checked into our precious little inn, where we found Champagne and chocolates waiting for us

Since we had eaten lunch so late, we decided to get a couple of appetizers at an Irish pub we had heard about from Ryan.  If you know my husband, you know he loves an Irish pub!  We were probably the youngest in there by about 30 years.  However, it was hysterical!  The opening act was a man playing a guitar singing all kinds of crazy songs he had written like "Hampster Stampede" and "Chicken Revolution." The next act was equally as interesting.  It was definitely an experience we won't forget!  Just in case you were wondering...Michael does have a black eye in the picture.  And no he did not get it falling from too much wine drinking, he had a basketball incident before we left :)

Since California is two hours behind Nashville, Michael and I woke up at about 5:30am every morning.  We tried our best to sleep in, but we just couldn't do it!  So, we went to 7:30am church at St. Francis. It was an adorable little church! 

 Then we went to a fabulous brunch at Harvest Moon.  I forgot to take a picture, but we sat outside on the patio and were the only ones for a little while which was nice.   It was so yummy!

After that we headed to Napa, to a winery called Sterling. It was a little farther out, but I had heard it had amazing views, so we decided to make the trek.  It was a gorgeous day, so it was fun to have the top down on our convertible and enjoy the drive!

The winery is at the top of a very large hill, so you take a gondola up to the top.  The views were amazing!  However, as soon as I got on the gondola I pulled out my camera and it was dead.  Typical, right?  The iphone pictures really don't to it justice, but it was beautiful!

We signed up for the tour and a special tasting of their reserve wines.  It's a self guided tour where you walk through the building and get a tasting at each station. 

Then we went onto their reserve tasting patio and had more tastings.  It was wonderful!

We had planned to spend the whole day in Napa at different wineries, but since it was Earth day weekend there were tons of people there for the weekend.  So when Ryan called to say they had come in from San Francisco for the day, we decided to abandon our plans and go and meet them!

On our way back before meeting up with Ryan, we decided to make a stop at B.R. Cohn Winery.  The owner of the winery also manages the Doobie Brothers, so it was a neat place to stop and see!  They also have a small olive oil tasting room and a cigar room there. The owner also likes really old cars, and he displays a few of his cars at the winery.  The front has these really cute little toy car displays.

 Inside the tasting room

Toy car displays

Then we met up with the Donnelly's and a couple of their good friends at Bartholomew Park.  Bartholomew Park is almost like a real park with tons of picnic tables and places for people to hang out.  Each picnic table is off by itself in a little spot in the park, so its really private!  We bought a couple bottles of wine and talked for the rest of the afternoon.  It was really relaxing!

Bartholomew Park Grapes

Then Michael and I headed back to Napa Valley for my birthday dinner at Auberge du Soleil.  The restaurant is known for its views, particularly when the sun is setting.  So Michael had made reservations for just before sunset.  It was beautiful and the food was awesome!  I couldn't pronounce most of the things on the menu, but I think I could have ordered anything off the menu and it would have be wonderful!

On Monday, Michael had booked a tour with wine country journeys.  We had read wonderful reviews of this tour and we were not disappointed.  It was a small tour with just us and one other man from Australia. Jerry was our tour guide and he was great!  We headed out to Healdsburg for the day where he took us to a bunch of family owned wineries which was wonderful!  Our first stop was J. Rickards.  The owner's son gave us a tour and tasting. Normally you only have about 4 tastings at each winery, but this guy poured us every single wine they made, which was like 15 wines.  Boy was I glad that I had breakfast that morning!  Their slogan for their wine is "damn fine barn wine," so the tasting room is in their barn and its really cute.

J. Rickards winery

Tour

 

The grapes

Outside J Rickards

Our next stop was Pedroncelli, where we had a tasting with Sherri. She loved the Grand Ole Opry and Tennessee, so even though the tasting menu said that we could only try 5 wines, she kept pouring more!

Stained Glass in their tasting room

Pedroncelli barrels

The next stop was Christopher Creek, with the sweetest little old man!  Michael and him really hit it off!  He also poured us almost every wine he had and they were fabulous!

He kept telling us we should take a picture behind the counter so that we could send it to our parents and tell them we had bought a winery!

Tasting at Christopher Creek

Then we stopped at the cutest little general store to pick up a wonderful lunch to eat outside at the next winery!  By this time it was about 2:30, so we were starving!

Eating outside Amista

Then we headed to Amista to try the wines.  We really loved their sparkling Rose, but unfortunately they wouldn't sell it to us since we weren't in the wine club. 

Our last stop of the day was Hawley.  Their winery is only open on the weekends, so we went to their tasting room in the middle of downtown Healdsburg.  To be honest, I had so much wine by this point that I wasn't really interested in tasting much more!  The couple I did taste were really good though!

After a full day of wine tasting, Michael and I were exhausted and we headed to the Inn to take a nap before dinner.  Then we headed to El Dorado Kitchen. I had so much wine that day that I didn't even order a glass at dinner!

Part 2 of our trip to come soon!