Wine Country

At Burning Man, man named Dino said "Eh, skip Napa, it's like the Disneyland of wine country. Go to Sonoma." After exhaustive internet research we concluded that we would rather spend money on wine than money on a campground so we parked our rig at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, which was simply a giant gravel parking lot that smelled like horse manure. We decided that this didn't matter because we planned on either being gone all day everyday or so buzzed from the numerous wine tastings that we wouldn't care anyway.
The first night in town we headed to Healdsburg and dined at Cena Luna which was, without question one of the best restaurants we have ever eaten at. The waitress suggested a bottle of Zinfandel from a local vineyard. After the first sip we were hooked, and vowed to visit the vineyard as soon as we could.

The day after we arrived, we had planned to visit Josh's cousin Meredith, her husband Fred and their two (adorable) boys, Elijah, and Jonah. Josh's Aunt Barbara was visiting them for the evening so it was an added treat to see her too. We took the long way to Sacramento stopping at an amazing castle-like estate with vineyards that reached as far as we cold see. We were greeted warmly and set up at one of the many tasting bars. The architecture in the mansion was amazing. Huge gabled windows looked out on beautifully manicured rows of vines. We sipped six of seven wines from white, to blush to red and weren't that impressed. We thanked our bartender and headed on our way. (Our next post will tell all about the fun that we had with Josh's family).

A few days later we awoke to clear blue skies, warm breeze and a hankering to go wine tasting.
Remembering the amazing bottle of wine we had with dinner a few nights before, we decided to head to Healdsburg and to Ridge Vineyards. When we arrived we found a beautiful building nestled in acres and acres of old grizzled vines. The vineyard boasted 80% solar powered and when we entered we were welcomed by a beautiful tasting room. We told the bartender where we had enjoyed a bottle of the Three Valleys Zinfandel and she happily started our tasting. We enjoyed quite a few of their wines and left with a few bottles of our favorites.


The bartenders at Ridge suggested a few more vineyards we should visit while we were in Healdsburg. We headed down a beautiful dirt road passing vineyard after vineyard. We found the Quivera Vineyard and when we entered the tasting room we found it almost full. We waited for a space to open and enjoyed the ambiance. We enjoyed our tasting and we chatted with the bartender who knew the Pioneer Valley and told us that the vineyard was 100% solar powered. We left with two bottles that are supposed to lay down (fancy wine term for age) for a couple years. We liked to think that when we open that bottle we will be a married couple.
Awww.


After two tastings we were feeling nice and relaxed, we sat on the patio at Quivera and enjoyed the sparkling afternoon. Once our heads cleared a bit we headed back to the RV to put our feet up and get ready for dinner. Earlier that morning Josh had called Cafe St. Rose and made a reservation for two later that night. He spoke to the chef who told him what the fixed menu would be for the evening. All of the options sounded delicious, but the rib eye stood out in particular. Josh commented how tempting that selection sounded and the chef agreed that it was going to be amazing. When Josh got off the phone he was worried that by the time we sat down to dinner, the chef may have run out of the coveted rib eye. Josh called back and asked if he could reserve one so he wouldn't miss out on the deliciousness. The chef readily agreed to hold one for him and they both had a good laugh.

The night before we planned to leave wine country we decided that we hadn't spent enough money on wine. We both realized that we needed at least another case of the Three Valley Zin from Ridge Vineyards to share. We checked their hours of operation and planned on taking a quick run up there in the morning before we headed to L.A.

We were there when the doors opened and much to the amusement of the bartender who had served us the day before, we bought a case of our new favorite wine. Oh well, we got swept away I guess, but when in Rome...