On our trip, we experienced wedded bliss ~ not only of our own, but of a friend ~ and we experienced winding roads along with our wonderful wines, cheese and chocolate.
We will now bring you a condensed version of our trip highlights.
Friday ~
After finally getting through the rental car line, we emerged with a grandpa car, the Buick boat as we affectionately called it, we headed to downtown San Francisco for a peek at the Ferry Building. Once inside the Ferry building, our stomachs reminded us that we had not eaten in a very long time. Instead of the hopeful lunch at the Slanted Door, we settled for a quicker version at Lulu Petite. We carry Lulu products at the store and were excited to try a sandwich made with Lulu products on it. We were just as excited after we ate it! The Ferry Building has some fun places to visit in it including a Ciao Bella J It was quite quiet the day we were there except for a large number of lunch-ers.
After a walk and galavanting around the San Fran coast for a bit, we headed off for our first wine destination, Wente Vineyards. Wente treated us very well, having us at their guest cottage overnight, giving us a voucher for dinner and breakfast – and though Steve wasn’t able to golf “the Course at Wente”, he certainly is looking forward to it in the future! (Breakfast at the course was good enough for Amy!) We were a little disappointed in our tour at Wente as our guide was bo-ring! He wanted to show us the giant tanks and talked small, independent wine stores down. It wasn’t a happy time. It was too long as well. Shoulda stopped with just the free stay and meals! Then again, to be fair, the 2003 Smith Bench Reserve was pretty good for the money as was their Reserve Brut. It was aged 5 years in sandstone caves (we missed the cave tour L) A bit sweet but still dry, it was a great choice for an affordable bubbly. Their 2002 Small-Lot Cab/Syrah blend was alright too, but overpriced at $45!
Sunday~
Lodi was on the menu for today with Steve & Kathy VanDuyn. Steve and Kathy had great connections in the area with many wine clubs they belong to, and relatives in the area, Spenker Winery was the beginning of the tasting for the day. In a small “pole barn”, the Spenker family still makes all their wine there after 100 years of family cultivating. They only make Zinfandel and it was a treat. We bought a bottle to put down for a few years (2001?)
A stop at the airplane hangar looking strip of wineries lead us to some run’o’the mill places which we hightailed it out of quickly and then to Macchia which I was lead to by our wine guy, Mike. Macchia’s wines, called such as Generous, Voluptuous and Dangerous were worth talking about. My favorite was the barrel tasting (of course) of ’04 Generous. Lani, the owner, came to join us and tasted with us in the barrel room. This is their Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel from the Soucie Vineyard. It was smooth and deep. The Prestigious Zinfandel from the original Grandpere vineyard was also a favorite of mine. Their flagship wine, Adventurous, the 2003 Zinfandel from the Linsteadt Vineyard had great spice. Their ’04 won an award and contains nice pepper. Their port, from the same vineyard was actually a port that I would drink! It’s made with Barbera & Zinfandel.
Our best and most personal tasting of the day was at the Lucas winery. David Lucas himself took us out to the vineyards and showed us grapes and then when he found out who we were, he took us to the barrels. Showed us some old stuff he has and tasted the next lot. In one room was all the wine he produces – amazingly small production. We bought a few bottles.
Vino Con Brio was a disappointing stop, the wines were very boring and they had one of those glitzy tasting rooms that didn’t follow our tastes in gift…or wine. Our last stop (and we made them stay open late) was Michael David winery. They don’t have a showy tasting room, but they did have tasting. They are famous for their Earthquake Zin, but we tried almost everything else. We ended up purchasing a 6th Sense Syrah in a 1.5liter bottle and David Phillips, the winegrower, who we met there, signed the bottle for us. He was very supportive of us and knew some about Michigan.
Monday morning, up to Amador we go with the entourage. Ten of us up to the beautiful rolling hills. Our first stop, Young’s vineyard, a cool marketing concept with jesters themed items everywhere…with adequate wine and great packaging. Of course…we had to buy one. They don’t sell to Michigan so no luck there. Karly was our best excitement of the day. All 10 of us barely fit into their little “kitchen” tasting room. But it was great wine. We finished up with the tasting with frozen slush Muscat. It was a great treat for a hot afternoon! A visit to Vino Noceto and Villa Toscana reminded us of the glitzys and had terrible wine to boot! Renwood was well worth the stop, besides finding great educational posters, we found expensive port, great Zins and cigars for the boyz.
By the end of the day – yes, it was dark – we let ourselves in to the Firefly Lodge. Beautiful lodge overlooking the Russian River where we stayed for three nights and enjoyed immensely.
Tuesday~
A drive through the Redwood Valley to Lolonis was beautiful. We went up to a tasting where we weren’t sure what to expect. We got a lot more than we bargained for, not only did we get to watch the bottling line in the semi but we sat with Petros, the current senior Lolonis in charge. He brought us wine after wine. We probably drank (keep in mind it was 10:30am when we started.
Healdsburg
On a quick morning jaunt out, we ended up at Hanna Winery. Of all we tried, the 2004 Sauvignon Blanc from Russian River Valley was fresh and grassy, grapefruit and melon. Of the reds, we enjoyed the 1999 Bismark Ranch Cab and Pinot Noirs were the favorites, tipping in at about $60 a bottle. The Bismark Ranch Zinfandel is a definite NO.
We made a brief stop at J Vineyards & Winery where we had the most creative tasting on the trip. We had a flight of six wines paired with six little appetizers that were scrumptious. They charge for the tasting but it was most reasonable and delish! Of course after, part of the group ran over to the Rodney-Strong tasting room across the parking lot. Lisa & I sat in their fountain and dangled our feet. That was a better use of my time.
Our quaint but yummy visit of the day was Foppiano. Kay Foppiano and the guy working the tasting room – who happened to be from Michigan were very nice and gave us great tastes of old stuff. One of which mark bought – and we enjoyed at dinner that evening. I believe it was an ’84 petite syrah with life left in it.
We all went somewhat on our own way Wednesday afternoon. One of my stops was Selby winery. Susie Selby, a famous female winemaker, has carried on the traditions of her father in the wine business. She makes a fabulous wine! Though she doesn’t have a vineyard tasting room, she does have a quaint place in the Healdsburg square, just down from Rosenblum (who was closing when I arrived, we tasted the last drops of a bottle they had open and then I bought a bottle, really not very exciting – and a little too commercial-ly for my tastes.)
To culminate our trip, we headed to Point Reyes Station, a picturesque fishing-like town. It was a bit stressful when Amy realized there was no clear map to where we were going, but as always, she really knew all along. After a visit and tour at the Cowgirl Creamery with our cheesemonger Michael, we had probably our best lunch of the vacation – at the Station House Café.
Finally, after getting back to San Francisco the Theules and Ruis’ went to the California Academy of Sciences Natural History Museum to take a class on cooking with chocolate. Thinking it would be a hands on class, we were a little bored sitting and listening. By the time we left, the good news is that we were stuffed with chocolate. Yum!
