Nappa and Sonoma- Too Much Wine!

Oh Sonoma... what fun we had in wine country. The next morning, we headed to Nappa on the recommendation of some friends of Dave's. Some of the wineries we wanted to visit are by appointment only, so we headed to Mondavi.


Such a pretty day...


Here is the tasting menu. The guy who did our pours was really generous and he even threw in an extra taste. It paid off in some nice sales because we were pretty loopy- well, except Jenn, who was driving and didn't do more than actually just taste the wine.





Now it's time for us all to have some fun. We rented out a limo for the afternoon to take us around to the wineries in Sonoma.

Awww, look at me and my sibs...


Ryan with my mom on the other side.


Here we are at Chateau St John. Staying at the Fairmont got us a free tasting in the nicer room. The guy pouring for us was very informative, and their offer worked out for them too... we bought several bottles.


After you visit several wineries for a full day of tasting, you kinda forget which landscape is which. This one may have been Chateau St. John, but I honestly am not quite sure.


Here we are at Ledson. This was a nice, smaller winery with beautiful grounds where we had lunch, and surprise, surprise, tasted more wine.




Pretty huh?

This next place... I'm not quite sure of the name. I don't feel bad about that though, because it wasn't so great. We went there on the recommendation of our driver, and they were cheap, stingy, and rude (except our pour guy who was nice).

Green is always good, but being green isn't necessarily a recipe for instant success.

Basically, we arrived looking forward to trying a place at the recommendation of our driver. It was getting to be later in the afternoon, and we were all a bit loopy. Only three of us out of five wanted to taste. There were two options- a $20 wine and cheese tasting that would enable us to sit on the leather couches and relax, and a $10 basic tasting. We thought it might be nice to do the $20 tasting and relax a bit. They had a nice tasting room, and the couches were empty. Well because there were only 3 of us who wanted to taste, they wouldn't let us do the nicer tasting where we could sit, even though the couches were empty. Now maybe they thought it was a money issue and that we would all buy tastings if we were kept to the $10 tasting, but the other two just didn't want to taste.

Their attitude about it left a bad taste in my mouth, and none of us bought anything. We thought it was better to just pay for the tasting. As I was paying for my tasting, I complained to the cashier guy about it, and he shook his head, apologized, and said some of the people behind the tasting counter are new. He then went on to embarrass my sister about taking the glasses out the front door. I guess they were worried about people leaving with them. At many wineries, they actually give you a glass with their name on it with your tasting. In any case, the way he said it made us both mad. So our mystery winery? Don't go there.

The last winery we stopped at was called B.R. Cohen, and was owned by the manager of the Doobie Brothers. It was a pretty fun place to stop, but I was about done. I tasted one more wine, purchased a bottle called Boaters Barbera (we just drank it last night, and I liked it- I'm glad my taste wasn't completely impaired at that point), and called it a day.

At that point, I was about done. We headed back to the hotel. I was going to head down to the pool, but I was set for a nap. I passed out for a few hours, and then woke up in a great mood for dinner. Unfortunately, not everyone was looking forward to it as much as I. Everyone else was needing that same nap I started earlier. Four of us managed to drag ourselves out to the Girl and the Fig at the Sonoma square. Good stuff. We had the mussels, and then I moved on to the scallops and parsnip puree. I was very happy with my dinner.

I don't have much more to report from that night. We were done from out lovely, wine-filled day, and ready to just call it a night.

The next morning, we decided to have breakfast at the restaurant on the corner affiliated with the hotel. What I ordered was AMAZING- the crab eggs benedict. I ate every bite on my plate. After breakfast, we headed to Sunnyvale to see my cousins. Dave and Ryan had to work the next day, and headed back to LA. Jenn, Mom, and I wanted to see Erin and Drew, and drive back to LA down the coast. The drive was beautiful... stay tuned for photos, and video from our drive down route 1.