wine country afternoon

There are a few wineries we've been to plenty of times and don't necessarily need to do a tasting every time we are there. We just want to go there to enjoy the ambiance, purchase a bottle and camp out on their patio for the entire afternoon (I'm sure the winery head honchos would love to hear that we like to "camp out" but when you buy a bottle, I don't feel bad just chilling on their grounds.  

In Napa, we like to go to Beringer and buy a bottle of their Cab Franc (probably one of our most favorite bottles of all time) and hang out on the porch just off the reserve room.  There is something unbelievably relaxing about spending a day not running from one winery to the next but just enjoying the area.

In Sonoma, we like to go to St. Francis, we found a quiet table on the patio, complete with shade and unobstructed view of the vineyard - can't beat that!

This particular day, we needed to eat our picnic lunch right around the time that we were driving past St. Francis.  The beauty of the place is that you can eat your own food on their grounds.  Purchasing a bottle of wine to go with your picnic, if not blatantly stated on the picnic tables is usually assumed, for this particular day we enjoyed the 2008 cab.  You might remember we dig the  07 St. Francis cab so much that we bought the entire stock from the liquor store one day
at the beginning of the year. 

Entire stock = 2 cases...we weren't the only people to know this is a excellent bottle at a steal of a price.  This is also the sole reason why I don't blog about new wines anymore, we just drink this one, sadly for us but lucky for you, we are nearing in on the end of our stash and soon enough will need to branch out and purchase some new wines to try.  

Barkley was totally digging it...you might sense a theme here. Our dog is just about as much of a fan of weekends in wine country as Mike and I are. Lucky little dog.  

winery: Jacuzzi

Jacuzzi was one of those places we had never been before but have driven past a lot, we had low expectations and walked away completely enamored by the winery.  

First big plus - FREE wine tastings. I had no idea they did that any more (clearly I spend a lot of time in Napa.)

Second plus - dogs are welcome, just not in the tasting room.  This is a bit of a bummer because it takes away from the lessons learned from a great guy pouring the wine, (but if you had a disengaged guy pouring the wine) it really wouldn't matter.  We just had a great guy, so I was a bit bummed we had to sit out on the terrace, but the terrace was beautiful and I would be willing to spend the rest of my days relaxing there.

Barkley enjoyed her own tasting of the finest water Jacuzzi had to offer in a porcelain bowl.

.



Wines were reasonable...

We always feel that if you get the tasting for free, you should buy a bottle, luckily the wines were good and priced right, so we took one home. 

...and, they had a Vespa.

Let's just recap the math on this one:

  Free wine tastings
+Dog Friendly
+Vespa =
1 sweet winery

Ravenswood

I cannot believe I haven't ever talked about the Ravenswood winery on this blog.  Ravenswood is just outside of the town of Sonoma (which, by the way, is super cute and looks to be a great spot for lunch and some shopping.  We did the lunch part, just not the shopping. Next time, shopping will be added the agenda.) Ravenswood was a wonderful surprise.  I mean, the Vinter's blend Zin is a staple in our wine frig, however I had no idea what the winery would be like.  The wine guy that took care of us was the best, most entertaining person we've met in wine country.  He gave us the history of Ravenswood, along with the origin of their label, the grounds, the wines, and as self-proclaimed button manager, we left with buttons of each of us and "No Wimpy Wines" bumper stickers.  It seemed like we tried 12 different wines. They were all good but the wines that you can only get at the winery or through the wine club were great.  (Just another reason you should go visit.)

Seriously. Go visit.

Ravenswood was comfortable, everyone that walked in the door was treated like family, and we were no exception.

wine: Cline Zinfandel 2010

One of the perks of Mike putting 80,000 miles on a car in under 2 years is that occasionally when he is out and about, he happens to drive past a winery. Which I guess is also one of the perks of living in Northern California where it's easy to drive past a winery or two no matter what direction you are driving.  Cline was one of those stops to pick up a few bottles of wine one day to say, "Happy Wednesday!"

This wine was good.  I think the vanilla taste was a bit too strong for me initially, but it was still a totally drinkable bottle.  The retail price is $18, so for that price, I would say, I'm not sure I would buy it again.  I was reading about this wine on the Cline Website {here}and they also mention that there are "flavors of dark berry, coffee and chocolate with a great vanilla oak character and lingering long finish."  I totally picked up on the strawberry flavor.  The smell of this one was great (i.e. the oak factor).  So all in all, it was good.  I'd give it 2.79 stars. 

P.S. Pardon the blurry picture, I have been trying to take my camera off auto and do more on the manual settings...looks like I need to do a bit more work. :)

tricks of the trade

It's no secret that we like to go wine tasting. A lot.  I mean, c'mon, we live near one of the most remarkable wine regions in the world, wouldn't it be a shame if we didn't go?

We go wine tasting for you, people, so that this blog has content. 

We are givers.

And since it's the season of giving, I thought I'd share with you what we bring with us each time we go wine tasting.   Thank you, you kind readers that like to hear me babble. I appreciate it.

Now, let me tell you a story. Once, we were at Kenwood (Sonoma County) tasting their delicious wines and there was a girl in the tasting room that wasn't looking too hot. Her boyfriend, husband, poor soul...whomever he was, was basically carrying her over his shoulder, she had had a bit too much to drink. (Side note: This was our first winery of the day, hardly 11am.) Shortly after we finished up our tasting, we headed to the car to grab a few snacks, and to our left was this girl, and her poor soul of a caretaker, leaning over a rock ledge.  Then, as if the fire hose turned on, vomit started violently coming out of her. Purple vomit. Let this be a lesson to you, purple vomit is never pretty, even if you are just an innocent bystander. 

To avoid vomit like the marionettes from Team America, we bring snacks.  Here's our list of things that come with us every time we go wine tasting:

1. Barkley : no, we don't eat her, she's just so fun, we can't leave her behind...you don't need to have her on your list, but she's on ours and I wanted to be truthful with our list...therefore, I'm sharing. Many wineries are dog friendly, more than you would expect. 

2. Water : I mean a lot of it.  Like toss a case of water bottles in your trunk, I typically am not a proponent of plastic water bottles, but this is my one exception. 

3. Snacks : party mix, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, apples and granola bars are our go-to snacks

4. Pack a picnic : Most wineries will not allow you to picnic on their grounds, however there are some that will either allow you to picnic if you buy a bottle of wine (Rutherford Hill Winery) or others that have a deli where you can buy your sustenance and picnic on their grounds (V. Sattui and Beringer).   I am sure there are more, but those are the few that we've actually eaten at. 

The good news about packing a picnic is that you don't waste time sitting at a restaurant. We are serious about our time management in wine country.  Most wineries are only open from 10 - 4pm or so, which means it's important to maximize your time.  In the course of a day trip to Napa, we typically don't taste at all the wineries we go to (but when we do a tasting, we typically share one so that we don't become like the purple vomit girl), but we like to check out as many as possible, just to see the grounds, take a few pictures... you know, for the blog.

wine: Ferrari-Carano

Of all my 2011 resolutions, my tip top most important resolution should be:

AnnE, when you drink a bottle of wine...write down what it tastes like! That way when a few weeks pass and a few different bottles have all been put in the recycling bin (well, we drink them before we recycle them, of course!), you can actually remember what a specific bottle tastes like!

I promise from now on, I'm sticking to that resolution.  Really.  I will.  I haven't exactly kept any of the other resolutions I set for myself, so this is the least I can do.  I do it for you. Really I do.

Since I can't for the life of me remember anything about this bottle, other than the fact that it was OK, not great, but drinkable. To be honest, it was a bit of a let down because their winery is absolutely fantastic.   We picked this one out because we really like their winery, however it's always been one of those winery stops that we go to after we're kinda ready for lunch and don't need to try another wine.  They have chickens wandering the premises.

CHICKENS!

How fun is that!?!

And if the roaming chickens aren't cool enough, the landscaping and scenery can't be beat.  I can't for the life of me find the pictures I have taken during our visits to Ferrari-Carano, I've included a picture below from their website.   Be sure to check out their website, they have so many beautiful pictures and they practice sustainable farming! Hello! I totally dig sustainable farming AND I love wine! This is truly a winery after my own heart.

Thank you to the Ferrari-Carano website for the picture...learn more about the winery and view more pictures  here.

Seghesio: Sonoma Zin



I know I have raved about the Seghesio family winery before, but this really is a wonderful zin.  This is the zin we always, always, always order when we are out for dinner and have a hankering for a zinfandel.  This one really is fabulous.  In looking back at other blog posts, I learned that this is the wine that we've ordered both times that we've been to the wine bar, Rouge & Blanc. Funny what you learn from reading your own blog!

...and now if you excuse me, I'm going to go back and reread my blog some more.

wine: St. Francis Claret

Once I played clarinet for a Christmas concert in 7th grade. The kicker is that I had no idea how to play it.  No idea. Nada.  No noise came out of my clarinet (which really is a blessing for all those poor souls at a 7th grade band concert.) Love you, mom and dad!

I taught myself the fingerings so it looked like I knew what I was doing, but in reality...No clue. Yep. Sorry Mr. Gardner, the truth comes out.   I tell you all of this because I picked this wine because that story always makes me laugh. And yes, I realize that Claret is not the same as Clarinet. But the good thing is that this claret was a winner.  Me and the clarinet = not a winner.

Also, do you remember that magical tour of aisle 3 that took me to the secret wine stash where there are red wine blends?  This was one of those bottles.  I think it's my favorite.  And I've figured out what makes a cheap red blend in the category of: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a bingo!" My very scientific research makes me realize that any red blend that has Syrah or Petite Syrah is to be avoided in my book.  This one though, you'll see, doesn't include any type of syrah grape.  And that, my friend, means I will be buying this wine again.

hypothesis. proven.

OK, there was no hypothesis, but I was just on the 7th grade kick and then visions of geometry were dancing in my head.

This wine wasn't the worst, but it wasn't a home run either. I'd say it was a 2.3 star wine.  The best part of this wine was that I took its picture in front of our legal bookcase.

I love that bookcase.

I also like the label.  The picture on the front transports me directly to the St. Francis winery in Sonoma County.  I love it there.  Oddly enough, we've never actually tasted the wine there, we just like the scenery. 

We're simple people.

And sometimes simple people don't talk much.  Like right now.  The end.

destination: Occidental

Do you like Where's Waldo? I do. Maybe it's because my 7th grade band uniform was the same rugby shirt that Waldo wears, or maybe it's because I like the thrill of finally finding that little man with the glasses and red and white striped hat, or maybe it's because sometimes my 2 imaginary friends, Tala and Tutu, didn't play with me and I needed to do something on my own.  By the way, my imaginary friends moved away one day - to Hawaii.  True story. We have yet to go to Hawaii, that too, is on our West Coast bucket list.  I think I'll have to look up Tala and Tutu on that day that I arrive in Hawaii. I wonder what they are up to these days? 

Pardon me, I was side tracked. 

I sure hope Tala and Tutu read my blog. 

Ok, so now you are probably wondering what on earth this has anything to do with Occidental, California.  It doesn't really.  It's just that Occidental is in a part of Sonoma County that you aren't likely to visit when you are in wine country and you have to pay VERY close attention so as to not overlook this small town with glasses and a red and white striped shirt. 

So, last weekend as part of our wedding anniversary extravaganza, we went to Occidental.  (We really live it up, I know!)  Mike had an event, while Barkley and I went for a walk throughout their downtown.  Our walk really just turned into pacing up and down the one block's worth of town, but that's beside the point.  I had my camera in hand and Barkley had plenty of sticks.  We are simple people (you must now be slowly understanding why I had 2 imaginary friends, no?).

I must come clean to you - there were a few more places that were in Occidental's downtown, but I figured if you've seen one fire station/post office - you've seen them all.

The Wines of CSJ

And we're back to regularly scheduled programming, I thank you for humoring me with Barkley's photos.  The reserve room wines at Chateau St. Jean really were splendid, each one tasted better than the one before.  The woman doing the pouring for us also offered a lot of good tidbits.

 

I love a good tidbit. 

 

She said that if a chardonnay smells of butterscotch and something else (unfortunately I couldn't remember the entire tidbit), but if you get whiff and it smells of butterscotch then you know the chardonnay will have a lot of buttery notes.  Some people don't like those buttery notes.  I just plain old don't like white wine but this butterscotch goodness was delicious. 

The reserve wines that were on the tasting docket for this particular day:

Pinot Gris ~ Cold Creek 2008

Chardonnay ~ Sonoma County Reserve 2006

Pinot Noir ~ Sonoma County Reserve 2007

Malbec ~ Sonoma County Reserve 2006

Cabernet Sauvignon ~ Cinq Cepages 2006

Like I said, all the wines were absolutely divine.  The Cinq Cepages won Wine of the Year in 1996 and came in second in 1999.  We decided to buy a bottle of this award winning wine and make our way to the patio to enjoy.  Chateau St. Jean is in the minority to offer food on site - and good food at that.  We took full advantage at the Charcuterie (Charcuterie by another name is Deli, but I think I'll start using Charcuterie from now on. It sounds so exotic.) A few sandwiches, along with a large baguette and cheese and a table on one of their many patios and we were set.  I mean, really, could life get any better than a day at a winery eating cheese and drinking award winning wine? 

I think not.

[our favorite bottle sitting in all its glory... on a utility grate]

If you speak fluent foreign languages as I do (no, I don't, I just Google like you wouldn't believe) you would know that Cinq Cepages means "Five Varieties".  Those five varieties are Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot.  The reason that the five varieties work so well (to me at least) are because the different varieties hit your tongue in different areas and at different times.  The Malbec hits your tongue immediately and then the others fill your mouth and leave a bold, but smooth, after taste. 

I'd tell you which of those varieties provide the tastes in the back of your mouth, but I stopped listening to the tidbits as soon as the Malbec hit my tongue.

Heaven. 

I love the bold taste from start to finish.  Maybe it's the cheapskate in me that makes me feel like I just got my money's worth.  This bottle is afterall $75 worth of deliciousness.

For more information, check out the Chateau St. Jean website. 

Chateau St. Jean

Chateau St. Jean has become one of our favorite wineries when we are in Sonoma County.  We absolutely love it here and if the scenery isn't enough, the wine is excellent too!  Life couldn't be better than a day at the Chateau.  When we arrived we headed straight for the reserve tasting room because let's face it our motto is: Reserve Room - Be there or be square. Ok maybe that's not our motto, but it really should be.  Or a bumper sticker! Ok, and now I've gone too far.

Case in point - I walked past a disgruntled group leaving the main tasting room and I overheard them discussing how bad the experience was, meanwhile I was beaming ear to ear about how great this day was and that each wine was better than the previous. I wanted to run after them and tell them, "Run, don't walk, Do not pass go! and head straight into the reserve room."  But alas, I didn't because I was headed to the deli to get a sandwich.  I have priorities, people!  I have learned my lesson, next time I'll stop, give my two cents and THEN get the sandwich. 

Happy Friday!

What could be better on a rainy Friday night than wine and my grandmother's spools of thread? I have no idea what I'm going to do with the thread...yet.

Let me drink that glass of wine first.

While I try to figure out what to do with the tread, let me tell you about the wine. We are a Kenwood only house right now. We like Kenwood, have I told you that yet? This wine was $7! This has been the second $7 bottle of wine we've had this week...although you don't know that yet, since I haven't told you about that other bottle...stay tuned for another day. (and then act surprised like you had no idea that we had a different bottle of $7 wine.)

[4.2 stars]

$7 wine is really special. Especially when it's good. This $7 wine is called Kenwood Red Table wine is wonderful. The price, the simple label and the delicious taste. It's a fairly light taste, but not too bland that would cause you contemplate why on earth you are drinking it. After several, ok quite a few sips, I figured out what the flavors were in the form of a mathematical equation.

[woodsy + a dash of spice + dollop of berry]e=mc2

I think Mr. Einstein could have used my help.

Anyway, I just pulled up the Kenwood Winery's website to learn more about it. This bottle of wine spends 16 months in French and American oak. That makes for a good wine. The website also taught me that you should pair this with chicken or pasta. It's no wonder why I like this. I live on chicken and pasta! (You see, I like to learn new things. In fact right now, I'm reading Guns, Germs and Steel...pretty much a text book on the origin of human societies. Next I think I may need to read the first Harry Potter book to even things out, or maybe even the Goldenbook's Pokey Little Puppy.)

I do love that pokey little puppy.

Have a wonderful weekend! Stay warm and/or dry.

St. Francis

St. Francis holds a special place in my heart. The man, the actual saint, that is. In fourth grade for Halloween, we had to dress up as a saint. I choose St. Francis and my mom pinned all of my stuff animals on a robe and there I went to my Catholic School's halloween party thinking I was the coolest kid in the world...or so I thought. I know now that my geekiness all stems from those formible years.

Anyways, back to the wine. So over New Year's weekend, we stopped by St. Francis winery to check things out. St. Francis has earned a spot at the top of our favorites because of its mellow atmosphere and beautiful scenery. We didn't try any of the wine that day but the next time we go to Sonoma County, we will be stopping there, both for a tasting and to enjoy the view again. By the way, the shopping in the tasting room is also top notch. See the "Handcrafted in Sonoma Valley" board above? That's just one of many really sweet pieces that originated from old barrels and the like. Gotta love me some recycled goods! It has a place near and dear to my heart.

Chateau St. Jean

We hadn’t planned to stop by Chateau St. Jean. But you know what, sometimes the unplanned, those times where you think you are driving straight ahead and then all of a sudden your husband decides to take a sharp right turn, yep those times make for the most memorable events of the day. I’m not actually sure why we plan any stops in wine country since once we get on the main drag of either Napa or Sonoma, we end up like kids in a candy store, excited to stop at every one on the road. We don’t do wine tastings at each one, mainly because more than anything, we just really love exploring the grounds and enjoying the unique architecture and views each winery has.

Chateau St. Jean was exactly one of those wineries. The grounds completely captivated us. We decided that it would be the most perfect for a special event, a wedding or party, or just a Saturday afternoon. Chateau St. Jean will definitely be on the short list to take visitors when they are in town. The winery has a bocce ball court, private tasting on the patio overlooking the rows and rows of vines and an art exhibit (apparently.) We tried to check out the art exhibit but it wasn’t open at the moment. All in all, the chateau was such a pleasant surprise. It was perhaps our most favorite surprise of the day. (Well that, and we also found a North Face outlet in Berkeley, but that’s neither here nor there.)

P.S. Did you notice my new blog header? Pretty much all of the pictures are brought to you by Chateau St. Jean...(and Picasa). My handiwork with Picasa is still in the early early pre-pre-school stages but boy is it fun!

wine: Simi

[image]

Hello...you may have thought I had fallen off the edge of the earth, but that's not the case. The past week we have enjoyed snow, cold, rain, rain, more rain. We've watched movies by the fire (Frost/Nixon, Gran Tourino, Funny People and Madagascar)...all very good, and yes we tried to encompass all genres. We've also enjoyed nearly finishing our Christmas shopping, wrapping and sending our Christmas gifts to the Pacific Northwest and Midwest. Sunday culminated a relaxing weekend with coffee from Peet's, the Chronicle and some Christmas tunes. A great Sunday morning tradition (except for the fact that the tunes are not ALWAYS Christmas...however I think i could listen to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra for 6 months of the year dreaming of a white Christmas.

We've also enjoyed our fair share of Sapporo beer and Simi Wine. This wine was the last of our Costco buys that we got that hadn't tried before. This was probably the only good one that we picked from our day with the wine steward at Costco. We'll definitely try this one again, it's bold with a lot of blackberry/cherry notes to it. I'm a sucker for those blackberry undertones...I think there should be a section in all wine stores that says, "I'm bold, I have hints of blackberry and I hate vanilla." I'd be in that section every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Anywho, this wine was a keeper. If memory serves me correctly, it was in the $15-$20 range, but really I don't remember. This is when I should keep my receipt from yee old Costco trip, but alas I don't, so I'll just give you the ball park. $15-$20 is the typical range for us at Costco.

remember me?

[ferrari-carano]

[silver oak]

[silver oak]

[ that's me and a banana tree at Kendall Jackson]

[hook & ladder]

So seriously, I will get back into the swing of things on the blog, I promise!

About a month ago we spent the day in Sonoma with some friends that were in town. We had a great time starting out at a very small winery called Hook & Ladder, then off to enjoy the beautiful grounds of Kendall Jackson (sans the wine) although we did have a sweet snack time with chocolate chip cookies and water in the gazebo, and then we were off to Silver Oak (so good!). We made friends with another Minnesotan (yes, we come out of the wood work) at Silver Oak who suggested that we visit Ferrari, so we did and we were very happy that we took them up on their suggestion. It was beautiful. We didn't try any wine because it was 100 degrees and really busy and we needed lunch. But it was really was so beautiful that we were happy that we stopped. They even had a roaming chicken on the grounds, and you know what they say, any winery with a roaming chicken is top notch (or I'm sure someone has said something like that.)