Sonoma Day Trip

Last October Karl and I took an extended weekend vacation to Sonoma County, California. Today we decided it would be a great day to revisit the area and check out a few of the wineries we didn't visit last time. There are hundreds of wineries there, so it's nearly impossible to visit all of them unless you do so over a long period of time. So...this morning we packed a picnic lunch of crackers, salami, cheeses, grapes, cookies, and water into a really nice wine picnic case that we received as a wedding gift. We went to church at Holy Shepherd in Orinda, CA (we've decided we like this church and will most likely continue going there), then took off for our Sonoma day trip. Today started off very cloudy and foggy, but around Noon the sun came out and it was absolutely gorgeous. We visited five wineries today and here's a quick blurb about each one:

1) Martinelli - this was a smaller winery in Windsor, California, in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. It was a great place to start our day, as we were the only visitors there and we had the tasting room staff member all to ourselves. She kept us entertained and the wines were superb. We bought a Zinfandel here.

2) Kendall-Jackson - most people have probably heard of this one, as it is a big wine producer and some of their lower-end wines are sold in the grocery stores nation-wide. Luckily the wine center, located in Fulton, CA, was much less crowded than we anticipated, and the grounds were quite beautiful. Flowers were everywhere and the building looked like a large mansion. Karl and I both enjoyed the Pinot Noir here.

3) Lambert Bridge Winery - this is one that I read about in my Sonoma and Napa book, and it just sounded really unique and interesting. It was indeed! The scenery around the winery consisted of tall trees, vineyards, and flowers. The tasting room had very tall ceilings and dark wooden walls. I would say the wines here were some of the best we tasted all day, and we ended up buying a Merlot even though we usually don't prefer Merlots. We also took advantage of the beautiful picnic grounds at Lambert Bridge and ate our lunch in the sun.

4) Quivira Vineyards - the guy at Lambert Bridge recommended this one to us so we had pretty high expectations. Unfortunately, this winery didn't live up to the expectations and its wines were pretty disappointing. The winery itself is very interesting, with solar panels covering the entire roof and a great design inside the tasting room. It is another "biodynamic" winery, similar to Grgich Hills in Napa, which we visited a few weeks ago.

5) Preston of Dry Creek - we visited Preston on our trip to Sonoma last October, and I was able to talk Karl into going back (last year he thought it was too "granola" for him but I liked it). Much to my delight, he liked it a lot better this time around! Every red wine there was simply wonderful, and I could've bought a bottle of everything they had if the bank account would allow! One unique feature to this winery is that on Sundays only, they sell a "jug" of wine straight from the barrel called "Guadagni Red". The jug is 32 oz. and they sell it for $32. They actually pour it straight from the barrel into the jug right in front of you. The wine itself is mostly Zinfandel, with a blend of a few other grapes. We bought our very first jug today, as you can see in the photo below.
For more pictures from our Sonoma day, just visit my Kodak Gallery!

As much as Karl and I love wine and love visiting wineries, I'm sure we will have more updates on our blogs throughout the year about different wineries...maybe we should be the ones writing a wine book about Napa and Sonoma! ;)