TRAVEL BLOGGING: Our First Time to California Wine Country

TRAVEL

TRAVEL BLOGGING OUR FIRST TIME VISITING CALIFORNIA WINE COUNTRY

My husband and I recently took a trip to San Francisco and California Wine Country, and color me shocked when he was the one who suggested it. I had been itching for a trip away for some time, and I probably would have been happy going anywhere as long as we could just get away, chill out and decompress for a few days. I’m of the belief that you need, yes NEED regular getaways to maintain proper sanity. Who doesn’t need a vacation from their “everyday” every once in a while? So whatever you need to do to try and make regular (downtime) trips a part of your routine, (once a quarter, one weekend a month, one huge trip a year, whatever you can do, STAYcations count too!) I’d highly recommend it.

The painting above is an original oil by artist Takayuki called “Valley Select” it caught our eye while we were in Napa and is available for purchase at Gallery 1870, a cute little art gallery we spotted with a beautiful collection of wine country themed art.

See pics from this part of our trip above.
San Francisco was wonderfully interesting, but I have to say, the Napa/Sonoma leg of our trip was one of the most relaxing and tranquil days we’ve spent anywhere in a long, long time. Napa and Sonoma just felt like everything we needed. The slow pace of the day, the beautiful scenery, the cool, overcast weather and just the exploration of a region that we had long enjoyed the fruits of, this outing was near perfection.Not knowing anything about visiting wineries, I reached out to a couple of my California relatives who gave us awesome tips. For example, Napa? Older but parts of it could tend to be more commercial. Sonoma? A newer region, but more personal and authentic. Fabulous things to know for future visits. And there will be future visits. And even though we weren’t able to visit any of the wineries that my cousins graciously suggested to us (Solvang Winery, thanks Nik! Cakebread Cellars, Peju Winery, Cosentino Winery, Black Coyote, Brown Estate Winery and the Napa Valley Wine Train, thanks Brenda!) please trust that the mental note on these wineries has been made. Another winery trip? I vote YES.Ron and I probably took the easiest to get to wine tour available and we still had a fabulous time. All this tells me is that it’s probably hard not to have a nice time in Napa and Sonoma, whichever wineries you choose, especially if it’s your first time. A general overview of the region was right on time for us. The first winery we visited was Madonna Estate in Napa. They are one of the few remaining family owned wineries as we learned the economy has hit this region much like the rest of the country. Some smaller wineries have been forced to sell to larger corporations like Phillip Morris. As in the cigarette people. Just the thought of a huge cigarette corporation owning wineries seems wrong on so many levels 🙁 At Madonna Estates, we tasted a Riesling, a Cabernet (that one had bell pepper and jalapeno flavors, I won’t soon forget it) a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir and their Muscat Canelli (desert wine). Next up was Sutter Home. They had their Reserve (Rose) White Zinfandel poured when we arrived to taste. They challenged us to try the Reserve White Zin next to their regular White Zin that’s sold in most grocery stores to see the difference. But the real treat was their Retro Red Zinfandel. With it’s deep red color and spicy fruit flavor, we weren’t going to leave there without a couple bottles of Retro Red Zin. It was just deliciously smooth at first taste. We also tasted a Riesling and a Port wine that were both really good.We had lunch in Yountville before our final winery for the day. There were a bunch of eateries in this cute little town, but Ron and I settled on Bottega. I had no idea before we were seated that this was Michael Chiarello’s restaurant from the Food Network, the description of this place alone sold me.“Farm to table rustic Italian cuisine”
umm… YES please! I cannot gush enough about how good the food was at this place, I really can’t.Our final winery of the day was Cline Cellars in Sonoma Valley, and after a day of tasting wine, it was at this winery that the comedy started. Before we even started tasting at Cline, the winery guy who was pouring wanted to know where some of us were from. Ron got the question first and he was more than delighted to tell him that we were from Louisiana, “home of Strawberry wine” LOL. Ron went on to say that “we don’t have wine country, but we have country wine” LOLOL. I would have been embarrassed if it wasn’t so hilarious. But the awesome thing we learned about California wine country in general, was that it’s surprisingly unpretentious and casual which we loved. All in all, this final winery capped off a wonderfully tasty and adventurous day in California wine country. We enjoyed the ride (super comfy) the scenery (the Golden Gate Bridge, grape vineyards, beautiful rolling hills) the weather (beautifully overcast and Autumn crisp, it felt like just the perfect weather for wine tasting) and I cannot wait to do it all over again.