A Journal, with Pictures

On the first of Octo­ber we flew to Sono­ma, Cal­i­for­nia. It was a great day to fly, with chang­ing scenery from the high desert of Ore­gon, past the moun­tains of north­ern Cal­i­for­nia, includ­ing Mount Shas­ta, to the val­leys of Cal­i­for­nia. We were met at the air­port by Gor­don Faulkn­er and Fred Daley, friends from Hilton Head, who had flown west the day before. We joined Mar­i­lyn and Tim­mie at the Les Mars hotel in Healds­burg, which turned out to be a gem of a hotel. We start­ed with a sea food lunch at Willies, then head­ed for the Copain Win­ery for a pri­vate tast­ing, then din­ner at Bistro Ralph.

On Sat­ur­day we drove to the Napa Val­ley and did the Sig­na­ture Tour at Robert Mon­davi, which is a large pro­duc­er of pre­mi­um Cabs. We then had lunch at one of our favorite spots, Tra Vigne, then toured St. Hele­na, and fin­ished the cir­cle up to the Alexan­der Val­ley then back to the Sono­ma Val­ley. Din­ner at Sco­pas in Healds­burg fin­ished a very pleas­ant day.

Sun­day we toured and had pri­vate tast­ings at the Lit­torai and Dunah Vine­yards. These are small win­ery’s and we talked to the own­ers and in the case of Dunah tast­ed wine in their din­ing room. A great learn­ing and tast­ing expe­ri­ence. We had a great brunch at the Mosa­ic restau­rant in Forestville. That evening we had an excel­lent din­ner at the Dry Creek Kitchen. We left the wine coun­try know­ing more and with cas­es of wine for our cel­lars. Tomor­row on to Mon­terey and Carmel.