Happy Birthday to me!\u00a0 The day started off right with the high-end coffee that our hotel provides.\u00a0 The family then got in the van to begin our full day of eating and wine tasting in Sonoma.<\/p>\n
We began at a marketplace\/winery called Viansa.\u00a0 Frankly, the exterior grounds were more interesting than the marketplace.\u00a0 It was too early to drink, and this place, as a winery, was not in the top 15.\u00a0 We left quickly.\u00a0 Because my wife didn\u2019t have enough olive oil yesterday at the Oxbow, she requested that we go to Jacuzzi Winery, which also has the Olive Press.\u00a0 The kids liked the architecture and the grounds.\u00a0 Barbara bought olive oil.\u00a0 Next stop was to Ferrer Vineyards, where there was supposed to be a decent champagne wine tour.\u00a0 We took the tour, which turned out to not be all that great.\u00a0 Still, the kids mostly enjoyed it.\u00a0 I enjoyed the champagnes, but I really, really liked the now discontinued 2009 Merlot.\u00a0 I bought one of the last 100 bottles.\u00a0 By this time, it was time for our lunch reservation, so we headed into town and went to La Salette, a Portuguese restaurant.\u00a0 The food was good, but not quite in the fantastic category.\u00a0 Still, under $100, which was good for lunch.\u00a0 After that, we headed back to the wine trail.\u00a0 I had heard that Gundlach-Bundschu Winery had some fantastic views, so we went there.\u00a0 We were not disappointed.\u00a0 It is a pretty place.\u00a0 The kids went hiking around the pond.\u00a0 I tried wines and fell in love with a Spanish variety wine called Tempranilla.\u00a0 It\u2019s rare here, but apparently common in Spain.\u00a0 I bought a bottle.\u00a0 The next winery was also supposed to be pretty.\u00a0 With a name like Buena Vista Winery, I sort of expected a view.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t one, but it was indeed a pretty place.\u00a0 I was served by a Czech wine steward and I was in a section alone with a German family from Frankfurt.\u00a0 We had a great (wine induced) conversation.\u00a0 It was very enjoyable \u2013 more so than the wine in this place.\u00a0 Ravenswood also did not produce much memorable wine.\u00a0 The kids wanted to get downtown so we stopped going to wineries and started hitting stores.\u00a0 First stop was the Vella Cheese Company, a favorite of Barb\u2019s and mine.\u00a0 We bought a lot of cheese.\u00a0 After that, we toured shops until our feet got sore, then rested in the central park for about an hour.\u00a0 Our dinner reservation was still an hour away, but we were hungry so we decided to ask if we could arrive early.\u00a0 We sure could, so we ate out back at \u201cThe Girl and The Fig,\u201d our favorite restaurant the last time we were here.\u00a0 Being that it was French food, you could expect it to be a bit expensive, and it was.\u00a0 Even with no wine, the bill came to $200, but it was a pretty great meal.\u00a0 The cr\u00e8me brulee for dessert was divine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Happy Birthday to me!\u00a0 The day started off right with the high-end coffee that our hotel provides.\u00a0 The family then got in the van to begin our full day of eating and wine tasting in Sonoma. We began at a … Continue reading