Tasting Wine with Friends

 

Our good friends Bim and Patti suggested we accompany them to an open house of a winery up in Cloverdale, the most northern town in our county. Since we weren't familiar with this winery, we happily agreed to go with them. I always enjoy wine tasting with Bim - being a wine maker himself, he is very knowledgeable about wine and the wine making process. 

He was very clear about why he went to the open house.

But then we were here for the food as well - they had cheese and charcuterie boards and a food truck served the most delicious pizza I ever ate outside of Italy.

Everything was beautifully decorated.

Our guys...

... and las chicas.

There were two tasting tables, one with their white wines and the other with the red ones.

An interesting board with all the different clamps and connecting pieces for the fermenting steel tanks you can see behind Bim.

It was such a lovely day, warm and sunny. The wine wasn't too bad either...

I loved the deep color of this Syrah.

Sometimes the Geek is the only guy in a group (we call that "Hahn im Korb", rooster in the basket). He sure enjoys that.

Is there anything better than having a wonderful time with really good friends?

Of course I couldn't leave AI (Gemini) alone... all of these faces are for Nicole's Friday Face Off. Cheers!

Wine Tasting in the Vineyard

 

A couple weekends ago our friends M and J took us out for a wine tasting at a lovely winery where they are members. We got a table right at the vineyard under a huge tree and thankfully there was a sunshade as well which came in handy when it started to sprinkle during the afternoon. The sky constantly changed from blue to grey and back. But it was warm and we enjoyed being out in this lovely setting, despite the occasional shower.

The view to the other side was just as lovely with a majestic willow, vineyards and the gently rolling forested hills.

M had prepared some charcuterie, cheeses, spreads and bread for us to share. It was perfect.

Of course there was wine! It's been more than 20 years since we had visited the winery the last time - during our early days in Sonoma County - and we were quite happy to see that the winery hasn't changed very much. Unlike many other wineries in the area it doesn't have all the fancy-shmancy that seems to be so popular with wine tourists. Instead, it offered excellent wines.

These wine glasses, bottle and mason jars for the water is my ticket for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday.

Fall was definitely arriving in the vineyard - the leaves started to turn. This is one of the Pinot Noir vineyards where the leaves eventually will turn to a stunning red.

We spent several hours at the winery, tasting, eating, talking, laughing. I always treasure time spent with good friends and if you get home with a case of delicious wine - even better!

T Stands for Wine Country

 

If you think I have lost the ability to spell correctly because there's no way "wine" starts with t, let me assure you that I do know that. However, I have decided to play along with the Altered Book Lover's "T" posts. T stands for Tuesday and refers to posts on Tuesdays that are somehow related to a drink. Since I live in wine country, I thought I start with wine.

We grow a lot of wine in Sonoma County and I do have to say that it is pretty good wine. You can find many vineyards in almost every corner of the county except near the ocean. Sometimes we just take a drive through the vineyards - they look pretty no matter which season we have.

And of course the grapes are lovely as well. This year, though, there are fears that because of water restrictions caused by our severe drought not all of the grapes will make it. It seems over the past few years every year brings its challenges to the winemakers, be it fire, smoke (last year a lot of the grapes were smoke damaged) or drought. It is a hard business.

Every weekend you could visit a different winery for some wine tasting if you feel like doing that. We love to do that when out of town friends or family come to visit, like some of our family members from Turkey a few years ago.

The Geek and I sometimes do some wine tasting and love it when food pairing is involved. However, due to the pandemic we haven't done any wine tasting in a long time.

So we just drink our wine at home.

Cheers!

Where the Wine Grapes Grow

Just like in 2017 I have a difficult time finding my "normalcy" again after our latest emergency. I struggled with that back then and I do it again right now. I've finally unpacked all the evacuation items, realizing that I packed less than last time. For example, I could leave behind all the scrapbooks because I had scanned them since the 2017 wildfire. Obviously I learned a lesson or two.

Anyway, I decided to get back to blogging, hoping to ease back into my "normal" life. I was thinking of the Alexander Valley north of town which was at the center of the Kincade Fire, our latest big wildfire. It is a beautiful valley with the Russian River lazily meandering through it. Vineyards stretch out to the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains with majestic lone trees, mainly old oaks, standing either at the edge of the vineyards or right in the middle of them. Back roads pass the many wineries and restaurants that serve farm-to-table food.

The Wappo who with the Pomo used to live in the Alexander Valley prior to Spanish colonization call the valley "Unutsawaholmanoma"  which translates to "Toyon Bush Berry Place". Viticulture started back in 1843 when Cyrus Alexander began to establish vineyards in the area with vine cuttings collected from Fort Ross. The valley has become a renowned wine growing area, and AVA (American Viticulture Area) status was established in 1984.

The wine grown and produced here is truly delicious. The Cabernet-Sauvignons are top notch, but my personal favorite is the Zinfandel - for me it is THE California grape. It is a rich wine with a dark red color and flavors that explode on your tongue - I can't believe I'm writing this at 8:30 in the morning! I sure look forward to my glass of Zin tonight (probably from an Alexander Valley vineyard).

Despite the wineries that bring quite some tourism and therefore traffic to the area on a weekend, the valley has retained its sleepy agricultural character. It's a pleasure to trundle along Highway 128, a quiet back road, with a stop at Jimtown (a deli and a church) to grab a sandwich. The Mayacamas Mountains can be seen from anywhere in the valley with the peak of Mount St. Helena towering over them.

Today, Alexander Valley is the largest and most fully planted wine region in Sonoma County. It is also one of the warmest areas in Northern California during the day, but at night experiences a wide diurnal temperature variation (the variation between a high temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day) that offers cool climate conditions. This enables the Alexander Valley to grow a wide range of grape varieties. No wonder you can find so many wineries here.