No biting the personnel

Months ago, S signed up for the Vineman race, a half-ironman distance triathlon in the Sonoma valley north of San Francisco. Throughout spring, she trained hard only to injure herself 2 weeks ago. While the race was out of the question, we still had the airline tickets as well as the car and the hotel reservations.

So it was that on Sunday morning I was enjoying a flight of wines from St. Francis Winery while sharing with S a pairing of salami, pate and cheese. From our table we gazed first at a magnificent garden then at the vineyards and the Sonoma landscape.

Without a doubt, this turned out to be one of the more enjoyable long-weekend excursions we have done in a while. In all, we visited eleven wineries over a few days. In order: Korbel, Opus One, Peju Province, Beaulieu, Alpha & Omega, V. Sattui, St-Francis, Benziger, Domaine Carneros, Beringer, and Robert Mondavi. In years past, I have visited the Lake Chelan, Wenatchee, Yakima and Okanagan wine regions. None compares to Napa and Sonoma.

These two valleys take wine tasting from a vacation for your nose to a full-blown adventure. Remember that S does not drink. Alcohol smells awful to her. Even then, as the chauffeur, she had a blast this time. Here?s why: many of these wineries (check out these pictures of Opus One and Beringer) have gorgeous mind blowing architecture; Benziger?s tour of the winery was fun, instructive and cheap; there?s good food (e.g. Zazu and Cindy?s Backstreet Kitchen) in both valleys; the Culinary Institute of America’s West Coast campus is in St-Helena; etc.

Mostly, we had four long days of sun in a gorgeous setting.

A few things stand out:

1. My nose cannot appreciate wine of more than $45. Anything beyond that is wasted on me, at least for now.
2. The most I paid was $25 for a glass of a recent vintage of Opus One. At $160 a bottle, this is not a wine I?m about to taste again anytime soon, unlike others. I did not buy a bottle. Tastings on average were $5 to $10. Robert Mondavi had a reserve flight for $30, which we skipped.
3. The average pour is 2 fl. oz. Some wineries poured as little as 1 fl. oz. while a few poured 4 fl. oz.
4. 2 fl. oz. isn?t enough when paired with anything.
5. Our least enjoyable visit was Alpha & Omega. Being next to famous names does not mean you can charge $45 or more for a wine that does not taste any better than the average $20 bottle.
6. While the staff in a restaurant might encourage you to take highway 12 to get from Rohnert Park to St-Helena, the fastest way is this.
7. Lunch on Friday was at an In-n-Out burger joint. Now we understand why ex-Californian coworkers are fascinated by these fast food spots. Best fast food we had in a long time. Fries tasted of potatoes; can you believe that?
8. No, we did not go to The French Laundry or to Bouchon.
9. S cheated on her employer and deprived a youth of a chance to read. She bought the latest Harry Potter at Borders in Santa Rosa on Saturday morning. She got one of the few non-reserved copies.

While we did see the fog swallow the west coast at Bodega Bay, we did not see the Petrified Forest or the geyser. These are among the many reasons why we will no doubt return next time we want to get out of town.

P.S.: Thank you to Wendy for cat sitting Truffles and Kucci.

P.S. #2: We have finished the book: long live JK Rowling!

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