Vineyards & Cousins

We went to wine country in California the weekend of October 16th to check out this year’s crush and catch up with some cousins.  It has taken me forever to blog about this trip due to some technical difficulties.  Unfortunately as a result I was not able to create a movie mix or do any editing of our videos from the trip, so each had to be uploaded individually to YouTube.  Do not fear, while there are many clips, I did not upload every one.  If you can bear with me, I think it tells a nice story.

We arrived in San Francisco very late the evening of Thursday, 10/16.   Caleb fell asleep a few hours into our flight so we transported a sleeping baby as we navigated poor signage, incorrect directions, a sub-par car rental navigation system, and exhaustion trying to find our hotel.  Our plan was to spend the first night in a hotel right near the airport and then, thanks to jet lag, be up very early on Friday to drive the rest of the way to Sonoma.  Given the amount of time it took us to find the hotel, we could have easily driven up to wine country that night.  Next time we’ll get it right!

What did go according to plan was the 4AM wake-up.  I had packed some breakfast foods so we had a semi-breakfast in the hotel room, went for a swim, showered and packed and then still found ourselves waiting around for the club breakfast on our floor to open at 6:30AM! 

We had an uneventful trip to Sonoma.  Caleb took his “afternoon nap” at 9:30AM- falling asleep right when we pulled into the driveway of the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn.  Not the end of the world since Dave had some work to do.  So Caleb was moved into his stroller and wheeled into the lobby of the hotel where Dave sat next to him taking care of business.   Our room wasn’t going to be ready for awhile, so I took the opportunity to tour around Sonoma a bit– getting my bearings, locating the UPS shipping store and buying some grocery items for the room.  The weather was fantastic- mid 80s, bright sunny skies. 

Finally around 11AM we set off for the vineyards!  Sonoma has a lot of mass produced, inexpensive wines such as Benzinger,  Chateau St. Jean,  Ravenswood, and Sebastiani.  Our goal was to find vineyards that didn’t distribute.   We drove north and figured we’d work our way south back to the hotel.   Check out this map- Ledson, our first visit is at the top on Rt. 12.  We then headed south stopping at Kunde and Gundlach Bundschu (right beneath the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau on The Plaza listing).  On Saturday we started at BR Cohn (left side of the map), went north to Benzinger and then on our way back to San Fran stopped at Cline Cellars (farthest south).   Our hotel is the #2.

Anyway, back to Friday morning at 11AM.  Here’s a video of us pulling into Ledson:

We had a great time at the tasting.  The zinfandels were very good- the Amy’s Vineyard in particular.  The owner planted a crop for his fiance, so this zin was a little sweeter than most with a hint of strawberry.  I didn’t think I would like it, but I did.  I bought a bottle for us as well as for a certain fiance I know.   Caleb played with a train in the tasting room and loved munching on breadsticks.  After the tasting we bought some cheese, salami, pasta and fruit and sat outside on picnic benches under some beautiful trees.  The only disturbance was the fact that the vineyard was in the process of ripping out perfectly healthy vines!  Apparently the owner had just found a higher quality varietal he preferred, so out with the old and in with the new.  Talking with a local, she explained that it took 3 years for the current crop to fill in and start producing.  People in the area were very sad to see them all ripped out.  Seems a little drastic.  I tried to find out if the vines had been sold to another vineyard, but no one knew.  Here’s the video of the destruction:

After Ledson, we made our way to Kunde Estate.  A few things to note about this vineyard…

1.  Kunde means “customer” in German.

2.  An estate vineyard means everything is done of the premises- growing, fermenting, bottling.  Kunde was very proud of this.  Some vineyards have only estate wines- where certain bottles are developed from beginning to end at the vineyard exclusively, but all of Kunde’s product is classified as estate.

3.  They are one of the first “green” vineyards and proudly practice sustainable winegrowing.

While we weren’t too crazy about any of the wines, we did buy one bottle in support of their green initiative.  The grounds were very pleasant and we did a tour of the cave which Caleb loved.  I really think vineyards are a great trip for toddlers.  There’s very little they can get into, but enough to keep them entertained and the parents have a pleasant activity in which to engage.   I didn’t get any video of the tour, but here’s some footage of us driving up:

The final vineyard of the day was our favorite–  Gundlach Bundshcu.  Their motto was “If you can’t say Gundlach Bundschu Gewurztraminer, you shouldn’t be driving”.  Ha ha!  We bought a whole case and are considering joining their wine club.  Caleb spent the time there policing their doors.  He had to open and close for everyone who walked in & out, and it was busy!  I didn’t get any video of that, but here we are driving up so you can get a sense of the grounds:

On Friday night we went to a great restaurant called El Dorado Kitchen right in the “downtown” area of Sonoma.   The restaurant was part of a very cool hotel, and if we ever visit Sonoma again, I think that’s where we’ll stay.  Much easier to be in walking distance of shops and restaurants.  Especially since Caleb wasn’t allowed in the spa area of the Fairmont Mission Inn, so a top perk like the pool was off-limits!  Anyway, dinner was delicious.  We forget how much better food tastes in CA- the fruits & vegetables were amazing.  We sat outside and outside of having to dodge some plants’ pods popping (literally they were small marble pellets that would explode out of a peapod like shell and bounce all over- sounded like gunfire!), we had a very relaxing meal.  Caleb was in a fantastic mood.  We allow two things on vacation that he doesn’t get at home– some TV watching in the hotel (typically used to keep him busy in a non-kid-friendly environment while we get ready or pack) and ordering dessert.   Here’s a fun clip of him enjoying what’s left of his Smore:

And then when the sugar kicks in:

On Saturday we were up early again, around 5AM.  We were the first people to breakfast at 7AM, and then headed out to the vineyards to be the first in line when the doors opened at 10AM.  We decided to check out  BR Cohn first.  They make olive oil in addition to wine so for some reason that seemed a bit more palatable at 10AM.  Although it was really 1PM for us, we had no problem doing a little tasting.

Some fun facts about BR Cohn:

1.  The owner is the Doobie Brothers band manager and has been for something like 40+ years!  There was all kind of cool memorabilia everywhere.  And a number of the wines had names related to the band.

2.  Moose is their dog… a lab/bull dog mix.  He’s hilarious looking.  We didn’t see him in person, but there’s a book about all the dogs who live at the various wineries in CA so we saw the picture.   Here’s a not-so-great picture of him with his owner:

One of the reds was named after Moose.  Here’s the description that I found very entertaining:

Bruce Cohn dedicated this wine to his family pet dog, “Moose” — dark colored, short legged and full-bodied. Moose’s mission in life is to eat well, be loved, get petted and sleep a lot. Like Moose, this wine has the potential of becoming your best friend. I hope you enjoy this wine as much as my family and I do.

A portion of the profits from this wine are donated to our local animal shelter.

Of course, we bought a bottle.

Here’s a shot of our approach to BR Cohn.  The olive trees were beautiful:

After BR Cohn we broke our rule and went to Benzinger.   For two reasons really- 1. the tram ride that we knew Caleb would love (or sleep through) and 2. they were still in the midst of harvesting.  While we were in Sonoma at supposedly the height of crush, every vineyard we visited was already done.    Here’s a shot of them crusing the grapes:

And another shot of the grounds during our tour:

Surprisingly Benzinger had the coolest history and the best wines we tasted on our whole trip.  The reserves in particular.  We bought a couple of bottles that you can’t find outside of the vineyard.   In addition, they were smart to turn their used barrels into household items.  We bought a very cool lazy Susan for our dining room table that is the end of a barrel.

Our last stop on the way back to San Fran was Cline Cellars.  Unfortunately this was kind of ruined for us because our stop coincided with a tour bus, so we didn’t actually get to taste anything.  Instead we had lunch and Caleb played outside and watched the fish:

I’ll start a different post for the San Francisco (and cousins!) part of our trip.  Stay tuned.