Wine Country

Our best vacation ever.  Recently we took a long weekend trip to California with some friends and explored wine country. All I can say is WOW!  What a trip.  This is one of those trips that I want to do every single year.

I'm not a wine connoisseur but I do enjoy a glass of wine.  I prefer red wine but really couldn't begin to tell you all the subtle nuances between a syrah or a malbec.  So I was really looking forward to this weekend to not only learn a couple of things, but also enjoy some wine with friends.

In Iowa we have a little saying "Is this Heaven, No it's Iowa."  I gotta tell you, I think Heaven  is Sonoma Valley.  I like a good corn field like the next guy, but that area of California is amazing.  Beautiful Redwood trees, the ocean, Mountains, great views. I want to live there. I really want to live there. 

So here's something interesting.  There are three different types of grapes on this plate.  I believe the Cabernet grapes are on the left and they are much larger than the Pinot Grapes in the middle and I think it was a Chardonnay grape on the right.  On average it takes 1,000 Pinot grapes to make a bottle of wine!  Each vine will make on average 2-3 bottles annually!

We thought this was some type of spice like cinnamon.  Instead we found out this is different types of soil in the area.  What a difference the soil makes when growing grapes!

We thought it would be fun to go to a bottle release at a winery.  After going, I would guess this happens all the time.  SIMI is one of the oldest wineries in the area and did a wine tasting with a food pairing.  It's nice to know you can go across the country and find someone wearing the same shirt as you!

Our group enjoying the wine and company!

So I won't bore you with a lot pictures from the first day of sampling wine at various wineries.  Instead, I'll share some pics from our adventurous 2nd day.  Our base of operations was about 15 min SW of Healdsburg, CA.  This puts you about 5 minutes from a Redwood Forest and 30 minutes from the Pacific Ocean.  In a matter of an hour or so, you can be in the mountains, in a forest, and then walking on a beach.  

Driving to the Redwoods I snapped a picture of a vineyard.  This one is owned by Korbel.  Her'es an interesting fact, Champagne is Grapes with bubbles added.  Way to go Korbel, take something really good, add bubbles, and now I only want to drink your champagne on New Years Eve after lots of other drinks!  The Korbel winery was cool, and they offer free sampling!

In just a mile or two we were surrounded by Redwoods

Next thing we were out of the forest and close to the ocean.  We wanted to stop and stick our feet in the Pacific.  It would only make sense that we find the deadliest beach in all the area.  I guess that explains why no one was there!

After the scenic drive we went back to some wine tasting.  Here's a picture of one of the oldest buildings in the area.  This is the Hop Kiln Winery. What a neat building.

At the end of the day we ended up at VML winery and they had a great garden with fresh fruit.  I had never seen Almonds fresh on a tree or figs, or even a lime tree for that matter.  We have a baby lime tree at home, which the store told us would grow limes so we could have a fresh lime with our Corona's, but it has yet to bear fruit. 

Fresh figs right off the tree!

Almonds!

They were somewhat soft off the tree, not hard like I was expecting.

Grapes!  

The  view from VML winery.  This was our last stop and we loved the wine!

Sooo, did we have a good time?  YES  

Are we going back  YES.  

Should you go.  YES