Wine Country, Part 2

Let's see...where did I leave off?

After breakfast,

We had help planning our day by Steve, owner of the Honor Mansion. He did an excellent job of recommending great wineries, since there are over 200 in the Healdsburg area alone. We started with an outstanding tasting tour of a vineyard/winery that covered the agriculture, the chemistry, as well as the art of winemaking. We learned so much during this tour since our guide was so passionate and knowledgeable. We didn't anticipate that this trip would be so agriculturally oriented, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The growers are held in high regard there. An aside: many wines are actually named after the grower, for example, if you see a "2008 Stuhlmulller Chardonnay", the "Stuhlmuller" is actually the name of the grape farmer.

The next couple of days we visited many different wineries for different reasons, such as their beautiful gardens, their caves, their great Pinots, or if they just had a neat story. Each day we borrowed a picnic basket and quilt from the bed and breakfast and went down to the local bakery for picnic provisions:

Beautiful scenery on an absolutely perfect California day. The company I kept wasn't bad, either. Too bad I ruined the romance by cutting my finger while slicing the baguette bread.

(Just keepin' it real.)

Here's a snapshot of one of the most beautiful wineries that had amazingly manicured gardens:

I took many pictures of the place, but pictures don't do it justice.

Here's a picture in the basement at Ferrari Carano where they keep the wine:

Not a bad storage / aging facility, eh? The story goes that the husband bought that winery as a birthday gift for his wife. {Forget about it, gentlemen, the idea has been taken.}

Photos from another beautiful winery:

We had so much great wine. And food. And wine. Are we seeing a trend?

We meandered through the Napa Valley on our way back to San Francisco and took in some more sights and a few more wineries. We had mainly done small boutique wineries (the best wine) but Mark wanted to visit a large winery so we went to Beringer and did the tour there too.

The Beringer Estate

Beringer Fountain

We were so glad we planned the majority of our vacation in Sonoma County, since Napa, although equally as charming, was much busier and much more expensive- touristy, if you will. That's great if you are in to a little more shopping and maybe some night life, but we were looking for more of a relaxing vacation and relax we did.

Happy Anniversary Baby, I'll cherish our memories of wine country.