A Few More Wineries

As promised, I will share with you our wine and food tourings from the Napa and Sonoma Valley today. Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day and so we decided to head out to Sonoma. We walked around town and visited a couple of our favorite shops and had lunch at Murphy's Irish Pub. We ate lunch there last September when we were in town and it was really good so had to go back. As we ventured around the square we also found a shop that had all kinds of Fair Trade items so I purchased a few of their hand made wrapping paper from India. The kitchen shop is a lot of fun to walk through also.

For our wine venture we decided to hit up one of our favorites which is Imagery. They have a wonderful art gallery of original pieces that have been featured on their wine labels. All of the art pieces must have the Parthenon located somewhere on it. It is always fun to see if you can find the images in each piece of art. Here is DH in the Gallery, and yes that is a glass of wine he is holding.

Our surprising stop was on the way home but just a couple of miles from Imagery and that was the BR Cohn Winery. It was there, so I had to stop... didn't know anything about it. We were very surprised to find out that Bruce Cohn, the Manager of the Doobie Brothers Band is the owner. Who knew? There are so many famous people spread out all over the valley here that you just never know who you will run into. The wine was pretty good but the find of the day was their small olive oil and vinegar tasting room next door. They had the best 25 year old Balsamic vinegar... wow is all I can say.

Photo courtesy of http://brcohn.com

As you can tell some of the photos are not very good and I'm sure you guessed it that I am still using my phone camera. DH has the Nikon and hasn't downloaded all the photos yet for me to swipe a few and post out here.

The weather today was a bit iffy but we had a tasting and tour planned with Jarvis Winery. It was recommended to us as they have a nifty wine cave with mineral specimens. This tour is not for the budget conscious as it does cost a pretty penny. It is worth it but you know the saying, if you have to ask then you can't afford it.

Photo courtesy of http://www.jarviswines.com

All their production of wine is done in the caves. The above photo is just a small portion of the cave and barrels they have stored there.

Here we are next to a natural spring that flows through the cave.

It was a wonderful tour and the wines were out of this world. So smooth and drinkable. If you ever have the chance to taste these wines, do so, it will be worth it.

After that lovely experience it was time for lunch. I had already decided that I wanted to go back into Yountville to pick up another bottle of port so we decided to have lunch at Bottega. Bottega is owned by the famous Food Network Chef Michael Chiarello. Yes, I am throwing names around now but I did actually get to see him. He was in the restaurant visiting with some of the diners in his cute little chef's apron.  I'm pretty sure he wasn't cooking but the food was pretty darn good. We split the Caramelized Brussels Sprout Salad and DH had the Halibut over risotto as his entree and I had the Butternut Squash pasta something. All I know is that it was very good. Here is a picture of it.

As you can see, I had already started eating when I decided to take this photo. Oh so yummy. We didn't have a reservation but since it was before noon we were able to get a table. I do recommend making a reservation if you plan to visit just to be on the safe side.

Next stop was to taste a little more wine at Hope and Grace winery. I just love their Chardonnay and can't help myself from buying a bottle whenever we are in town. Since we just happened to be near we stopped to get some dessert for tonight from Bouchon bakery. I'm still trying to hold myself back from digging into that Chocolate Eclair.

Well tomorrow is another day and one to look forward to. I'm not entirely sure what exciting things we will find but I'll be sure to let you know.