Another Trip to Wine Country :)

The day after Allison & Trey's wedding, I had to travel to San Francisco for work. Tim flew out on Tuesday to join me and we ended the week with an extended stay in northern wine country. When we went in March we went to Napa & Sonoma Valley, this trip we went to Russian River, Alexander and Dry Creek Valley, which are known for chardonnay, pinot noir and zinfandel. It was HEAVENLY! We started the trip on Wednesday by seeing Dave Matthews in concert. On Thursday we went to Chateau St. Jean, where we are wine club members. We had a reserve tasting that lasted 2 1/2 hours on their porch. We absolutely love Chateau St. Jean, it is a BEAUTIFUL winery and they make some fantastic wines. Then we did a food and wine pairing at Kendall Jackson, we almost didn't go there because we really don't like going to the commercial wineries. KJ was anything but, I was so glad we went and did the pairing. They had some amazing food (the dessert popcorn is to die for!), with ingredients fresh from their garden, and the wine we tasted was not the kind they carry at home. After that we finished up at Rodney Strong, which is one of Kim & Larry's favorites.

On Thursday we started the day in northern Russian River Valley at Clos du Bois. If you know Tim & I at all, you know that we love Clos du Bois chardonnay. I am pretty sure that with the amount of wine we consume we definitely employ someone at their winery annually. On Thursday we had a chance to meet that someone, his name was George :) We did the barrel tasting and tour - nothing like starting to drink wine at 10AM! That is exactly what we did for the next 3 days - wine tasting and more wine tasting. We went to nearly 18 wineries in 4 days. It was an amazing time!

The pictures are a little backwards, so start from the bottom up if you want to go in order :)


Downtown Healdsburg - we absolutely fell in love with this town!

Gary Farrell = Amazing pinot noir!!

At Sterling Vineyards in Calistoga (Napa). This winery was very over-rated!

But it was fun because you ride this small tram to the top of the mountain to the winery. Hence why its an over-rated tourist trap with beautiful views :)

The vines were much more lush this trip!

Beautiful view at Ferrari Carnero

I think we'll go RIGHT!

At Clos Du Bois

Barrell tasting at Clos

Wine Barrells at Rodney Strong

Kendall Jackson

Enjoying our extensive wine tasting at Chateau St. Jean

The beautiful picnic grounds at Chateau St. Jean

Ready for the Dave Matthews Band concert! :)

It was a bit foggy this time, but still an awesome view

The painted ladies