Wine Weekend

California wine country has been a weekend we've look forward to for awhile. It was scheduled before we'd created the master plan of quitting our jobs to travel- with or without the road trip, it was a weekend to meet up with friends in great surroundings.

Early Friday morning we picked up Jen & Spencer (Dion’s friend from high school & his wife) from the Oakland airport and started the casual drive to Healdsburg, an increasingly popular wine town slightly north of Sonoma. Driving through Sonoma can encourage sidetracking so we selected country roads vs the highway, stopping at few wineries and enjoying the blue sky day with sun roof open & music playing.

Later that evening, we settled into our house overlooking the Russian river, kayaked the river and then grilled salmon & steak as Steve, Kellie, Jodi, Brad & Marissa (friends from college/highschool) arrived from San Francisco, Seattle & LA. Saturday our car arrived before noon for a full day of wine tasting. The consensus favorite was Dutcher Crossing, which was the most homegrown of the wineries visited- only 2 years old. We were given a private tasting outside, back dropped by Cabernet vineyards. While none of us had known of Dutcher Crossing before that day (only 400 cases of each vintage are made), we agreed their Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel were outstanding... and made great accompaniments to our picnic lunch at the vineyard.

That night, instead of a restaurant in town, we opted for more time on the kayaks & our deck overlooking the river. We cooked up pasta, passed around a few more bottles of wine, wishing Sunday could just be another day shared in wine country.

Tasting at Landmark Winery, first day in Sonoma

Jodi, Spencer & Jen, Kayaking outside our place along the Russian River.

Dinner on the deck

Saturdays Ride.
The first saturday winery stop: D, C, Spencer, Jen, Steve, Kelly, Marissa & Brad

Our tasting at Dutcher Crossing

Dutcher Crossing Lunch- w/ Spencer, Steve, Jodi, and our driver- Rodney.