Saturday, August 8

Today we met Ed and Kelly at Gloria Ferrer just south of Sonoma. Ah, such a pleasant morning to enjoy a full pour of bubbly on the grounds under an umbrella with some toasted almonds. I didn't find the bubbly too exciting, but it was refreshing.

Nuvi sent us on a journey through some horse ranch land before finally dumping us in front of Gundlach Bundschu. We had a full gamut of tastes there, me finding the gewutrztraminier tasty and Kelly finding the tempranillo nice.

We fought through Sonoma and Agua Calliente (hot water?) finally reaching BH Cohn. The tastes were fair but the grounds and little store were nice enough for lunch. We split some olive spread, salami, Dubliner cheese, and loafage.

Valley of the Moon makes one of our wedding wines, pinot blanc, and were conveniently located next to Cohn. Let's just say that the pinot blanc is their best offering. I sure like their grounds though.

Having quite enough of Sonoma, we trekked back across the Oakville Grade to the NapaValley and most importantly, Rutherford. Kelly wanted to try Plump Jack so we proceeded through a one-laned orchard road until we found their packed tasting room.

After tasting, we all agreed that you can avoid Plump Jack when visiting Rutherford.

Back to Alpha Omega to purchase another bottle of that oh so tasty sauvignon blanc. Many visitors today so we just bought the bottle and scooted along.

By now it was time to think about heading to dinner in Sonoma. On tap tonight was The Girl and the Fig. On the way we thought it would be best to ship the second wine crate out from Sonoma. Guess what, the shippers close at 4PM on Saturday in Sonoma. Keep this in mind (more on this to follow).

We were early but the restaurant accommodated us anyway. Dinner was nice with Ed and I having fish, Kelly had mussels, Christina had lamb. We figured that between us, we had four courses of lamb on this trip!

Now it was time to head back to San Francisco and check into the Westin. One might think that the traffic early on Saturday evening would be fairly light in the Bay Area. One would be wrong. I chose to drive over the Bay Bridge. This would be my undoing. Ed took the smart option and drove the Golden Gate. He beat me to the Westin by an hour.

No matter, the Westin didn't have our room reservation. We are not sure how it was lost and we didn't feel like getting mad over it. Ed and Kelly let us flop in their living room until our flight. Many thanks to Ed and Kelly for that!

Now for the wine crate. Ed was nice enough to take care of shipping the crate back to KY. At time of this publication, he has not been able to find anyone who will handle it. Since this particular crate contains the prized Elizabeth Spencer 2004, the Pina Cab 2005, the Peju, the two Alpha Omegas, and others, I am hoping that he finds a way.

All in all, a great trip! I will post my vineyard recommendations and tasting notes soon.