Day 6

Wednesday morning at the Jabberwock Inn was a good start as the innkeepers served up stuffed waffles and fresh fruit. Monterey Bay is foggy in the morning and a bit chilly but we soon left that and traded it for the hustling traffic on the 101. Bay Area traffic moved nicely and Nuvi was able to get us through Oakland and the east bay fairly easily. We soon crossed the bay and entered Marin County and onward to Sonoma.

We arrived in Healsburg and found Simi right on the main drag. I

noted that Simi has really well manicured grounds and classy buildings. This was to be the case for all of those vineyards visited

in Healdsburg.

Simi has several good options for wine, but the best by far was the "Landslide" Cabernet Sauvignon. This had a blend of cab along with merlot, petit verdot, melbec, cabernet franc

, and tannat. Tannat being new to me, the shopkeep explained that this varietal is a French grape from the region southeast of Bordeaux. It adds color and tannin to the mix. Landslide is a big winner and we obtained ours at the "wine club" price having chatted the nice lady at the sales counter. 94 Wine Spectator! Good deal.

Ridge was next and thus started our tour of Dry Creek. The shopkeep was very informative and when I asked about varietals and plantings, she took me out into the vineyard. I was able to see first-hand the 120 year-old zinfandel vines which still produced

good fruit. Inter planted within the zin was bouchet (cab franc) and petit verdot. This was the old method of planting and one did not have to harvest grape varietals from different blocks and blend later. One simply harvested one block and obtained the preferred blend right from the field.

Ridge sold us two zinfandels of different tastes. I preferred the old vine "Lytton Springs" while Christina enjoyed "Dusi" from Paso Robles fruit. Note that "Dusi" fruit is grown by the brother of "Dusi" who grows the fruit for Turley in Paso Robles. The brothers seems to know zin better than anyone else in California.

Trentadue and Geyser Peak were both nice in appearance but short on wine. Coppola has a grand vineyard with a bit too much flair, so we passed on it. "J" was recommended by another couple who stayed in the inn with us at Paso Robles, so we checked them out. The pinot was their star, but I found it average. They are proud of their pinotage which is usually not good. Theirs was pretty decent, but not enough so to make my shipping crate. They did sell us a quite nice sparkler rose with the usual French varietals.

Dinner was highly upscale at the Applewood Inn. We had a nice surprise on a speculative pick from their nice wine menu, "Imagine." Turns out, this is a Chalk Creek vinting of their reserve cab. Quite nice. Food was a much better than the "festered hairy sheep's testicles" that were rumored to be served here.