Food, Wine & Friends Page 134

After they'd ventured to Trinity County for some R&R with Paul and Sandy, our dear friends meandered down the highways and byways to meet me in Sonoma.

Nice car, but they actually rented a PT Cruiser, not this Jag.

We ambled over to an Irish pub off the square in the town of Sonoma and treated ourselves to a local beer.

At 8pm, we ambled over to The General's Daughter restaurant, an old Victorian home a few blocks from town square.


I had reserved a table for five, though Gaby and Norbert expected we'd be dining solo.
But I had a surprise for them...

Our friends Paul and Sandy "snuck" down to Sonoma, checked into the same hotel and then made their way to our dinner table in order to shock the hell out of Gaby and Norbert.
Who could have organized such a surprise?

I immediately ordered a bottle of bubbly...a Ferrari Spumante from Italy's Trentino region...to celebrate, well, everything.

The "amuse bouche" was a lovely 'soup' of melon and honey...

Then we all ordered the 5 course feast and I anchored my "cellar bag" to my chair for a wild ride.


With the Lafon 2002 Meursault "Clos de la Barre" we had a variety of seafood dishes...
Gaby and Norbert were introduced to "Soft shell Crab."

We kept our waiter, John Michael, busy all night...

Everyone opted for Foie Gras as their second course...

The 1982 Domaine Weinbach Tokay d'Alsace was spectacular!  A "Vendanges Tardives" bottling, this was still quite youthful and nicely acidic in the company of the foie gras.

Soon John Michael was decanting a 1985 Lopez de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva.

Our 'other' bottle was a Gaja 1996 "Costa Russi" Barbaresco...

As you can see, Paul needed an extra hand...


The cheese course...


We enjoyed a bottle of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti 2000 vintage of Romanee St. Vivant.

And then we crawled back to our hotel rooms...

The next morning Paul and Sandy made tracks for Pescadero and Gaby, Norbert and I headed for the Napa Valley and some breakfast...

Welcome to Napa.

We began our wine-tasting adventure at Opus One.

Reservations are required just to buy a 'taste' of the current vintage ($25 a taste).  If you wish to take a tour ($30 and it includes a taste of the current offering), you'd better contact the winery one month before you stop by...

These grapes may look "normal" to you and me, but they're destined for a bottle of wine costing more than $160.

We then ventured over to a more 'normal' venue in Oakville for a taste of the wines of the Miner Family.

Much more down-to-earth, the tasting room team at Miner is one of the best in California!

You can't call these Riedel glasses "stemware," since they're missing the stems!


We were invited for a stroll around the winery...

The crew at Miner couldn't have been nicer and this made for a pleasantly memorable visit.
Thanks, guys!!!

Next stop, Duckhorn.

The Duckhorn tasting facility features private tables for evaluating their wines.  Reservations are required and the tasting fee is $20.  If you want to take a tour of a vineyard and have a semi-private tasting, that's $30.

We then drove over to Grgich Hills, one of the busiest tasting rooms in the entire Valley!

The place was packed...three tasting bars, two deep!

We were well-received and tasted some lovely wines.  Gaby and Norbert found these wines to be a bit less ponderous than most California wines.


Marc took good care of us.

Meanwhile, Grgich offers visitors a chance to stomp some grapes...

With really fine Fume Blanc and Chardonnay, Grgich also offers a nice Merlot, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon.

*****

We then motored down to Carneros and visited the Etude Winery.

Pinot Gris here was quite nice and the Pinot Noir is exceptional.

And so our wine-tasting adventure concluded and we drove back home...
And then on to Jonathan & Lucy's for dinner...

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