Happy weekend! I only had three days of work this week, but I was certainly thankful for the work week to end. Going back to work after an amazing time at the Foodbuzz Festival and in wine country was very difficult. I do however, have a new work philosophy. At the end of the day, when I leave work I am just letting it go, not even making the time to talk about the work part of my day. So far this has worked well and has helped me to avoid reliving the frustration that talking about work brings. When I last left off on our wine country journey, we were leaving Hook & Ladder after a tasting of reds, including a great Zinfandel that we purchased to ship home. We were going to head straight to Yountville to check into our hotel, but we had some time and decided to drove a bit past Healdsburg. Venturing off of 101, we found ourselves on a bumpy side road with a narrow old railway bridge. The scenery, as it was everywhere in California, was a sight to behold. Everyone says that Fall in New England is beautiful, and it is, but this was just such a different perspective on the season. I couldn’t get enough of it, and I can definitely see myself living there.
We were about to turn around to head back to the main highway when I saw a sign for Bella Vineyards and Wine Caves, a winery recommended to me on Twitter by Sonoma Wine Guy. As useless as Twitter sometimes seems, it was helpful in this case! Pulling up to Bella reveals their wine caves which include the tasting room and events space.
The wine tanks are also visible to visitors.
Taking photos inside the cave was difficult, but it was a cozy, warmly lit place, and I was excited to try their Zinfandels and other offerings.
Their wine glasses had a cute tractor, the same one parked out in front of the cave, etched on the glass. 🙂 Zinfandels definitely won again. We tried and enjoyed both their 2007 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel and their 2007 Big River Ranch Zinfandel. The standout was the Big River Ranch, though we liked them both. This is a big, tannin-y wine with a deep opaque red color and a burst of juicy berries on the palate. Yum. Tasting in the caves was a lot of fun. Bella offers not only tours and private tastings in their caves, but they also have a jeep tour that takes you up to Lily Hill, where the grapes for the Dry Creek zin are grown. I didn’t contact them in time to book any of the tours, but the next time we go to Sonoma I will definitely make sure to book in advance. Their website offers information on the tours so if you will be in the area, check them out! After leaving Bella, we were definitely heading back to the highway to get lunch and find our hotel for the night. But then we saw the sign for barrel tastings at Zichichi Family Vineyard and literally backed up and into their parking lot. Neither one of us had done a barrel tasting and really wanted to give it a whirl.
Our tasting was delayed slightly when I looked out on to the covered back deck of the tasting room and saw this, my new, nine week old Swiss mountain dog puppy pal:
Obviously I had to go out and play.
It was love at first sight. And love at first sip once I went inside! 
The 2008 Old Vine Zinfandel from the barrel was incredible. It offers the perfect amount of the big, jammy flavor characteristic of Zinfandels. It is not even being bottled until January, and we will receive our shipment in March, just in time for my birthday, hopefully. I can not wait to see what a couple of months of aging in the barrel will do to the flavor of this young wine. Something to look forward to for sure! At this point we were more than ravenous. A quick drive over to Geyserville brought us right in front of Diavola Pizzeria. After a good amount of water and some thin, chewy, cheesy breadsticks, we were served our lunches. For me, the wood oven roasted hearts of romaine with shrimp and Caesar dressing and for my hubs, a thick BLT panini teeming with thick, salty, smoky bacon and, red pepper mayo, lettuce, and ripe tomatoes. I will admit to sneaking a few bites of this sandwich, and I can understand why it was his favorite meal of the entire trip. It was a perfectly made sandwich, complete with chewy focaccia bread. My lunch was great too with perfectly cooked shrimp, and a creamy parmesan laden dressing over slightly grilled lettuce. Just what we needed to finish our journey to Yountville.
Next up, Yountville, Domaine Chandon, dinner at Bouchon, and more. For now I am off to go running with a group of Boston bloggers, then to walk some of my favorite dog friends at the shelter. They have been there for so long 🙁 I am not sure what the rest of the weekend will bring, but I know I will be blogging! Have a GREAT day my friends!
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Tags: Bella Vineyards, Dry Creek Valley, Food, Healdsburg, Sonoma, Sonoma County, Travel, wine, wine tasting, wineries, Yountville, Zichichi, Zinfandel
One of the great things about staying in a hotel in the middle of nowhere is the ability to stay in one place for a little while without having to drive or walk very far. Timber Cove Inn offers a restaurant right on the property, Alexander’s, and all we had to do for dinner was to walk down a flight of stairs and we were there. For our dinner, I started out with a glass of Cline Cellars Syrah and hubs got a glass of Rodney Strong Pinot Noir.
We shared the hazelnut crusted brie with a fall fruit compote, the fruits sweet and spiciness complementing the buttery brie which had a crunchy, nutty coating.
For my entree I ordered mahi mahi with creamy coconut rice, caramelized pineapple, and vegetable slaw. The photo is a bit blurry as the restaurant had a lovely, candlelit glow.
Caramelized pineapple where have you been all my life? It was so sweet and just popped full of flavor in my mouth. The meatiness of the fish worked really well with the pineapple, and what can you say about creamy coconut rice except for, yum? Hubs ordered cioppino which came with made to order garlic bread.
The light, spicy tomato broth housed perfectly cooked prawns, mussels, and clams which tasted like they were just out of the sea. Thick cut buttery, garlicky bread, dipped into the broth provided just the right amount of heft to this dish. We were both very happy with our choices. We were quite full from the meal, but when we saw chocolate soup on the menu, we had to have it.
Velvety, warm chocolate mixed with incredibly fresh berries, the kind that you can smell from several feet away. They tasted like they had just been picked. We retired to our room shortly after dinner and got to watch a bonfire that was down near the ocean. It smelled so incredible and provided the perfect glow to the surrounding area. The next morning, we planned on skipping breakfast at the inn so that we could explore and then head to Sonoma for some wine tasting. But our stomachs had other plans, and boy am I glad! Breakfast at the Timber Cove Inn is just as gorgeous as dinner. We sat in the same, ocean facing table and started out with a cappucino and a latte. I ordered the Coastal Continental breakfast which included fresh fruit, half of a buttery croissant, a wedge of brie cheese, and a couple of miniature cranberry scones.
![IMG00278[1]](http://traveleatlove.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/img002781.jpg "IMG00278[1]")
Hubs ordered the Eggs Stewart, basically Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon instead of Canadian bacon.
![IMG00277[1]](http://traveleatlove.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/img002771.jpg "IMG00277[1]")
This ended up being one of the best breakfasts we have ever had. We sort of shared both plates so that we had equal portions of runny, bright yellow egg mixed with Hollandaise over melt like butter smoky salmon with fruit and cheese. The service for both meals was friendly and outstanding, in fact everyone in the area was just very friendly and welcoming. Prices are very reasonable, especially after you have been dining in San Francisco for a few days, and all of the food was just fresh, well prepared, and downright good. Thank you, Timber Cove Inn and Alexander’s for a fantastic retreat! We will be back, hopefully with friends or family. This place is too good not to share. edited to add: Hubs was telling his sister about our trip over the phone, explaining how far out we had to go to get to Timber Cove. She knew EXACTLY where it was because they got engaged there! What are the odds? 😉 Go here, its very special.
Tags: breakfast, California, Dining out, dinner, Food, Restaurants, Sonoma Coast, Timber Cove, Travel, wine, wine tasting
When we woke up on Monday morning, the sky covered the sea in a light gray blanket, and the smell of wood burning stoves was in the air. I won’t lie, it felt like an Irish morning, and I loved it. The in room coffee at Timber Cove Inn was SO good. I can not remember what the brand was, but after another bad night of sleep, it was just what we needed. Recaps of breakfast at the Timber Cove Inn, along with our Sunday dinner, will be up later tonight. In the meantime I will skip to our drive from the coast inland to the Russian River Valley of Sonoma, aka Heaven In mere miles we went from the beautiful, rugged Northern California coastline to forests full of massive trees.
Tree hugger, that’s me 🙂 Without much warning at all, the landscape changed from dark forests to fields decorated with grape leaves in their full autumn glory.
Our first wine country stop was DeLoach, one of my friend Jill’s favorite Sonoma wineries and one of the “can’t miss” spots on my list.
While we tried several wines at DeLoach, our absolute favorite was the 2007 Forgotten Vines Zinfandel. DeLoach’s tasting notes say: Offering aromas of cherry compote laced with exotic spices, this Zinfandel exemplifies the vibrant elements that old-vine wines are known for. Notes of orange rind and black currant engage the palate as cranberry flavors mingle with clove and cardamom spice. Sweet oak and elegant tannins lend lush mouthfeel to this wine for a lingering finish. For me, the definite spice in this wine really made it stand out. Not overly jammy like some Zinfandels, this one is really a lovely journey through layers of flavor. Our bottle is en route to New Jersey at the moment, as we could not ship to Massachusetts from Buffalo Bill’s Shipping Post (more on this later, truly a godsend if you want to buy wine from various wineries and ship it home altogether). After snapping a few photos at DeLoach, we moved on to Hook & Ladder, a winery I had heard about through Su Chang’s wine dinner back in September when I tried their Gewurtztraminer. Our visit to the winery, however, was all about the reds. The tasting room itself is vastly different that the one at DeLoach but has a ton of character and firefighting memorabilia representing the background of their founder.
Zinfandel won again. Hook & Ladder’s estate grown 2005 Gambogi Ranch Russian River Valley Zin, to be specific. Here is what they have to say about it: Bring on the BBQ with this dark purple red “zin-fully” delicious Russian River classic. A nose full of blackberry, vanilla, sandal wood and spice accentuates the bright berry flavor of this hearty old-vine Zin. Aged in American oak for 11 months, only 470 cases of this hand-made, open-fermented, single-vineyard Zinfandel were produced. I would like at some point very soon to host a wine dinner using some of our California purchases. Planning the menu and blogging about it will be fun. . . finding the time to actually get
people together will be more of a challenge! Next up. . . the Dry Creek Valley and my husband’s favorite meal of the trip!
Tags: California, DeLoach, Sonoma, Sonoma County, vineyards, wine, wine country, wine tasting, Zinfandel
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