Sonoma

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northern sonoma coast

Wanted: an unlimited supply of airline tickets to the East Coast, Ireland, and Italy, copious quantities of time off to use said tickets to visit family,  and two wine country jobs. Send for our cats and boat, please. The Northern  Sonoma Coast just agrees with us.

timber cove inn

Off to tour Flowers Vineyards!

Tags: California, Sonoma, Sonoma Coast, Timber Cove, Travel

Fall ushers in lots of things that we love; pumpkin and apple recipes abound, colorful leaves, and crisp blue sky days relieve us from the heat of summer, and it just seems everyone comes back together for dinners, bonfires, apple picking, and other events.

Fall also ushers in a season of wine events, wine shipments kick into full swing after sometimes being halted for the summer months, and there are suddenly a ton of options for wine and food lovers. I receive many emails about wine events. There are ones I can participate in online or attend in person, and there are those I dream about being at. If you’re looking for wine events here, there, or everywhere (virtual), the below might be of interest to you. Happy Thursday!

Winechat Austrian red wine

  • #winechat – every Wednesday at 9 Eastern, you can log into Twitter to tweet and taste along with wine bloggers, producers, marketers, and aficionados from around the world. Last night I participated in a fantastic discussion of Austrian reds, Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch, varieties that most people know little about. Have you tried an Austrian red? The #winechat schedule can be found on Marie’s Life of Vines blog. Check it out, find a chat you are interested, and prepare to have a nice little wine tasting at home with faraway new friends.

 

  • TasteLive – Like #winechat, TasteLive falls under the umbrella of “everywhere”. Their extensive tasting schedule features wines from all over, often with recipe accompaniments. Tonight I am a panelist in an event that features Rodney Strong wines, Sift cupcakes, and recipes from the book Down Home Downtown: Recipes from Two Sonoma Wine Country Restaurants. You need not be a panelist to follow the tweets and taste along.

 

  • Wine Connextion Big 3 Tastings – If you are in Boston or in the northern suburbs, you can stop by Wine Connextion in North Andover three Saturdays in a row to enjoy special tastings. Their Third Annual Grand Tasting (10/27), Magnificent Meritages: exceptional American wines blended in the Bordeaux tradition (11/3), and 90 Points and Above (11/10) are all sure to please and will make for a fun Saturday afternoon.

 

 

  • Sonoma Wine Road Wine and Food Affair (11/3 –11/4)– This is one of my favorite events of all time. We planned on going last year and missed it when my nana died, and this year I am running a marathon, but I will be sure to be in Northern Sonoma for this event next year. Drive from winery to winery, tasting wines paired with fall recipes, and receive a  cookbook as part of the ticket price. Since I am missing the event, the kind people at the Wine Road sent me an advance copy of the book, and I am already cooking from it.

 

  • Artisano  at The Vintner’s Inn (11/17) a post-harvest celebration of local wine, food, and art with all proceeds from the auction and raffle benefiting Ceres Community Project. A Grand Tasting features locally handcrafted small production wines with limited distribution, bountiful food, artists showcasing one-of-a-kind art, and hands-on workshops of cheese making, fermentation and butchering. A “Golden Ticket” auction culminating with a Harvest Dinner at John Ash & Co., with a family-style menu prepared by Chef Tom Schmidt, concludes this 4th annual event that is a must for locals and guests from near and far.

Tags: Boston, events, Sonoma, wine

One of the main reasons we chose to go to Sonoma when we did was the Wine Road Barrel Tasting event.  I’ve had the Wine Road’s beautiful ad on my blog since September, and since the area truly is heaven condensed and their events are so much fun, I wanted to be there. Wondering what barrel tasting is? Well, it’s tasting unfinished wine out of the barrel. It’s pretty neat to see a winemaker or other winery staff member using a pipette to pull wine from the top of the barrel and to put it into your glass. I can picture myself doing so and spraying it all over some poor guest, but that has not yet happened to us as tasters. Barrel tasting gives you the opportunity to buy futures, to purchase wine before it’s bottled, often at a discount, and then receive it when it is ready. In the past we have done this, and it’s always fun to receive wine that you tasted in the barrel months later.

As you know, we kicked off our trip with a little Gloria Ferrer and art and spent the second day sipping bubbly and visiting Ma(i)sonry. After a Saturday night dinner with friends, we awoke rested and ready to participate in the last day of barrel tasting. First up, breakfast at the hotel, coffee, hardboiled eggs, and yogurt. I love free breakfast!

We were in vacation-land, which is far from my normal “plan every second” mentality, so we actually had no itinerary in mind as we left Sonoma and headed for Santa Rosa to Sonoma Vintner’s Square, a place that houses some of our favorite wine in all of Sonoma and Napa. You may remember we spent a bit of time there during the Food & Wine Affair.  We probably never would have found this somewhat hidden gem if it was not for our fabulous host William, but we have returned to these tasting rooms, I think, a total of six times. The complex has been growing over the years, and it’s fun that every time we visit, they’ve done more work, added a new business, or somehow made the space better.

I love this wine bottle wall.

Sonoma Vintner's Square

Vintner’s Square features a bunch of amazing tasting rooms, including Sheldon, D’Argenzio, and Krutz Family Cellars. Great wines and great people are here, and if you head to Sonoma County, you should definitely make a point of spending some time with them.

Sonoma Vintner's Square

Sheldon’s Vinolocity Blanc is definitely at the top of my list of favorite white wines. This blend of Grenache Blanc, Rousanne, and Viognier  is positively luscious. As I type this, I am drinking a smoky, lightly spiced Krutz Syrah.

Sonoma Vintner's Square

D'Argenzio

D'Argenzio

D'Argenzio

barrel tasting

D’Argenzio makes some killer Zinfandel, which we got to taste from the barrel.

barrel tasting

Carol Shelton

The folks at Sheldon were kind enough to give us a few recommendations since we wanted to visit some new places on this trip. We made our way to Inspiration and then to Carol Shelton, where we enjoyed Zinfandel and live music. These wineries are also in a complex, kind of like a corporate park. The area where the tasting rooms are is not as scenic as some, but it provides a great opportunity to try wines from a bunch of winemakers in one place.

Carol Shelton

We finished our barrel tasting at Portalupi on Healdsburg Square, loving the barrel tasting of their Pinot Noir before grabbing an iced coffee at my beloved coffee shop, The Flying Goat and heading to our hotel for a rest.

Portalupi

As we walked to downtown Healdsburg later that evening for dinner at Barndiva, we stumbled upon another recommendation from the Sheldons, Cartograph, close to Healdsburg Plaza. Luckily, unlike other tasting rooms, Cartograph is open a little late, and we were able to taste their wines along with wines from Stark, a winery they share their serene, cool tasting room with.

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After barrel tasting lots of reds, I was all about the whites, particularly the Cartograph Gewurztraminer and the Stark Viognier.

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Cartograph owner/winemakers Alan and Serena were warm, welcoming, and a lot of fun. If we didn’t have dinner reservations, we probably would have grabbed a glass and stayed.

If you are looking for a great wine country event, the Wine Road hosts a bunch, and it is worth planning a visit to Sonoma around one of them. And if you are looking for something a little different and less touristy, the abovementioned wineries and tasting rooms all have a great story, delicious, interesting wines, and great spaces. I would recommend them all!

It’s only been about six weeks since our trip, and I feel like I haven’t been anywhere in ages (dramatic). I am ready to start planning more travel, but luckily I have too much work right now. Winking smile

Do you have any trips planned?

Tags: Barrel Tasting, California, events, Russian River Valley, Sonoma, Travel, wine, wine tasting

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