Thursday, 1 May
This is a day that starts quite badly, then lifts itself up into the clouds and then deteriorates at the end, for me any way. So, what happens?
We get on the road to drive to the wineries in Sonoma. On the way, we pass over some more interesting Bridges.
Pat had made a reservation for the first winery a long time ago. It is a two hour drive and what with traffic and all, we are going to arrive 10 minutes late at our first place which is famous for its food and wine pairing. I won’t mention the name of this place that I called, er I had better not mention that either. In any case, the winery says don’t bother to show up, we have been cancelled. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrh.
Pat spends some time on the phone trying to find an alternative venue. She finds a family winery that does some food matching but only with cheese. We decide that we will go there. So what is this taco truck nonsense I mention in the headline? Well, when Pat is talking to the winery it is indicated that there is not a real meal there, just small bits of cheese. However, just near the entrance to the winery is a Taco Truck which is rated by Sunset Magazine as the best around or something like that. So we find it and, hey, it is not bad. We use the terminology Taco Truck as something that means good luck after bad luck again later in the trip.
From the lows to highs point of view, this is as good as it gets on the entire trip, apologies to Per Se and all. But things continue to get better and better. A big Raspberry to S***** who rejected us.
We then we left the Taco Truck and went to our destination: Lasseter Family Winery, where things got even better.
I refer you readers to the following Yelp review page which says a lot about the great things of this winery and the experience.
http://www.yelp.com.au/biz/lasseter-family-winery-glen-ellen
We are met by Cecil who is indeed very friendly and knowledgable. We tour some of the grape vines and then go into the cellar:
We go up to the main tasting room.
As I indicated earlier, the tasting is wine and small cheese pairing.
We taste a wide range of wines, pretty good ones really. The Lasseter’s have done a lot of travel to France and give the wines French names. From my gaming background, I note that one of the wines is called Chemin de Fer which was American casinos used to call Baccarat. After the tasting is finished, we go back down into the cellar and meet the winemaker, Julia Iantosca.
All in all a fantastic time which makes us very happy that we awarded the Raspberry and experienced the “Taco Truck” wonderfulness.
http://www.lasseterfamilywinery.com/
We have an appointment with another Napa winery but have some spare time so we decide to go to Jack London State park.
http://www.jacklondonpark.com/
For those who don’t know, Jack was a famous American write at the start of the 20th century. He bought up lots of land in the Napa area and tried to reconstitue it after years of neglect. He also built some impressive buildings, one which was to be his castle burned down just before it was finished. Jack and his Wife were among the most famous people at the time and would have lots of famous guests visit. Sadly, Jack died at the age of 40. His Wife continued to live there another 40 years and eventually the property was donated to the State of California for a State Park.
In the house, we talk to the volunteers who work there, watch an interesting video on Jack and his property and do a self tour of the house. We are also taken on a guided tour of the guest house by one of the volunteers. Sadly, our time is short as we do not want to have another raspberry incident at the next winery. So we depart without having really done justice to the Park.
Our next stop is Repris winery. We drive up and up a big hill to get there.
We are greeted by our friendly and knowledgeable guide, Sean. The day s quite hot, look at that weather, amazing. Tom had bought some wine at Lasseters which they kindly stored inside while we did our tour. Again here is a Yelp review which shows how impressed people have been, as we become too.
http://www.yelp.com.au/biz/repris-wines-sonoma
We start in the winery.
After the tour through the winery, we board a small buggy to drive us up into the vineyards.
Tremendous view. While up there, supposedly among the rattlesnakes although we did not see any, Sean pours a Rose while looking over the valley. Then we go back to the winery and try several of the wines. Tom and Pat decide to become members of the Repris wine society and take a half dozen wines home. Repris was another great experience.
But the day is not over yet! We drive to another quite quirky town, Port Costa, for dinner. Not as quirky as Chloride, Arizone but quirky just the same.
http://www.bullvalleyroadhouse.com/
The menu is designed for sharing plates.
Yes, while eating the Risotto, I broke a crown of one of my molars which put a real dampener on my day. So as I said, the day started (the Raspberry) and ended (broken tooth) badly but what wonderful times in between with the Taco Truck, plus Lasseters and Repris wineries. We go home and crash.