After last night’s long haul, it was so nice to be able to sleep in a bit, have a leisurely breakfast (double bonus because it was provided by the hotel),pack our belongings, and come up with a vague plan of attack for the wineries we wanted to hit up. Neither JD nor I are wine experts by any means; I don’t even drink wine, and he just knows he likes it.
We decided our first stop would be at Hagafen, which had a free “tasting for two” coupon online. It’s the only Kosher winery in Napa. (Not that it matters to us – it’s that free part =) They’re a small winery (7,000 barrels a year), which was a great way to start. The lady poured us one of each of their wines and explained how it was made and the flavors we would taste. I went into the day thinking most places would resent the fact that we were there, mooching off their wines, with no real intent to buy $100’s of dollars worth of wine (we figured one bottle was a) all we could afford b) all that would fit in our suitcase). But no! Everyone was so nice and so happy to have you there and tell you about your wine, regardless of what you may look like or how much $ you had in your pocket.
After tasting at Hagafen, we asked for some recommendations, and they gave us a bunch of 2-for-1 tasting coupons. Next, we went to Judd Hill. (Another Jewish winery – kinda made us chuckle that we were on the Jewish wine tour at the start). Great wine – JD fell in love with their reserve, but at $75 a bottle, we kept moving. Next stop was Baldacci – good wines, nice setting. At this point, we needed some food, so we went to a Mexican Cantina that was a top pick of the locals for cheap, fast food. And boy, was it cheap, fast, and pretty good, except too spicy for me to eat. We then went to V. Sattui. Good wines, rude service (being a bigger and fancier place, I guess we didn’t look the type that they needed to take really good care of. They had beautiful grounds though, and you could tour their wine cellar and read about their history, so that made the visit worthwhile. Lastly, we went to Sutter Home, which is distributed EVERYWHERE, but they had free samples and the people were really nice, so why not?
For the day, I believe we didn’t spend more than $50 for lunch, a bottle of wine and ALL our of many samples – enough to make JD quite content and sleepy for the car ride =) I did manage to sip a little bit of most everything and learned the various tastes of the different varieties. I think I like Rogue and bubbly, sweet wines the best. (You gotta start somewhere, right?). JD learned that he likes Cab Franc, which is the drier predecessor to Cab Sav. Very cool.
Come about 4:30pm, we had our fill of wine and most places were getting ready to close down, so we made our way towards the coast. We were told that Bodega Bay is a wonderful area to visit with lots of wildlife. We made campground reservations in Sonoma Coast State Park. Well, getting there was no picnic. For whatever reason, Google maps took me on a two-lane road that was in actuality, more like 1-lane wide with nothing but switchbacks and cliffs for 15+ miles. It was horrible. As we finally neared the coast, we saw a giant wall of gray in front of us. Fog/drizzle. Not to worry, it will clear up….or not.
We get out to the beach area and it’s 55 and damp. We got out of the car, took some pictures and headed for the campground, seriously wondering whether or not camping in this was going to be fun in any way, shape or form. We drove through the campground and saw every single spot occupied by giant tents and RV’s with grills and showers and shower cabanas. We have a two-person tent from Walmart, two sleeping bags, and granola bars. Feeling woefully insufficient and not prepared, we called the hotel we’re staying at Fri and Sat in SF and asked if they had room for us tonight. They did and we happily drove out of the grey and back into the sunshine for an hour and a half. Oh well – that’s two nights in a row that we’ve chosen not to camp. I did a little research about our future camping locations and both places appear to have a healthy tick population….hmmmm….I think I’ll be booking a hotel just in case….maybe we’re not as rugged as we once thought….
Tomorrow we’re off to explore the big city of San Francisco!
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