California Wine Country

I’ve moved around the United States quite a number of times for quite a few different reasons. Therefore, my favorite girlfriends are scattered from New England to the San Francisco Bay Area, and a wide variety of places in between. My local crew and I try to make time to do something fun with each other every other month or so - be it a laid back dinner party or an adventure of mutual interest. The more distant besties and I usually see each other when business, family, or other random events bring us into each other’s area of operations. Otherwise, we remain present in each other’s lives through the miracle of modern communications.

Two years ago, some of my best girls and I planned a trip to New Orleans in June for our 120th birthday celebration. In the end, only Little Z, Autie, and I were able to make the trip. However, it was so much fun that we promised each other that we would do it again the following year. After one year slipped by, the three of us found ourselves on a group text committing to a West Coast adventure in late March of this year. As some of our mutual girlfriends slipped out of the plans, Autie added some of her local girlfriends into the mix. And so, shortly after the vernal equinox, I found myself wandering the baggage claim area at SFO at midnight looking for Little Z and Autie so we could begin our three day Wine Country adventure together.

Saturday in Wine Country

The first day of our adventure began with the gathering of the girls at Autie’s house. In the end there were five of us: Little Z flew in from the Midwest, I flew in from New England, Kay drove down from north of the Bay Area, Tea came over from around the corner, and Autie was our local hostess.

Kay had graciously volunteered to be our intrepid driver for the holiday, so we packed our suitcases and other bags into her spacious vehicle as soon as we were all organized. Naturally, we made a quick stop to get bagels and coffee before we left Autie’s island because no one thought it would be a good idea to go into Wine Country hungry and decaffeinated.

Thanks to Kay’s excellent driving and Autie’s superior navigational skills, it took us less than two hours to reach our first stop at Inglenook Winery in Rutherford. The scenery en route was a luscious green, the likes of which I wouldn’t see back home for another month or so.

Tea had made all the arrangements with two of her friends for us to do a tasting at Inglenook. So I didn’t bother doing any research into the winery. For some reason, I thought that the Inglenook brand was sold in the big potbelly glass jugs like Carlo Rossi wine. That totally didn’t bother me because my primary reason for making the trip was to spend time with my girlfriends. Whatever fun activities we did were just bonus to me. They gave us some structure to our days and some common points of conversation, but weren’t what fueled my fire.

Because I had done no research on Inglenook, I couldn’t understand why Tea was making such a fuss about it was until we arrived. The property was protected by an ornate wrought iron gate, to which access was controlled to only those visitors with reservations. After traveling down a long driveway through a vineyard, we reached a gorgeous stone building, which was where our tastings were to take place.

The whole experience at Inglenook was the polar opposite of what I had experienced at the Texas wineries that I was accustomed to. For our crisp white linen table of seven, we had a dedicated sommelier, Kenton, who was phenomenal. He not only talked us through the one white and three reds on the tasting menu, he also obtained special permission for us to taste their red Zinfandel wine.

Of course, the wines were as spectacular as the setting. We started with a white wine that was named for the Coppola estate in Belize. There was a red that was named for the son Roman Coppola. After that was a lovely cabernet sauvignon and their high end Rubicon wine. Tea asked me which I liked best and why, but I completely lacked the vocabulary to explain myself.

After the tastings, we visited the Francis Ford Coppola collection upstairs, which included a Tucker (which is a car) and a lot of pre-motion picture apparatuses, like zoetropes. There was a beautiful special events room that was closed to the public. But that didn’t stop us from sneaking a peak inside. We had spent so long lingering and chatting over our tastings that we really had to boogey after our tour of the upstairs collection.

Our next stop was the Napa Valley Distillery in downtown Napa. Since I am fascinated by distilleries, I could not go to wine country without visiting the oldest (legal) distillery in California. So Autie, Little Z, and the rest of the crew humored me. Of course, I started rethinking my decision as soon as Autie navigated Kay down into a dead end on a narrow unkempt industrial road. And I didn’t feel much better when I spied the unassuming distillery building to the right.

Fortunately, when I went inside to check us in for the tour, I felt better. The interior was still industrial, but it felt familiar and safe. There was a lovely little gift shop full of alcohol, bitters, and cocktail paraphernalia. Even more importantly, the wall opposite the gift shop was lined with barrels from floor to ceiling. And then we met Michael, the spirits educator. By then I had no doubt that I had done the right thing in arranging the tour for our group. He was knowledgeable, personable, and even humorous as appropriate.

We started our tour in their production space, which had a few coppers pot stills and one large computerized still. Napa Valley Distillery was unique among the distilleries that I had visited over the past eighteen months because they started their processes with local wine, so they skipped the mash and fermentation steps and went straight to distillation. Like the other distillers, they separated the heads, hearts, and tails as the distillate came off the still. They reserved the heads for cleaning out their various still, barrel aged the hearts, and used the tails in the next round of distillation. Or maybe not. I was already on my way up the stairs to the tasting room when Michael was answering questions about what was done with the tails.

The bar in the upstairs tasting room was absolutely stunning. It was tastefully decorated with porcelain pineapples, glass pineapples, and a few brightly inlaid parrot sculptures. It was as refined as the production floor was industrial.

Michael commenced the tasting session with a lesson in what he called “booze yoga.” This was a breathing pattern which was designed to minimize the contact of oxygen with the alcohol in your mouth so as to minimize the burning sensation. And it worked!!! Michael had us take a sip of the neutral brandy breathing “properly” and a second sip breathing normally. I definitely liked the first sip better. It reminded me of a good Central European slivovice.

After the slivovice, Michael served us a gin that the two girls who hated gin absolutely loved. It was based on their neutral brandy spirit, which was redistilled after Tim the Distiller painstakingly added the botanicals. I got points from Michael for knowing a lot about bourbon whiskey (and wearing my “Whiskey While I Work” t-shirt from Dirty Water Distillery). Specifically, Michael was impressed that I knew that bourbon didn’t have to be made in Bourbon County, Kentucky. After our little educational session, Michael poured us samples of their bourbon whiskey and their rye whiskey. Both were very good, although I was confused whether they made their bourbon according to Lyndon Johnson’s federal recipe, or whether that was what they were calling their neutral spirit aged in new charred American oak barrels. Whatever they did, it was really good.

As we were finishing up the rye whiskey tasting, my girlfriend Fish, who was local to the area, arrived. I was so busy catching up with her that I really didn’t ask many questions of Michael when we tasted their agricole rum made from sugar cane juice or their traditional rum made from molasses.

In the end, I bought three bottles of super interesting house made bitters - hibiscus rose bitters, coffee pecan bitters, Havana nights bitters. I also bought of bottle of black Dram bitters from their collection which, despite not being house made, I thought were also very interesting. Besides, the baby bottles of bitters would be easy to bring home in my suitcase. I also bought a bottle of their slivovice, which I had intended to open for mixing into drinks later that night.

After the distillery, all eight of us went out to a late lunch/early dinner at a lovely place right off the Sonoma Town Square. And then we girls said good by to Fish and Tea’s friends, and headed out to find the Air BnB that Autie had booked for us on the other side of town.

The only other time I’ve stayed in an AirBnB was when Autie booked one for us girls to attend our favorite General’s retirement ceremony. But Autie was a regular on the AirBnB circuit, so she knew exactly what to look for. And her choice of the Sonoma Shangri-la did not disappoint!!! Between the main house and the back house, we had one bedroom for each of us and a large well-appointed outdoors space. It was the perfect place for chilling and resting up for another day of adventures.

While the other girls were setting up the outdoors space with candles and a fire in the pit, I went into the kitchen to fix drinks. In addition to the slivovice that I had bought from the distillery, I also had bottles of cranberry liqueur and lime liqueur that I had brought in my suitcase from the distillery that was local to my home. At their St. Valentine’s Day mixology class, I had learned a very simple cocktail: 2 parts cranberry, 1 part lime, 1 part vodka, stir with ice, and top with ginger ale. In the house kitchen, I found a mixing glass, a ton of ice, and five stemless wine glasses. I was in business!!! The other four girls thought the cocktail was a little unbalanced without the ginger ale; however, one of them found some sparkling water that we were able to share to bring the cocktails back into balance.

As promised, Tea had brought a refrigerated bag filled with ten pounds of cheese, meat, and pate. While she set to work assembling that into a cheese plate like any other, Little Z explored the kitchen, where she managed to find five metal skewers in the kitchen that were perfect for putting into the fire. Once the drinks were finished, Tea, Kay, and Little Z ran out to the local grocery store for milk, marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers, peanut butter, Nutella, and other essentials. Autie and I hung out by the massive fire and talked about life until they returned with more alcohol and even more food. I stayed out chatting and roasting marshmallows until about midnight, then excused myself to let the other ladies enjoy themselves.

Sunday in Wine Country

Our first planned activity for Saturday was brunch at Bouchon in Yountville, which was basically a high class French restaurant in a super cute town. Unfortunately, to get there, we had to take a steeply winding road that went up into the hills and through the heart of the area that was devastated by the recent fires. Fortunately, Kay was a superior driver who got us to our destination on time and without incident.

After an amazing brunch and some time window shopping in the town marketplace, we were miraculously on time for our appointment for the afternoon winery tour at Mumm Napa. Unfortunately, Fish was running late. Our tour guide Janet walked us down the path along the outside the production building, stopping periodically to explain the methode traditionelle of making sparkling wine, to illustrate the various American Vinicultural Areas, and to introduce us to the various vines that were used in Mumm sparkling wines. Fish caught up with us just as Janet was explaining to us the natural pest control in the vineyards, which relied on owls, bats, and good bugs.

Once we reached the end of the path, we entered the largest fermentation room I had ever seen, especially since there was a massive blending tank towering over all the single vineyard single varietal fermentation tanks. In the building we also met BOB the bottle filler, saw the rotating storage racks, and caught a glimpse of the bottling line.

I thought the Mumm tour was fascinating, even though I spent most of the time chatting with Fish after she arrived. The other girls thought Janet talked too much and went into too much detail about the process, rather than taking the cues from her audience. It didn’t help that we had just reached BOB by the time we were due for a wine tasting at Caymus, which we were all looking forward to. Fortunately, Autie was able to postpone our appointment at Caymus for another two hours. That postponement gave us enough time to finish the tour, casually chat with Janet, enjoy the Ansel Adams exhibit in the art gallery, and explore the gift shop.

The Caymus tasting room was a short five minute drive around the corner from Mumm. Fish decided not to join us at Caymus, but hoped to come over to the house later in the evening if we were building another fire. I was so impressed by how gorgeous the outdoor tasting area was and by how genial Tracy our hostess was. After she had served us the menu of five tastings (including two separate vintages of Caymus), Tracy presented our group with a complimentary bottle of wine to thank us.

We were all hungry again after the tastings and shopping at Caymus. I suggested Mexican food for dinner, because Fish had recommend La Hacienda over by our AirBnB. But other ladies were hungry right at that moment, so we went back to Yountville to see what they had to offer in the way of Mexican. After a brief misadventure through a local bar, we found an upscale Mexican place with a 75 minute wait for a table. Since that wouldn’t do, we headed back into Napa and found a dirty little Mexican taqueria for dinner. But the food was so good!

Unfortunately, after gorging ourselves on Mexican, we had to say goodbye to Tea, who had to catch an Uber back home in order to go back to work in the morning. Kay took the rest of us back to the house to hang out in the back yard. Autie cracked open a bottle of good sparkling wine from Mumm, but we were all too tired to deal with setting and cleaning up a big fire. I canceled Fish’s visit because I was one of the more tired ones. In fact, Little Z and I were so tired, that we retired to our rooms in the back house shortly after finishing our first glass of sparkling wine.

Monday in Wine Country

On Monday morning, the four of us slept later than usual, despite having gone to bed fairly early. Since I was the first one up, I toddled from the back house to the main house to make the pot of coffee. Which the other ladies were extremely grateful for! Once all of us felt human, we pitched in to clean up the spaces at the house and to pack all of liquor, wine and baggage into the back of the vehicle. Somehow, we were each fairly alert and oriented when Kay drove us away from our little Sonoma Shangri-la.

Unfortunately, it started raining as Kay drove us out into the recently flooded Russian River Valley to Korbel, where one of Autie’s buddies worked. Much like Inglenook, the ivy covered chateau was gorgeous. Since we had been super educated in the ways of California sparkling wine at Mumm Napa, we skipped the tour and went straight to the Korbel tasting room.

Unbeknownst to us, Korbel made sparkling, still, and dessert wines. Leslie, our hostess, advised that we start with something midrange on the sweetness spectrum. I chose to start with their Rouge, which was a red sparkling with a dosage of one percent. It was a very good wine, with an unusually striking color. Since I like sweeter wines, my next tasting was a Brut Rose, which was a pale pink with a dosage of 1.5 percent. Since Leslie had overheard our chatter and indecision about their four sweetest sparkling wines (dosage ranging from two percent to six percent), she pulled out all four bottles and poured us a tasting of each to share. That resolved our indecision about what we would taste last; however, we still had to decide what to taste for our third tasting. I chose the port, which Autie liked so much that she bought a bottle. Little Z also went sweet, and tried the cream sherry. Autie and Kay both tried a still red - one the pinot noir and the other the zinfandel. I didn’t think there was a bad wine in the batch.

The tour returned before we finished our third tasting, and the tasting room got incredibly loud and crowded. Therefore, we finished our tastings and went to lunch at the Korbel delicatessen and market with Autie’s buddy, who was a super nice guy.

Once our bellies we full and our purchases made, Kay drove us all back to Autie’s house in the rain . We hung out at there for a while as we attempted to sort out who bought which liquor and which wine. After traffic let up, Kay said her good byes and headed back north. Autie took Little Z and me out for Burmese food on the island’s main drag. Afterward, we met up with Tea for drinks at a local dive bar.

When yawning finally overtook all of us, Autie drove Little Z and me to our hotel near the airport. As much as we didn’t want to break up the group, we had to. I had a 6am flight and Autie had an early work call. So we said our good byes and eventually crawled into our own beds to reflect upon what a wonderful long weekend we all had.

The Verdict

The wine country trip was an excellent trip over all, and was definitely worth saving my vacation time for. I learned a lot, and saw some interesting places that I never knew that I had wanted to see. Without a doubt, the best part of the trip for me was spending a chunk of time with Little Z, Autie and Fish. But getting to know Kay and Tea was pretty awesome as well.

Of course, before breaking up the band, we decided that in December we’ll touch base to see if we want to do our next girls’ trip in late spring 2020 or have to postpone it to late spring 2021. I’ll treasure my happy wine country memories until we get together then!