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Monday, May 2, 2022
Sonoma and Napa, both in Northern California, are well know as wine producing areas. To be frank we’ve never been very keen on California wines but we thought we’d take a trip up that way and check things out. This morning we drove up to the Francis Ford Coppola Winery. We had made a reservation for a tasting (strongly encouraged) the night before.
We were seated on a lovely patio overlooking some vines arranged neatly in rows with rolling hills in the background. We had two choices for tastings: we could sample wines that were readily available in retail stores or we could sample (supposedly higher quality) wines that were only available at the vineyard. We choose the latter. Both tastings consisting of four flights. As our waiter brought each round he gave us a description of how each wine was made and what we should expect. Surprisingly there were no food or chocolate pairs – just wines.
We were started off with a complimentary glass of a champagne. It was light and sweet with soft bubbles. Then we had a chardonnay. It was smooth, without the characteristic acid and very buttery. Next came a pinot noir, which was very dark in flavor, a syrah with a strong, peppery flavor and lastly a cabernet that was dry but lacked real acid or bite. It seemed to us like each of these wines was purposely designed to be very different from what you’d expect from the standard. We thought it was interesting way to distinguish yourself but an odd choice for the wines themselves. We didn’t fall in love with any of the wines so we declined to purchase any bottles.
The patio lead straight to the gift shop where you could buy any of the wines, some food items to pair with the wine, or just some memorabilia with the name of the winery. Next door we found memorabilia from many of Francis Ford Coppola’s films. There was a display case dedicated to Apocalypse Now, another to Bram Stroker’s Dracula, and several others. Naturally there were also several large displays regarding the Godfather series. They even had Vito Corleone’s office desk on display but it was roped off so you couldn’t take pictures while sitting at it.
During the tastings the waiter had indicated that the grapes came from several nearby growers. When we have completed our tour of the grounds it occurred to us that we’d never seen any of the structures you’d typically see at a winery. No vats, no tanks, no caves full of bottles, etc. We started wondering if the wines were actually made onsite or they were just produced to their specifications elsewhere.
The grounds there are really quite beautiful. They have a swimming pool, a bocce field, and other activities for families to spend the day. We would have considered having lunch there but the restaurant was closed. Fortunately Healdsburg and its many restaurants was nearby.
We took a turn around Healdsburg. Most of the places around the main square were restaurants, tourist shops, or places for wine tastings. We opted for a sausage pizza at Pizzando. The 12 inch pie was just enough for the two of us to share. The pie had homemade sausage with lots of fennel, strips of red onion, and black olives. We thoroughly enjoy it. Nothing else in town peaked our interest so we decided to head into Napa, look around, and seek out dessert.
We quickly managed to find parking on the Main Street and proceeded to check things out. Napa is really geared towards wine country tourism. All of the shops and restaurants reflect that. Still it’s a nice town to do some window shopping. When we happened on Anette’s Chocolates we knew it was time for dessert. The shop boasts high end truffles and chocolates but we headed towards the back where we found a counter selling homemade ice cream. They had about a dozen interesting choices. Deborah had a medium (two scoops) of hazelnut praline. I split my choices between Dutch chocolate and Italian cherry. The ice cream was amazingly good. It was smooth and creamy and yet so dense you could practically chew it. Virtually no air had been injected into it at all. The flavors were bright and strong. We would definitely rate this as some of the best ice cream we’ve ever had.
This was now the third time we’ve had ice cream late in the afternoon that stood in for our dinner. When we were in Romania we tried drinking our dinner on Fridays. That only lasted two weeks. The ice cream thing might have more legs.
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
First and foremost we took a trip to the local Toyota dealership. Yesterday one of the idiot lights on the dash indicated that we had low tire pressure. None of the tires were flat and the car was riding nicely so we just assumed we needed air. The dealership said we needed a new tire because one of them had been punctured by a nail. They said they would order the tire and replace it tomorrow.
We consoled ourselves by splitting a roast beef and asiago sandwich for lunch at a very highly rated Italian deli in the center of town. It was tasty but nothing special. The rest of the day was consumed with chores: laundry, getting gas, grocery shopping, etc.
Wednesday, Mar 4, 2022
Star Wars Day. May the Force be With You!
In the morning we went to Pena Adobe Regional Park. There we found a lovely pond with a 2.5 mile circumference. The lake was full of pairs of geese teaching their goslings to swim. We also had fun bird watching as there were many breeds of colorful birds flying around.
For lunch we went back to Fenton’s Creamery. For the sake of propriety we both had small dinner salads before we ordered ice cream.
It took the dealership about an hour to install a new tire. They said they were having issues with their tire balancing machine. In the 18 months that we’ve had this car this is the second time we’ve had to replace a tire due to some sort of puncture. We’ve never had this kind of experience in any other car we’ve owned. We’re not happy.