Go Wine Tasting In Sonoma

I love wine tasting, and that's an understatement.   I have had the pleasure of wine tasting all over the world, so it may seem hard to believe for most people that I had never gone to Sonoma (I had been to its famous neighbor Napa twice).

 

I flew in to Sacramento on a Friday, and hung out at a local winery by my friends house as merely a warm-up.  That night we mapped out our wine agenda for the following day.  Excited, and equipped with sober bellies we headed to Sonoma driving on one lane roads (which proved to be very frustrating especially as a passenger to a speed demon, and slow drivers taking over the roads).  We checked into our awesome priceline hotel (a resort style Hyatt for $48 a night...yay for going during the low season).  

We ate at two places we found on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  Great food, especially breakfast at Hank's Creekside Restaurant.  Do most people in the South eat this type of stuff every morning?  It was good, but it was a total heart attack on a platter.  Give Sonoma a point for having decently yummy food that doesn't have to break the bank.

Now onto the wineries.  We got a Wine Road Pass for $25 to get free tastings at 50 different wineries in Sonoma County.  The kicker is that the pass is only good for that day, so unless you can teleport yourself through 50 wineries in one day, and you have a body that has no effect on alcohol, then forget about making it to 50 wineries!  We got to our first winery at roughly 1PM, and finished our 7th winery by 5PM.  By the last two wineries we were literally speeding through tight, windy roads to get our "money's worth."  It truly was like the Amazing Race: Sonoma Wine Trail edition, and we would be the nurse and doctor team.  :)

Sonoma County is A LOT more spread out than Napa, so we were amazed that we made it to 7 wineries in a 4 hour time span!  My favorite winery was  Francis Ford Copolla's Winery.  That was the only winery where I did not dump any of my wine tastings.  The best part?  They sell their wine in stores I frequent (like Costco!), and oddly enough the wine is actually cheaper at Costco than at the actual winery.  Go figure.

Date Accomplished: February 20th, 2010