Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Sonoma, Day 2


We started off the day with breakfast at the hotel (as mentioned).  Then headed off to our first winery tour!  We chose Gundlach Bundschu to begin our tastings, and I must say, those that followed had a lot to live up to.  We had a great tour guide - a kid just out of college, who knew everything there was to know about the property, the wine makers, and the wine itself.  There were just two other couples and us.  Along the tour of the vineyard we had a few tastings of different wines.  Then he took us to see the caves where they store the wine, where we had another, sit-down tasting of three more wines.  Their best wines. And let me tell you… that stuff was good!  We ended up having a few bottles shipped.  They had some really unique artwork on their reserve bottles that I loved as well.  
Luckily they sold matted copies of the labels in their shop, so we came home with our favorite one to frame.    




geese


olive trees among the grapes


I was surprised at how small the grapes were.


cave tasting


(Painting of the '05 reserve label from a New Orleans artist.)


After the awesome tour & tasting, we went to find some lunch and ended up at the Grist Mill.  Can't find a link for it, but it was nice.  (And there was a table of other Dallas folks there!)

Grist Mill


From there, we headed to Matt's favorite winery - Kunde!  We had a reservation for the mountain top tour.  Another nice tour guide drove us through the property, to the top of the hill, where we enjoyed the views overlooking the whole vineyard.  (The wine didn't disappoint either!)  
We got some great photos & visited with the other few couples.  Our guide told us that the property is a hot spot for weddings.  Just a couple weekends before, Seth Rogan got married there.  When we drove back down the hill, we could see the staff setting up for another wedding.  Breathtaking.


Kunde


hill top

views





(Dinner on day 2 is worthy of its own post.  Until then!)







1 comment:

Abby said...

You're trip looks like it was just amazing! I want to go there someday after reading all about it! :) So glad y'all had a great time!