What a Week, Day Three!

The next day was Saturday and the big event in Sonoma County was the Barrel Tasting in Russian River, Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys.  This year was the first time they held it on two weekends. March 1-2 and 8-9 it was $20 to taste, per weekend, out of the barrel at almost 100 wineries (an impossible task).  My job for the day was to ferry some local tasting veterans who numbered seven all women.   All had known each other for years and decided a day away from husbands and children was in order.  These women knew where they wanted to go and had a road map assembled with some diligent work and thought by Becky (the planner).

First stop was Russian River Valley, the Olivet Lane wineries, Harvest Moon and Hook and Ladder.

Harvest Moon had a Magician, George Winters, entertaining between tastings.  Then over to Hook and Ladder Winery where things were busy and Cecil Deloach was on hand cooking his famous Firehouse Chili.  I picked up some of the great Palo Alto Fireman's Pepper Sauce sold there. 

The morning started out slowly as it took a bit for all seven to get into the car.  Initially
the talk was of past years. The party got started, though, after a couple of wineries. 

We next stopped at Moshin where they were serving Wild Boar Chili. I got the recipe, while they were busy tasting the barrels of the future wines.  The show was complete with the band "Bucky Walters" playing some good Bluegrass music.
   

We jumped in the Limo and headed up Westside Road into the Dry Creek Valley.  Our destination was Armida, home of PoiZin their famous Zinfandel.  These guys know how to party!

Leaving the Russian River we then proceeded to Dry Creek Central or A. Rafanelli, long known for their Zinfandel.  This was quick as they had only two wines to taste. 

Our next stop was the Family wineries there on Dry Creek Road. This was a fun stop as there are about six wineries in the complex and each was doing their own thing so there was lots to try.

Barrel tasting stops at 4 o'clock so we were pretty much done at 4:30 but heading up in the direction of Healdsburg we saw that Wilson Winery was still open and stopped to taste their wines which were being poured despite barrel tasting being done.

That was a wrap and the limo headed back to Petaluma to return the ladies to where we started. The third tour of the week was done!

Comments

[Shannon]

Hi Mark,

My name is Shannon and I'm the editorial assistant at Foodbuzz.com. Following up on a recent email invitation to be a part of our newly launched Foodbuzz Featured Publisher program, I just want to reiterate that I am very impressed with the quality of your posts. I would love to send you more details about the program, so if you are interested, please email me at Shannon@foodbuzz.com.

Cheers!

Shannon Eliot
Editorial Assistant, Foodbuzz.com
shannon@foodbuzz.com