Last weekend Brian and I met up with some of his college buddies and their prettier halves for a weekend of wine tasting and catching up at the Wine Growers of Dry Creek Valley Passport Weekend. This wildly popular Sonoma County event is only available through a lottery system. Lucky for us, we had friends who won the lottery! (Thanks Jay and Christine!)
With 45 wineries participating, two days simply wasn't enough time to indulge in all of the creative food pairings with well constructed wines. So, we did our best to make a small dent in our passports (11 wineries in two days - not too shabby...). Sadly, I came down with a nasty cold on Sunday but in hind sight, it was nice knowing we were abiding the rules of designating a driver.
Each winery offered a theme of their choosing: Sbragia mimicked an Italian open-market where you strolled from one stand to the next tasting wines and sampling foods. Mazzocco took us to the Middle East with belly dancers entertaining us as we sipped off the barrels. Delicious lamb, couscous and hummus accompanied their wines. Bella was a circus - literally. Their caves were transformed into a big tent. Face painters, clowns, acrobats, and of course, food and wine were abound. All in all, it was a spectacular weekend.
Our itinerary:
Saturday
Arrive Geyserville at 2pm - visit Yoakim Bridge, Dutcher Crossing, Ferrari-Carano, and Sbragia
5pm - meet the group at Santi for drinks (which turned into 5 hours of drinks and dinner, oh my!)
Sunday
Visit Armida, De LaMontanya (played a mean game of Bocce ball there!), Ridge, Mazzocco, Bella, Talty, and Rued (great people, great wines!)
Dinner was sandwhiches and wine poolside at the hotel. Nice and relaxing. It was there we determined that approximately eight bottles were consumed between three people. Yikes!
Monday
Breakfast at the Center Street Cafe in Healdsburg and then headed on home...
We're hoping to win the lotto again next year so we can try out new wineries and enjoy more time catching up with old friends.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment