Napa 2010 Day 6

We went over to Sonoma for our wine tastings today. Sonoma seems less commercialized which is also reflected in the costs of the wines and tastings. You can find places which only charge $5 and there are still some free offerings on that side of the mountains.

We started down the southern end of the valley at Schug, in the Carneros appellation. Schug's tasting cost $5 and they waived the fee for each bottle of wine purchased. The tasting room isn't very large, but the counter is made of recycled wine barrel wood. Schug specializes in Pinot Noir, but they make an excellent chardonnay, so we bought a bottle.

A fun, worthwhile tasting can be found at Valley of the Moon winery. The tasting room has a huge bar (didn't matter since we were the only ones there) and is also a gift shop. They offer two tastings, a $5 regular and $10 reserve tasting, and the fees are waived with three bottle purchase. VotM makes a full suite of wines, including a sparkling and a port which can only be purchased at the winery. We also bought a couple rosé of sangiovese and two sangiovese's to get our six bottles.

Russel, our host from Pride yesterday recommended we go to Chateau St. Jean, and even gave us coupons for free reserve tastings. CSJ distributes some of the their regular wines, and the reserves are very good. We got a Chardonnay and Vionier. In CSJ's tasting room they offer sandwiches and salads brought in daily from a local deli, so we ate a nice picnic lunch in their beautiful courtyard.

For our last winery of the day we took a looooooonng drive up to the border of the Dry Creek and Russian River areas of Sonoma to Armida Cellars. We know Armida from a fun Zinfandel they make called PoiZin which they distribute to Total Wine on the east coast. Unbeknownst to us they also make a reserve PoiZin sold only at the winery and to club members each bottle of which comes in its own coffin box (see bottles below). Dad joined the wine club, so he will be getting two shipments per year in addition to the case of chardonnay, two reserve PoiZins and two Antidotes we shipped home.

We ate a really nice steak dinner in downtown Napa at Cole's Chop House, an á la carté steakhouse. Everyone ordered the filet and we shared mushroom caps and asparagus.

Places Visited:
Schug
Valley of the Moon
Chateau St. Jean
Armida
Cole's Chop House