July 29 - Wine Country

Yesterday was a travel day.  We tried to avoid the heavier traffic by going slightly inland. Unfortunately the goal was Sonoma area so that was only partly possible. We settled on 680, which was the eastern-most freeway through the bay area. It was still busy!  5 freeways northbound and still massive traffic even after rush hour!
But the biggest congestion was the KOA in Petaluma.  A huge campground with no parking for registration. RV's were lined up out to the main street! People were abandoning their RV to search for a way to get registered and the road was blocked for almost an hour!  Couldn't turn around, couldn't go forward! This place was a disaster!
But then someone finally came out and discovered to her amazement that people were trying to get in. After a few minutes of digesting this, she stopped selling softdrinks and candy and actually started registering people.  We got in and started to be on vacation again.  This was Sunday, so I guess it was a complete surprise. Yet even on Monday, the campground was full. But we had a reservation, so here we are!

Sherry performed research on just where we should go to get the wine-tasting experience.  Suddenly, we were shocked that there were literally hundreds (over 400) of wineries in the Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino (and surrounding) counties.  Lots of web sites that offer suggestions.  Yet  we weren't planning on staying that long so seeing even the most popular became impossible. So we retreated to local brochures, chose a region (Sonoma because it was close), chose road (12) and started driving.  As it turned out, we stopped at only two wineries, yet enjoyed the experience! 

Our first stop was Ledson Winery (we picked from a list of recommended lesser-priced wineries in Sonoma).  It doesn't have distributors and most of the grapes are sold to other wine producers.  But they do bottle a small number for their own label.  We shared a tasting (6 wines for $15).  Steve loved the Zinfandel and Sherry loved it too, so we bought a bottle. 

We stopped and ate our picnic lunch before continuing down the road a few miles more.  Our second stop was Kunde.  Sherry previously developed a fondness for a Reserve Chardonnay from there, which was no longer available.

This place turned out to be the largest family-owned vineyard (1800+ acres being cultivated).    One hill had a cave which housed over 6000 barrels of wine.  They still sell 40% of their grapes but have enough left over to make a few bottles (each barrel can produce 300 bottles! - or so we're told)

Still early in the growing season but there were lots of grapes to see!
We again shared a tasting and Sherry found her Reserve Chardonnay (only available to club members and visitors due to limited supply).  So she became a club member (which obligates us to a case of wine - aughhhhhhhhh - shouldn't decide such things after a wine tasting).  We also got a copy of the DVD 'Bottle Shock' which was a 2009 movie dramatising the 1976 (bicentennial) tasting in which California wineries surpassed French wineries on certain wines (including a Chardonnay).  We didn't see that winery (Chateau Montelena) but part of the movie was filmed in Kunde winery!

Our next destination is Northern California coastline and on to Oregon!