And Then There Was the Wine

Kendra and Ross planned a nice day of wine tasting in Sonoma. They picked three caves for us to visit. None of us had ever been to a cave tasting before, so we were all looking forward to the experience. We packed some cheese and crackers from the Cow Girl Creamery the day before and hit the road for our 11:00 tasting at Buena Vista Winery. We probably shouldn’t have started with this one. It was by far the best we’d ever experienced, from the impressive grounds to the knowledge, time and care that was displayed during our tour. The tour guide was fantastic. We never felt that he was pushing us to buy the wines or join their clubs, but he was exceedingly generous with his pours. He even gave us seconds a time or two. Consequently, we ended up purchasing a bottle of red and a bottle of white. Our only disappointment with this tour was that we didn’t have enough time to enjoy a picnic lunch before moving along to the next winery. By the time we were finished with the Buena Vista Winery tour it was time to grab a bite to eat. We originally thought we would just “snack” on our cheese and crackers, but we were famished after drinking all that wine so decided instead to get a full lunch. We fully expected that since it was Easter Sunday all the restaurants on the Sonoma town square would be too full for us to get a table but we lucked out. The Girl & The Fig seated us right away and the sandwiches and salad we ordered were delivered fairly quickly. We would have liked to stroll around town a little after lunch, but we still had two wineries to visit and it was well after 2:00. Our next winery was nice, but newer and not as attentive as the first. We also were not as impressed with their wines. By the time we were finished with the tasting we decided unanimously not to try to squeeze in the third winery but instead return to Fairfield for dinner so that Kendra and Ross could drive back to Davis before it got too late. It was a great visit, and hard to say good-bye. Fortunately we’ll get to see Kendra again in May when she flies out for Jessie’s graduation and maybe again in July if Lou returns for more business meetings.