First stop was dive-breakfast place Hank's Creekside Restaurant in Santa Rosa. It was definitely a greasy spoon typa place, and the perfect way to fortify our stomachs for oodles of wine tasting. I ordered my version of the Grand Slam with every bit of salty and sweet that breakfast has to offer: eggs, home fries, onions, buttered pancakes with syrup and last but not least, sausage links. Upon ordering, I swear I heard my sweatpants perk up back at the house knowing the attention they would get later.
The homefries and onions aren't pictured (sorry). Upon finishing, the sing-along continued on the road to Preston Vineyards of the Dry Creek Valley.
An organic farm and winery, Preston was not originally on our list of picks. We had intended to go to Bella after recommendations from friends, but our Artesa wine dude said they were a young winery and not as fine-tuned as its neighbor, Preston. So, Preston it was. Preston also makes its own olive oils and has a number of feral cats roaming the premises.
No comped tasting, but a very friendly wine chick who let us pick four wines to taste each. I picked two whites and two reds. Let me take a step back and make note of my preferences as a wine drinker. I became a red wine enthusiast several years ago after being poisoned by waaaaaay too much Chardonnay way back when at a work reception. And of all the red wine varieties, I am a Pinot Noir lover. Hands down. Many of the places we had on our itinerary featured Pinot Noirs and Savignon Blancs (my favorite white).
Now back to Preston. Many of their wines had names with which I was not familiar. Many were blends and given names like Madame Preston which didn't lend itself to explaining the type of wine. But the wine lady was informative enough to clear up any confusion. She said they grow a lot of grapes common to the Rhone Valley in France. Also, their labels were fun...different variations on each bottle. While I liked the Mouvedre (red), I decided to buy a bottle of their Viognier as it was heavenly and delicious. After getting free samples of their fresh-baked breads and dipping it in their homemade oil (another WOW moment) we wandered the grounds.
Onto Matrix.
Known for their Pinot Noirs, Sheri and I were especially excited about this visit. We ended up tasting several pinots and some zins (and other blends). The server poured us vintage's of each wine so we could compare. After our teeth turned black, we surprisingly all purchased one of the Zinfandels.
Next we headed to Lynmar Estate in Sebastopol per the recommendation of our Artesa friend. Lynmar was absolutely gorgeous. The patio was huge and had several places to sit down with a glass of wine, some cheese and soak in the gorgeous vineyard backdrop. They also had a lush garden full of vegetables and greens.
While I marveled at the pristine Candian Tuxedo donned by our pourer, Sheri made friends with an odd fellow with a unique fashion sense. He told us we should continue on to Merry Edwards (originally on our list, but nixed after talking to our Artesa friend) as he said it was worth the trip...and literally located around the corner from Lynmar.
Onto Merry Edwards we went. More feral cats. More of Sheri's boyfriend and his fedora.
They don't make shirts like that much anymore. At this point, we decided to hit the road for our long journey home. Thankfully, Christine had abstained from some of the tastings so was perfectly capable no navigate the black-teeth crew home safely. Upon our return to downtown Napa, we headed into town to check out the Oxbow Market. After wandering and admiring their robust food selection, we each bought a mini cupcake and headed back to the house to rest up before our 9pm dinner reservation at Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc.
I think Ad Hoc deserves a post of its own, so look for that later.
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