And then this happened...

Just got back from Sonoma. Some quick notes and highlights:

1. Biggest win of the trip was staying in Glen Ellen. A couple places where you could walk to dinner and close by to a lot of options and within 30-40 minutes of almost anywhere, with the exception of the far north Anderson valley. We stayed at the Gaige House, which was a nice mix of B&B and hotel. Plus, Glen Ellen is such a small town it just didn't feel overrun on the weekend. Napa has just seemed to continue to escalate on price that it's really to the point of being more than I care to spend, no matter the experience.

2. The best new winery (to us) we visited this trip was Siduri in Santa Rosa. Honestly liked everything they did with pinot, and their style really runs the gamut. So that is an accomplishment. You aren't going to have all the ambiance, as it is in a warehouse, but it's worth the appointment. I think this was a commonly referred one on this thread, so thanks for that.

3. We made a return trip to Merry Edwards. Again, pinot centered and some really great stuff. Bu it wasn't as diverse as Siduri and their rather unique tasting experience just isn't as much fun as some other places. A good place to visit at least once or twice but it focuses on "education", which can sometimes come across as intimidating. Their hosts have so much that I think they are supposed to tell you that it turns to a one-way conversation.

4. But had a fun time at Martinelli. Their wines were more hit and miss, but the tasting was just fun and they had a bigger variety of things to try.

5. Went to Benziger because of some free wine club stuff from the in-laws. A good visit for someone new to wine but I wouldn't have been happy if I paid for any of that. Didn't buy anything.

6. Our one stop in Napa was to Round Pond, where we have a membership. Generally speaking, we like their stuff (hence the membership) and their late harvest Sauvignon Blanc was fantastic. The problem with a sweet wine is that sweet is such a powerful flavor that the others need to be as pronounced to keep up. It was a little disappointing to see their new series of 100% cab from specific parts of their property. They are entering that super high end Napa priced wine world as well. I understand that this is the price they can get but between that and using the allocation list, it's a little off-putting. This could be a bigger commentary on Napa as a whole and why we find ourselves looking to Sonoma more and more.

7. Did a little hiking at Sugarloaf state park. I like breaking up the trip with a couple hours of exercise outdoors, especially with the great options available in the area.

This was about a month ago but took a trip to France with my family and spend several days in the Southern Rhone. I thought for a minute this should be it's own post but all the cork dorks seem to check this thread regularly.

Backstory, my dad was a classically trained French chef. He hasn't cooked professionally in years, but food and wine are a big part of myself and my 3 siblings lives because of our him. Also, he's never actually been to France, so we decided for Christmas to buy plane tickets for he and my mom.

After a couple of nights in Paris we took the train down to Avignon where we rented an AirBnB just outside of town. I can't suggest doing this enough, we were pinching ourselves that a bunch of hicks from Texas were staying in such a nice house in the south of France. There was 8 of us so it worked out to roughtly $50 per night.
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Our house was about a 15 minute drive to Chateauneuf du Pape. In my mind we would split time between here and other villages like Tavel, Gigonas and Vacqueryas but we wound up in Cdp every day.

View from the top of the hill in Cdp


The pope's old summer house


The day we arrived from Paris we had a scheduled tasting at Beaucastel. Unfortunately I had too much to drink in Paris the night before and missed our train, and missed the tasting (oops.)

There was a festival in Cdp the next day, with just about every producer there sampling every level of wine they produced. for 5 euro you could sample from over 70 wineries. This ran the gamut from high end Cdp producers like Beaucastel to guys you've never heard of.
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Decided we needed a food break, just outside the tasting there was street vendors cooking up duck breast and foie gras.
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The next morning we had a tasting scheduled at Pegau. The winemaker Laurence, gives the tour herself. This woman is a rockstar. Pegau isn't necessarilly a blue blood like Beaucastel, which has been around forever and one of the top producers for decades. Her father owned just a couple of hectares, she went to school for enology and business and after taking over continued to procure more vineyards and improve their winemaking to the point where it is today, which is one of the best wineries in Cdp. A stat that kind of surprised me from the tour was that they export 97% of their wine. USA, China and Canada being the biggest destinations. Were actually some rich Chinese that showed up while we were touring and asked for the oldest bottle available that they could buy. 100% whole cluster fermentation, all indigenous yeast.

Laurence, her father on a tractor and the pope's old house in the background.

This trip was incredible. All of our days in the Rhone Valley consisted of going out midday to taste and pickup a couple cases worth of wine. The town of Cdp has dozens of tasting rooms open. Better prices on the high end Cdp than you would get here (obviously) and also so many great Cote du Rhone and rose's between 4 and 8 euros. Then we would go to the markets and pickup fresh produce and meat and head back to our hillside chateau to cook dinner and drink wine while the sun went down. Between airline miles, splitting airbnb with a big group and cooking meals at the house this is a super realistic trip for anyone who wants to try a new wine region.