Sunday wanderings

Written last night:

Dear Friends,
1. Today I got lost coming home from the winery. 
Heringer’s, on the other side of the river.
I wandered back home the long way.

2. Then I sat reading (about bridges) outside on a bench
with Zing! sunning beside me.
We had several conversations with friends who passed by --,
about good hiking near Auburn
and cooperative living in West Sacramento
and the charm of dogs who can’t jump.

3. At the winery a woman named Toni introduced her husband.
He said he goes to Miami on movie business.
He laughs at all the fancy cars there.
He tells the parking attendant to be careful with his plain truck.
It's full of equipment
worth more than many Lamborghinis.

“I pray we’ll meet again,” Toni said as we left. 
It’s a good reason to go back and buy wine.

That was my Sunday.
Love,
k

Searching for wine in wine country

While Mary, Gretchen and I were in Napa last week my goal was to find a bottle that I like for $20 or less. Here’s a drawing of the winner (actually, the only $20 bottle we came across!), plus a practical skill that I learned from Gretchen. Thanks, Gretchen!

Love,

k

We take a dry run through Wine Country

Written last night:
Dear Friends,

I decided to go to Napa today because tomorrow the streets both here and in Napa might be full of young gun-control demonstrators.(I hope they are!) I went to check out the wine tour that Mary, Gretchen and I will be taking in mid-April. I want to become more familiar with the streets and the hills. Gretchen picked the wineries (with one bubbly suggestion from my local friend Hilary) and made reservations for tastings. She decided on three wineries and a lunch stop. Then she made a little map for herself (which she discarded, or I would reproduce it here), trying to keep the area compact. We did not want to be driving all over Napa-Sonoma-Calistoga. I offered to drive and not drink, but everyone seems to think that’s a terrible idea, so Gretchen is going to book a driver. I didn’t taste any wine today — but these are sure to be good, since Gretchen picked wine she loves. Her wine tour might help you, too, if/when you go to wine country. There are so many choices that it's easy to get confused.

I’m just getting to know wine country. People around here all seem to have a favorite place. Some belong to wine clubs, and get regular mailings and crates of wine delivered. They have weddings and other events at "their" winery. I’ve been to a big winery, where you can just drop in and have a tasting — giant rooms with bars scattered everywhere, each one hosting a small group. You pay a fee and get three to five tastes. They are hoping you will buy a bottle or a case, but you don’t have to. I’ve also been to a small winery, with the same setup on a more intimate scale. Some wineries have delicatessens and beautiful picnic areas. It can get crowded. That’s why Gretchen made reservations.

Today I only made it to Caymus and Oakville Grocery. It took an hour to get from Sacramento to Napa and 2 1/2 hours to get back. Traffic.

Love,

k

Here’s Gretchen’s Napa Wine Tour:

Caymus (— beyond Napa — an hour and a half from downtown Sacramento)

8700 Conn Creek Rd.

Rutherford, CA 94573

707-967-3010

(6-minute drive)

Oakville Grocery (for lunch — a fine deli with minimal eating space outside. Looks like there’s just a little parking, but there’s more in the rear, next to the tiny Oakville Post Office.)

7856 St. Helena Hwy.

Oakville, CA 94562

707-944-8802

(12-minute drive)

Clos Du Val

5330 Silverado Trail

Napa, CA 94558

707-261-5225

(20-minute drive)

Domain Carneros (sparkling wines)

1240 Duhig Rd.

Napa, CA 94559

Above and below, Zing! at Caymus

Vino vacation

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

I forgot what it’s like to be on vacation — you do something new every day and go,go,go. Today I took my Tallahassee friends Lori and her daughter Andie to wine country. And now we are all tired! 

First stop was Napa, which Lori visited some years ago. She kept marveling at how it has changed — bigger, mostly. We had lunch at the ABC Bakery in Napa. which Mary Kaye and I discovered not long ago. (Once again delicious.) Then we went in search of wineries, and ended up at a place in St. Helena, recommended by a friend.  It was my second “tasting” experience, although today I didn’t taste anything but water. Lori and Andie did, though, as new visitors to wine country must. That’s the way I felt a couple of weeks ago. Now I’m feeling like an old-timer. This V. Sattui tasting room is different from my first experience -- cavernous, with a deli and picnic area as well. Someone said they serve 1,000 people on Saturdays. Today the place was booming and it’s only Wednesday. Their mix of gracious grounds, wine-making displays and friendly, persistent sales and tastings ($20 and $25 for four or five tastes — can’t remember which) seems to have hit the vino sweet-spot: an adult amusement park.

And for the second act. we lolled through the famous California traffic on the way home. 

What I noticed most today is how proprietary I feel about California — I cringed at any whiff of criticism and glowed at every praise.

Love,

k

This room smells like wine ... or raisins

Across the fence from the tasting room

Forget the quilts -- Let's go to Napa!

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Today's plan was to go to an art quilt meeting in Walnut Grove with my friend Mary Kaye. She couldn’t pick me up easily because police cars blocked some streets by the Capitol to free them for a walk — I still have to look up what the walk was for. Anyway, she did finally make it. 

Next we got onto I-80, and it was all mucked up because of construction (something involving a bridge — they’re working nights and weekends.) Cars were barely moving. After many stops and starts and turns and trials of alternate routes we decided, “Forget the quilts — Let’s go to Napa!”

We turned our backs on traffic and took the back roads. Rolling hills turned to curves, sharper curves, "don’t look over the edge" curves. It was gorgeous. Acres of grapes, golden grass, and nut orchards (Yes, they call them orchards, not groves, says Mary Kaye, who grew up on a Southern California almond orchard.)

We ended up in Napa (pop. 76,900) — a bigger town than Yountville or St. Helena, the other wine destinations I’ve visited. We chose a place for lunch because it had a parking spot out front. Inside there was live music, long, patient lines, and tempting baked goods. We stopped there by happenstance, but intense study couldn’t have found a better restaurant: Alexis Baking Company.

I insisted we couldn’t come back from Napa without a bottle of wine — so we stopped at a small wine tasting room at a crossroads in the countryside. There was an antique shop across the street, with rusting tractors out front, and next door was a restaurant with many patrons. 

I didn’t know what to expect — a long bar? little tables with samples in paper cups?  something involving a spittoon so you can swish and enjoy many sips? 

Perhaps they’re all different, but this tasting room (Vezér Family Vineyard) had the dim, cozy feel of a club or game room, with leather chairs and sofas and a small bar where a friendly tender offered tastes. You paid for tasting, but it was credited to the price of a bottle, I think. It all happened so quickly that I’m not sure. I had two tastes. Then I bought a bottle of red wine, which I’ve hidden in the cupboard by the stove. I’ve got a lot to learn.

Today turned out better than planned. We laughed all the way back home.

Love,

k

Walnut trees

Lodi -- Friendly wine country

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Zing went to the gym, I went to drawing class, and then we both went to Lodi.

Look it up and you find the Credence Clearwater Revival song with the refrain:

"Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again"

Mention that you went to Lodi and your friend Mary Kaye says, “Well, I guess you won’t be going back!”

You get it — Lodi is not one of the gleaming California towns where everyone longs to live. It’s not even in Silicone Valley. It is about a half-hour through flatland southeast of Sacramento. You’ve heard of Stockton… well, it’s almost to Stockton. Lodi was the perfect place for me and Zing to start our explorations beyond the city limits -- an unassuming place with easy traffic patterns, a train that runs through, a growing wine industry, and even an Asparagus Festival. The downtown is a clean handful of shops and restaurants, with a picturesque post office and some of the most polite and friendly people I ever encountered. 

One must have been Eric Donaldson of LVVI Lodi Sparkling Wine. We didn’t get his name. Zing and I were walking past an alley next to a wine-tasting place, and I saw a young man hoisting a box from his pickup. Something he was wearing (cap? shirt? I forget!) said Miami University. So I said “Ohio?” and he lit up. Most people, of course, think only of Miami, Florida, not that state university in Oxford, Ohio. We chatted about Cincinnati and bridges over the Ohio River and honeysuckle and Skyline Chili. He said he started LVVI winery and was making a wine delivery. I should have asked to buy a bottle right then. I would love to buy wine from the back of a truck in an alley in Lodi. But I didn’t think of it, so now I’ve got the first name on my list of wineries to visit.

Love,

k