California Wine Country

Northern California was our third, and final, wine region. We didn’t end up going into Napa, but rather spent our time exploring Sonoma and the Russian River areas a bit.

Sonoma was a great little town with good food and cool shops. It definitely ignited the consumer urge in us, though we managed to resist. We went to a few wineries and did a tasting in town. We didn’t try too many as we were just coming off a minor bout of food poisoning and also had to drive back to the hotel.

We also spent a day in the Russian River area. Our day started with a visit to our CouchSurfing host, Cristina, who works at a winery. She gave us a tour of their gravity fed production line and several recommendations on other places to visit. Our favorites were Porter Creek, a certified biodynamic (put as much back in the soil as you take out) winery, and Iron Horse, which specializes in sparkling wines. We also thought the grounds of the Armida winery were stunning, especially with the vines changing colors.

That evening we met up with Cristina at the local pub. It just so happened that this pub was one of the two locations currently serving Fossil Fuels beer. We heard about the stuff on our trip to DC earlier this summer. It’s made with a strain of paleolithic yeast extracted from a chunk of amber (think Jurassic Park). To be honest, it just tasted like beer but it’s a fun story anyway.

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Cristina, her boyfriend Joe and a friend of theirs, all of whom are in the wine biz. She’s lived in South America as well, so we swapped a lot of stories and talked well into the night about wine. Thanks guys for being such awesome hosts!