Honeymoon: Sonoma Day #2

Last night’s workout: 4.1 miles on the treadmill in 38 minutes

The husband and I went to the gym last night and for the first time in four weeks, I made it past the 4 mile mark.  YAY!!!!  I was so happy while running and excited to see the treadmill counter tick past 3 miles.  Seems to have been my barrier these past couple of weeks.  Hope my 3 mile hurdle is officially in the past 🙂

So, back to the honeymoon.  On Friday, April 1st the hubby and I set for our 2nd day in Sonoma.  The sun was shining for a second straight day and the flowers were even coming out.

We hit the road and headed over to Napa to visit Clos Du Val.  The hubby and I love Clos Du Val wine and even served it at our wedding.  Everyone loved the wine so much and the catering hall said that we had the biggest bunch of wine drinkers they have seen in a long  time! 🙂

We went to the tasting room and tried the Ariadne (we couldn’t find it in the stores and have been wanting to try).  Delicious!!!!  Clint from Clos Du Val took us on a private tour of the winery and let us try bunches of wines.  I was quite buzzed for 11am!  The vineyards were beautiful

and we even came across this little guy on our way out.

I have never seen a snail like that before.  How cool is that?

Next up we went to get some burgers at a place recommended by Clos Du Val’s Clint.  The hotel was gorgeous and had a beautiful garden with cute statues everywhere.

Second tasting stop of the day was a little further up the Silverado Trail in Napa at Heitz.

This vineyard ages all their wines so we were tasting wines from 2002.  They don’t even release the wines for a couple of years.  The hubby loved the Port so we walked out with a big bottle of that :).  Heitz also had the most beautiful flowers and I couldn’t help myself with picture taking. 

After two tastings before 1pm, the hubby and I were temporarily wined out so we headed up to the town of Healdsburg to walk around.  On the way we encountered the Napa Valley Wine Train.

In Healdsburg we stopped at the Downtown Bakery which is home of the famous donut muffin. 

I am going to give it just 3 stars…I feel like I can make a better one myself.   Healdsburg also had the cutest candy store I have ever seen.  They had every type of candy you can imagine and even had the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory playing.  My favorite movie of all time 🙂  (the old version of course)

Tasting #3 of the day was at Chateau Montelena.  The hubby remembered how beautiful this winery was from 20 years ago and it was just as beautiful today.  We did a tasting there but didn’t walk out with any wine.  The husband feels that the winery got a little too commercial.

Tasting #4 was at Meadowcroft back in Sonoma.  At first I chose to visit them because they have a bee for a logo but once we tasting the wines we were hooked.  They were so good and the hubby even signed up for the wine club!  We walked out of that tasting with two bottles of wine and one bottle of chocolate Cabernet sauce.  Yummy!  You will be seeing that show up in some recipes in the future for sure.

The day ended with dinner at our hotel, the Sonoma Mission Inn. 

What are you favorite wines from Napa?  Have you tried the infamous donut muffin?

Honeymoon: Sonoma Day 1

I am finally feeling better and all the sinus pressure is gone now. YAY!  I am hoping to head back to the gym tonight and get my run on.  Double YAY!!

So, last Wednesday the hubby and I flew out of Honolulu and went to Sonoma.  I have never been to Sonoma before but that hubby has. He was really excited to show me around one of his favorite places!  Still a bit jetlagged from the time difference we kind of got a late start on the first day.  We talked to the concierge at our hotel and he helped map out some stops for us.  First up was Nicholson Ranch

We tasted a bunch of their wines and loved their Pinot Noir.  I just love Pinot Noir in general.

The tasting room guy could not have been nicer.  He asked why we were in Sonoma and we told him honeymoon so he gave us more wines to try.  Another gentlemen in the tasting room heard it was our honeymoon and bought us a bottle of wine!  How nice is that?  I loved Nicholson Ranch and their wine was delicious. If you are ever in Sonoma I totally recommend stopping there.  They have good wine and a beautiful outdoor setting to sit and relax. 

Next stop was Gundlach Bundshu which is one of the oldest vineyards in Sonoma.

Their wine was ok but they did have a really cool wine cave to check out

and a beautiful pond

Next up we stopped at Benzinger.  The wine guy at Nicholson Ranch told us to stop by Benzinger if we wanted a full tour of a vineyard. 

The tour was awesome!  They took us through the vineyards and explained the whole growing process.

and how they label the sections of vines and the dates they are planted.

We were able to see that the buds were just popping this spring.

The tour also took us thru the wine cave and the whole fermenting process.  The tour ended in the tasting room and the wine was delicious.  We walked out with a bottle of Muscat Canelli.

We then drove to Domaine Chandon for some sparkling wine.  There whole vineyard/winery was just beautiful and the tasting room was cool and modern. 

We were pretty wined out by the time dinner rolled around.  We ate at Mustards Grill in Napa (hubby’s favorite Napa Restaurant) and I had the braised short rib ravioli.  YUMMY!

The restuarant was small and cute and had this hilarious sign on the storefront.

Exactly how I felt at the end of the day 🙂

Ever been to Sonoma?  Napa? Favorite restaurant or vineyard there?