Thursday

Our first stop on Thursday was the Benovia Winery - a brand new state of the art property built on a former apple orchard. We were super excited about coming here because many of us had tasted the exquisite Benovia Pinot at the school before when we carried it several months ago.



Pinot on the Vine - ready to be picked that day or the next.




We learned that the wire netting is a very expensive bird deterrent.





I had to include a picture of Van #2, chauffeured all week by yours truly.

Our host explaining how varietal grapes are grafted to native American root stock to avoid disease.

As there is no public access to this winery, our tasting room was the barreling room!

Perhaps my favorite wine of the whole week was our last at Benovia - the sweetly complex Zinfandel that was a total surprise to me.

Outside we find the owner himself sorting through grapes by hand before they go into the crusher.

Our next stop was probably the highlight of the trip for many. The truly lovely Foppoli family opened up their family home and welcomed us in like old friends. Our stop began with a tasting of the spectacular chardonnay right in the vineyard under an old oak tree. Dominique Foppoli and his intern Whitney shared the incredible story of their family's journey into making some of the most sought after white wines in California. We were all mesmerized!

Then we ventured up a hill through the cow pasture to an outlook over the spectacular Russian River Valley, while sipping the next wine, Russian River Chardonnay. It was very special and one of the best unoaked chards I've tasted.

Next we sat down in the family's back yard for an amazing lunch & tasting. As time went by we were also treated to meeting the menagerie of Foppoli animals. This is Mike making friends with Luigi - half great dane half italian mastif, if you can imagine the size of him.

We were taken care of by Dominique's lovely mom Terri and his charming father, Richard.

Intermittently, we all got lap visits from "Kitty", and even got in trouble for letting her walk on the table.

Dominique & Richard pose with their amazing wine.

Mom making friends with the Foppoli cows and horses.

This was their adorable mascot, Eeyore.

Di was finally able to make friends with him. I was petrified he was going to kick her!

Next we had an impromptu visit to Martinelli Winery, where Dominique called in a favor and the owner herself, Regina Martinelli met us and tasted us on their 92pt. plus scoring wines. She was super fun, we had a great experience there.

This was our only unplanned stop on the whole trip!

Last stop of the day - Arista Winery. We couldn't wait to check out their famed Japanese gardens. One of the most picturesque things we did all week.

Through the gardens to the knoll where we tasted.

Arista specializes in Pinot Noir.

We had a great time, and the handsome young owner even stopped by to say hello. Some of the ladies reeeaallly enjoyed that.

After a brief rest stop at the hotel, we headed to downtown Healdsberg for our last dinner of the week at the incomparable Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen. Our group had a lovely private room in the grounds of the Hotel Healdsberg where we were wined and dined with a seven course chef's tasting menu.

We started with an amuse bouche - a ceviche of hamachi & salmon.

Next we tried the lemon flavored Madeleine topped with smoked Salmon mousse and caviar with ab it of lemony oil & chive.

At this point our chef stopped in to say hello and welcome us. We also enjoyed the sommelier and GM popping in intermittently to speak about each course of food and wine.

This was amazing - seared baby hamachi over a radish & baby greens salad dressed with kaffir lime and champagne vinaigrette with avocado mousse and teeny tiny melon balls.

I forgot to take a before photo of this as I was SO excited to taste it - toasted Farro "risotto" with pesto and pecorino cheese. One of the culinary highlights of the week for me.

Gorgeous local sweet corn and peeled baby tomatoes in a concasse topped with fresh seared Ahi. It was just perfectly executed.

The requisite filet, done expertly, with a rich mushroom puree and roasted artichoke hearts and demiglace. The portion sizes for everything were just right.

My FAVORITE dessert of the week!! Fresh local berries with mini lemon tartlets shaped like flowers over a toasted marshmallow meringue with tart strawberry sorbet. I wanted to go around and finish other peoples plates . . . .

And with that, our amazing week came to a close. We all said our goodbyes that evening as everyone was departing at different times Friday for destinations that varied. Some went on to more wining and dining while other headed home for good. Overall I think everyone had a wonderful, intimate experience in Wine Country.

Sonoma opened it's arms to us in every way and by the end of the week we all were considering a permanent move! I can't say enough good things about the places and people there and will try and post a list of all the places we went with the highest recommendation from myself and our whole group. If you have the chance to visit this beautiful and friendly place, do not hesitate to bypass Napa and head to what is surely one of the most amazing places I've ever had the pleasure to visit.