Tuesday

Let the drinking begin! Here is our lovely group day one outside of our first stop - the gorgeous Sausal Family Property . Grethen took us on quite a vineyard tour that began with plenty of tasting and making aquaintance with the two black cellar cats - who followed us for about 1/2 mile. They wouldn't pose for a picture -hmpfh.





We tasted several Zins, including the "Century Vine" which comes from rootstock at least 130yrs old.







Look at those beautiful zinfandel grapes. These vines are about 90 years old.



Our trek through the vineyard got up close and personal.




Next we stopped for an amazing boxed lunch at the Dry Creek General Store. The big hit was the sweet corn salad with pesto and grape tomaotes!!! Although my favorite thing was the homemade pickles we got. The Sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies weren't to shabby either!



Here we are at the Dry Creek Olive CO., learning all about how artisan olive oil gets made. It was so cool to see how the olives go from start to finish to become delicous, creamy and peppery oil.



The ladies from Dry Creek Olive Co did an awesome tasting for us of all of their oils. We were all doing "shots" of oil, which was super fun. My favorite was the blood orange oil - oh my goodnessssss.



After that we got to split up into groups of 8 to visit three small tasting rooms on the property of Timber Crest . I led my group to Papapietro Perry to taste some of the best Pinot Noir in California right now. Our tasting room person kind of rushed us through but we still had a lot of fun.



Then it was on to Dry Creek and the incomparable Michele Slumberger Property. We all just about fell in love here and have decided to pool our money and buy a winery.




We learned all about Biodynamic farming, including their lovely organic garden complete with heirloom tomatoes you can see me eating right off the vine below.

This was our guide, Jerry Craven. We learned so much from him about all things wine.

A brief rest before the big hike . . .

WAYYYYY up the hill! We were all troopers!

But the views of Dry Creek and beyond were absolutely worth it.

Into the barrel room, blessedly cool. And fascinating.





There's miss Babs, being Babsalicious.

At this point my camera died - so I have no photos of our incredible dinner at Willi's Wine Bar - which turned out to be a stone's throw from our hotel. Let's just say the meal, atmosphere and service were just incredible and a great time was had by all. Hopefully I ca nsnag some pictures from someone else of all NINE dishes to post.