The most surprising and really special people that I have been in touch with this last week is my mission team members from when I went to Israel in 1995. That summer was so intense and made a huge impact on my life and the people that I went with became almost like family. But when we got back to the U.S., we all scattered back to our homes and I lost touch with everyone except my best friend, Krista. I often thought about these people, because when you are in the conditions that we were in together, you form special bonds and you remember them, even if you don't know where they all are. I never thought I would get a chance to communicate with most of them ever again. Then last week, I received an invitation to join a group from my friend Jimmy, who also went on the mission. When I checked it out, I found 5 other members of the team also in the group. I was ECSTATIC!! So I've spent all week catching up and watching as we try to hunt down other members of our team. It's been like a little mini-family reunion and all the wonderful (and not so wonderful) memories have been flooding back, as we all reminisce about that summer. I never thought that Facebook was much - but I didn't know it's possibilities. This has been an amazing treat and just a wonderful week getting back in touch with people I thought I would never hear from again. So, this is why I have been remiss in getting the posts up - more important things at the moment...
So, without further ado, pictures and story from our wine-tasting adventure on Monday:
We set out Monday morning with our friends Rochelle and Lindsay. Rochelle has a car and very very graciously agreed to be our chauffer for the day (and our designated driver, although we really didn't end up needing one).
We set out Monday morning with our friends Rochelle and Lindsay. Rochelle has a car and very very graciously agreed to be our chauffer for the day (and our designated driver, although we really didn't end up needing one).
It just feels so good to get out of the city every now and then. And the day was beautiful - blue sky as far as the eye could see. A perfect day for wine country...
We didn't really have much of a plan - we had a map of all the Sonoma county wineries and a listing of all the places that offered complimentary wine tastings. You see, most of the wineries in Napa and Sonoma actually charge hefty tasting fees. Most of the wineries in Napa are like $40 a pop. That's almost four times as much as I usually pay for a single bottle of wine. So, we were focused on free tastings, and that led us mostly outside of Sonoma and up north to Healdsburg and the Russian River Valley area. The surprising thing is that there is way more wineries up in this area anyways - just not as well-known.
We turned off on highway 121 to Sonoma and immediately started to seeing the fields of vines.
Our first stop was just outside of Sonoma - the Jacuzzi Family Wineries. Because it was free. And basically the only winery in Sonoma that is. We found out when we got inside that this is because it just opened in 2007. They are still trying to attract people. 
It's always a little nerve-wracking for me walking in to do wine-tasting, because I don't know the first about wine. Except that I like it. I pick a wine because it's cheap and it has a pretty label - which I'm sure would be extremely frowned upon by people in the know...I always feel like the pouring people are just going to ask me to please let myself out. But we had a very nice lady who poured our wine for us and we got to try 5 wines - 2 whites and 3 reds. The pinot noir was terrible but the rest of them were pretty good.
So, after surviving our first winery, we set out on the road again. By this time, it was about noon and we were getting hungry, so we hit Whole Foods to put together an awesome picnic. Lindsay and I did some cheese-tasting to complement our wine-tasting and picked a delicious cheese, if I do say so myself. Can't remember the name of it, though. Darn. Then we got baguettes, grapes, salami, tapenade, and some mixed olives. Rochelle had brought some gruyere, crackers and sausage, so all in all, we had quite a feast. We pulled over at a winery that had a picnic area and bought a bottle of Pinot Grigio. The winery lent us glasses since we were eating on the premises and we sat down to one of the best lunches I have ever had.
With the warm sunshine, the setting, and the good conversation - it was perfect!! I think we all ate a little too much, and had to roll ourselves to the car to continue our wine-tour. We headed north towards Healdsburg and the free wine-tastings...There are vineyards as far as the eye can see - every available space is planted...
After passing Santa Rosa, we got off highway 101 and hit our second winery of the day: Martinelli Winery - no relation to the apple-cider folks...we think. We got to try 5 wines at this winery, as well, and I thought they were all fantastic!! In fact, as wine goes, I think this was my favorite winery of the day. Unfortunately, their cheapest bottle was $30 and it only went up from there, topping out at $70 for a bottle of some red wine. Yikes. A little above my price threshold.
The next winery was a little ways away, and we wound through more vineyards and crossed a pretty little creek. The sun was starting to get lower in the sky at this point, and the light was beautiful. A lot of the vineyards had stuff planted between their vines, and one field was all blooming with little yellow flowers. In the sunlight, it looked so cheerful and summery.
Our next winery was one of the smallest in the county - Porter Creek Vineyards. A very interesting Scotsman poured our tastes of about 7 or 8 wines, and "tasted" with us the whole time. He was quite entertaining and really took a fancy to Rochelle. He gave us the most in-depth information about the wine that we were tasting out of all the wineries, and we spent the most time at this one. I made my first wine purchase here - a bottle of a red wine that I can't remember the name of. It was a fairly obscure grape, though - not one I've ever seen before. But it was yummy. In a store, I never would have paid this much for a bottle of wine, but in the tasting room, among the vineyards, with all the first-hand information about how the wine was made, it seemed like a much better deal.
It was 4:30 at this point, and our wine-tasting day was almost over. We hurried through two more wineries - Arista and Armida (where there was a fantastic red wine) - and I purchased one more bottle of wine, and tied a record for most bottles of wine ever purchased in a day. The sun was really getting low at this point, so we stopped for a moment and enjoyed the beautiful views:
All the wineries were closed now, so we called it a day and headed back into the city. All in all, I thought it was a wonderful, successful day. We tasted a lot of wine, had a great lunch, saw some beautiful scenery, and enjoyed each other's company. Couldn't ask for much more!!
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