{"id":1662,"date":"2014-03-11T21:12:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T04:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/?p=1662"},"modified":"2014-03-11T21:12:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T04:12:36","slug":"sonoma-getaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/2014\/03\/sonoma-getaway\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonoma Getaway"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Domaine<\/a>

Domaine Carneros<\/p><\/div>\n

I found a Sonoma getaway on Groupon and booked the date.\u00a0\u00a0With great anticipation, \u00a0Hill and I loaded up the Monsters and headed up to Sonoma to experience their wines and hospitality.\u00a0 We stayed at the dog friendly Best Western Plus Sonoma Valley Inn.\u00a0 It was an above average room located within walking distance of the town square.\u00a0 There was a dog park and walking trail right off of 1st St. W.,\u00a0also within walking distance.\u00a0 You can spend the whole day at the tasting rooms just off the square.\u00a0 We found one of our favorites from Healdsburg had opened a tasting room of the square.\u00a0 MacLaren Tasting Lounge<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>has some of the best Syrahs I have tasted.<\/p>\n

On the drive up to Sonoma from the bay area our first stop was at Domaine Carneros<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Hill loves the bu\"20140223_125007\"<\/a>bbly and Domaine Carneros<\/strong> <\/em>was a\u00a0recommended stop.\u00a0 I enjoyed the Brut rose. It was fruity, flora with a hint of tangerine on the finish.<\/p>\n

We left Domaine Carneros<\/strong> <\/em>and drove across the street to Cuvaison.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 What an unexpected surprise. Our Pour Guild was Pina, Patty, and Paul.\u00a0 They were awesome. Very attentive, knowledgeable, Personable.\u00a0 I learned a lot about Cuvaison<\/strong><\/em> wines from them and from tasting.\u00a0 Their 2011 Kite Tail Chardonnay has aromas of citrus, popcorn and butter, with mineral, lite fruit and floral notes on the tongue.\u00a0 The 2012 Estate Pinot Noir was floral on the nose, with raspberry, strawberry and a little spice on the tongue.\u00a0 Tannins and acidity balanced remarkably. One of my favorites.\u00a0 The 2011 Brandlin Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is 85% Cab, 9% Petite Verdot, 6% Cab Franc.\u00a0 It has good legs, nice black cherr\"20140223_141017\"<\/a>y color and lots of dark fruit on the tongue.\u00a0 It is well balanced with hints of caramel and toffee. 2011 Estate Syrah has long legs and deep dark color.\u00a0 It is smokey, peppery with hints of bacon and black cherry and supportive tannins.\u00a0 2010 Estate Merlot is 86% melot, 14% cab.\u00a0 Jalapeno pepper\u00a0on the nose and palate, long legs, dark color.\u00a0 Smooth and silky.\u00a0 The Noblesse Desert Wine has a nose of apricot and Meyers lemons.\u00a0 It is not overly sweet with a lite lemon finish.\u00a0The price points for Cuvaison<\/strong> <\/em>are right on.\u00a0I enjoyed all of their wines and Cuvaison<\/strong><\/em> is now on our “To Join” wine club list.<\/p>\n

We said goodbye to our new friends at Cuvaison<\/strong> <\/em>and headed to one of favorites, Patz and Hall.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong>They have just opened a beautiful tasting room in Sonoma.\u00a0 We were greeted by Ross who made us feel at home and set us up with a bowl of those delicious truffle oil almonds.\u00a0 We started with the 2011 Hyde Vineyard Carneros.\u00a0 It has aromas of orange and white flowers and a palate of crisp acidity and minerality. Lite oak and spice on the finish. $58.\u00a0 2011 Zio Tony Ranch, Russian River Valley Chardonnay has aromas of citrus and green apples.\u00a0 On the palate it is well balanced with acidity and minerality with a hint of butter and oak on the finish.\u00a0 $60.<\/p>\n

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\"Schug<\/a>

Schug Winery<\/p><\/div>\n

Day Two<\/p>\n

After taking the doggies for a walk, we headed to Schug Winery<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Schug Winery is a 50,000 case producer.\u00a0 The winemaker, Walter Schug,\u00a0is a\u00a03rd generation wine maker.\u00a0 His life story, growing up in Germany and emigrating to the US, is very interesting.\u00a0 We started with the 2012 Chardonnay Carneros.\u00a0 It was well balanced with a lite butter finish.\u00a0 The 2011 Pinot Noir Carneros is their Flagship.\u00a0 I found it to be fruit forward and lite tannins. Price points for both wines is acceptable.\u00a0The 2011 Pinot Noir, Carneros\u00a0“Schug Estate” was quite nice.\u00a0 I found it to be\u00a0smokey,\u00a0dark fruit notes,\u00a0well balanced acidity and tannins.\u00a0 The 2010 Cabernet Franc is 70% Cab Franc, 25% Cab Sav.\u00a0On the palate it was a little dry with dark berry fruit.\u00a0 2012\u00a0Late Harvest Riesling has aromas of honey suckle and bees wax.\u00a0 It\u00a0is sweet but not over the\u00a0top with notes of apricot and honey. Its also lite on the tongue and not syrupy.\u00a0 Price point a little high for the smaller size bottle.\u00a0 The 2010 Rouge De Noirs, Carneros, Sparkling Pinot Noir was a nice surprise.\u00a0\u00a0It reminded me of\u00a0a bubbly version of the 2011 Pinot Noir Carneros with a little\u00a0more character.\u00a0 I enjoyed all their wines and I think it id definitely worth a visit.\u00a0 Schug\u00a0also has a self guided tour of the Estate\u00a0which provides some really nice views.\u00a0 Gloria Ferrer<\/strong> <\/em>was our next stop.\u00a0 Gloria Ferrer has a nice 2010 Brut rose that reminds me of citrus and raspberries.\u00a0 The 2008 Jose Ferrer Pinot Noir was my favorite.\u00a0 Its long legs and ruby color hinted of the complexity of the tannins and the flavors of raspberry and cherry.\u00a0 At $42 a bottle I could not resist.<\/p>\n

\"20140224_131928\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We headed back to town to continue tasting on the town square.\u00a0 We wondered into Walt<\/strong> <\/em>and it was a great find.\u00a0 Walt features Chardonnaya and Pinot Noir.\u00a0 Heaven….\u00a0 Jerry was great.\u00a0 I felt like we were old friends hanging out at a barbeque.\u00a0 The 2012 “Blue Jay” Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is a four vineyard blend.\u00a0 It has a nice lite color, good legs and blue fruit, black cherry is smooth and easy on the palate.\u00a0 We did a side by side comparison of the “Blue Jay”, “Hein Family” and “Savoy”.\u00a0 The “Hein Family” vineyard is located closer to the coast.\u00a0 It gets less sun and cooler temperatures.\u00a0 The “Savoy” is mid-valley and has the best qualities of “Hein Family” and “Blue Jay”, which is the furthest from the coast.\u00a0 “Savoy” was definitely my favorite but out of my price range at $60.\u00a0I enjoyed all the wines at Walt and are my recommended stop in Sonoma. Jerry suggested we stop by MacLaren Tasting Lounge.\u00a0<\/strong> <\/em>I remembered visiting him when he was pouring at Talty Winery<\/em> <\/strong>in Healdsburg.\u00a0 By the time we got to MacLaren, they were closing up but, they were willing to pour for us.\u00a0 So, they unpacked the bottles and we got to taste some really good syrahs.\u00a0 We were poured four wines; 2010 Judge Family Vineyard, Bennet Valley, 2010 Drouthy Neebor, Sonoma County, 2009 Drouthy Neebor, Sonoma County and the 2010 Samantha’s Vineyard, Russian River.\u00a0 My favorite was the 2009 Drouthy Neebor.\u00a0 It had a big fruity nose and was well balanced.\u00a0 And, the price points are reasonable.<\/p>\n

Sonoma was a really nice wine tasting experience.\u00a0 Everyone we met was really nice, engaging and more than willing to carry a conversation and joke with us.\u00a0 Can’t wait to go back.<\/p>\n

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I found a Sonoma getaway on Groupon and booked the date.\u00a0\u00a0With great anticipation, \u00a0Hill and I loaded up the Monsters and headed up to Sonoma to experience their wines and hospitality.\u00a0 We stayed at the dog friendly Best Western Plus … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13,112,20,6],"tags":[362,360,358,316,365,361,50,363,357,359,193,364,355],"class_list":["post-1662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-braxs-blogs","category-food-and-wine","category-wine-regions","category-wineries-toursvisits","tag-blue-jay","tag-cuvaison","tag-domaine-carneros","tag-gloria-ferrer","tag-healdsburg","tag-maclaren","tag-pinot-noir","tag-savoy","tag-schug-carneros-winery","tag-sonoma","tag-syrah","tag-talty-winery","tag-walt-winery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1662"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1680,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662\/revisions\/1680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}