From the category archives:

Wine

Sonoma Wine Tasting: Day 2!

by agirlandhermutt on August 19, 2011

Back in May The Scientist and I took a wonderful trip to San Francisco and Wine Country. It was an amazing trip filled with some really memorable experiences!

You can catch up on my Wine Country adventures below:

Napa Valley
Sonoma & Healdsburg Day 1

I got a little pain for vacation the other day and decided to peruse my recap photos and suddenly realized that I had forgotten to post about our last day of wine tasting in Sonoma. So without further ado…

Sonoma Wine Tasting Day 2!

Chateau St Jean Winery- The Estate at Chateau St. Jean is just gorgeous. I loved the lush greenery in the garden leading to the tasting. The wines here range from around $15-60 with a few reserve wines priced higher. Of this $10 for 5 tastes I found that I really like the Winery Exclusives the best. All of them were quite tasty and the Chardonnay was quite lovely. I also was a huge fan of their dips/mustards for sale. Simply fantastic!

Kunde Family Estate- Dramatic views, moderately priced wines and estate grown is the best description for Kunde Estate and their wines. I loved that they are a certified sustainable winegrowers .This family-owned estate has a tasting room AND a mountain top tasting deck. Great tasting for every weather occasion. The Scientist and I absolutely loved every.single.wine here. We were especially blown away by their Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Zinfandel Port. This was the only winery where we came home with more than 1 bottle with us. FUN FACT: Scenes from the movie Bottleshock were filmed at this Estate.

Ravenswood- If you have been in a wine store anywhere in the country you have seen this label. I read that Ravenswood had a nice little seating area to taste and it was close to where we wanted to go for lunch so we made a quick stop. I’m so glad we did! The tasting area was very relaxed, but the customer service was excellent. The employees were really knowledgable and great at explaining the wines to experts and novices alike. We ended up leaving with a bottle of Gewurztraminer and a big ol’ smile before lunch!

Gloria Ferrer Winery- Ask anyone where to get sparkling wine in Sonoma and Gloria Ferrer will immediately be mentioned. This was our first stop after lunch and I was ready for some bubbly. We arrived just in time to take the tour of the grounds. We started the tour with a glass of sparkling wine and had full glass throughout the tour. The tour included the history of the winery, the family, and a look at the grounds and the cave. At the end of the tour we were invited to be seated on the patio to finish our drinks, order an additional glass and enjoy the views.

Domaine Carneros- Our last stop of the day was technically in Napa, but was a part of our last day in Wine County. We could not have picked a better location to end our trip. Although we didn’t take a tour or participate in a typical tasting, we did enjoy a nice glass of champagne (plus one complimentary glass!) and some little snacks. Domaine Carneros is home to three main types of sparkling wine: Brut, Brut Rose and Blanc de Blancs. Between the two of us we tried all 3 and loved every single one of them! I loved the bubbles and felt so posh sipping on it. The patio area was filled with girl’s day out ladies, cute couples, and a few couple dates. This winery is a MUST for every visitor to the area!

Everything about Sonoma and Napa was just perfect. The people were friendly. The wines were delicious. The grounds were gorgeous. The food was fantastic.

If you ever get an opportunity to visit any of these wineries DO IT and be sure to report back and let me know what you think!

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Saturday Drive

by agirlandhermutt on July 25, 2011

This past week zoomed by. Seriously, I blinked my eyes and it was Friday. I had no idea where there week went and felt like I had gotten nada accomplished. Whatevs. I was glad to get to the good stuff…the weekend!

Earlier in the week The Scientist suggested doing a little day trip on Saturday. I love checking out new places in the area and knew it was going to be a scorcher of a day so I said “yes”.

Our final destination…a Saturday drive! We had plans to bike a path in Providence, RI but the rain was nuts and I’m not that steady on the bike on dry land. Forget the wet concrete. Instead we stopped for brunch at Julian’s, a hipsters dream brunch spot, in Providence.

We had a little wait when we arrived so I spent the better part of that time trying to convince that The Scientist that it would be hysterical to let me watch him try to ride the weird deserted horsey ride. He wasn’t buying it.

Once we were seated I realized we were in a little nerdy fantasty land. There were photos of Star Wars, comic books, and servers wearing Battlestar Galactica tshirts. The bathroom was filled with Pez dispensers. No photo. Gross.

Oh yea…you are seeing things right. That is a giant whisk for a lamp with a rubber chicken in it. What? No big deal.

I was loving the menu. Not only was it fun, but it had some great vegetarian/vegan friendly options. I love variety! Plus, with names like The Jedi Mind Trick, I knew I was in for some serious food. You can’t name something an awesome name and bring out crap.

I actually went for two of the Daily Specials. I have it on good authority that while the food is EXCELLENT at Julian’s, the specials are where it is at.

The Scientist and I split a corn, bean and tomato soup. 100% Vegan and 100% delish.

For my meal I had the Lemon Pepper Tuna Omelet special. It was stuffed with marinated olives, tomatoes, and kale. The addition of kale was awesome and something I had never thought of. I loved the huge chunks of tuna in this mega omelet!

I sipped on a spicy Blood Mary that was to die for after the dash of sriracha they put in it. Mmm…this goes on my list of fave Blood Mary’s. My dad’s is still #1 though. Winking smile

We had some full bellies and were ready to roll out. It was still really muggy and damp so took the opportunity to check out a brewery in the area, Just Beer.

We drove and drove and then drove some more. This place feels like it is in the middle of nowhere.

Apparently everyone on the nearby beach had the same idea as we did and the place was jumping. I even ran into a few peeps I knew! We hopped on a 2pm tour to check out where the magic happens. Despite hearing how beer is made more than a dozen times I still love hearing all about the process. Fun Fact for Boston Folks: Pretty Things Beer Project uses this facility to do some of their brewing.

Tasting session followed the tour. Mmm…beer. Delicious cold beer.

Our tastes included Flip Flop Summer Ale, The Golden Flounder, MobyD, and Horseneck IPA. The IPA and Golden Flounder won the day for me. We debated taking the Back Door Cash Only Deal, but decided to just head home with two 220z bottles of our winners.

Once the boozing starting to happen we decided to make a little afternoon of it and headed down the street to make a visit to Westport Winery and Vineyards. They have about 80 acres of grapes growing and are part of the Coastal Wine Trail.

I love the feel of this property. It feels very Sonoma County-like. I should know…I’ve been there! (I’m so excited I can finally say something like that! Can you hear the snootiness in my voice?! Winking smile )

We did a tasting of 6 wines, including 2 sparkling. I wanted to love the wine, but it just didn’t do it for me. Although they tasted lovely the finish was just missing for me. The sparkling wines are really their high point though and I really enjoyed them!

I’m looking forward to checking out the rest of the Coastal Wine Trail now. Anyone been to any of those wineries?

The pictures easily show that the day ended up being gorgeous and still super HOT. The only thing to do on a sunny day is to end up the beach and that is exactly what we did. We booked it down to Horseneck Beach to check out the sites. I’ve never been but have heard people talk about it before. Umm…no one mentioned that it was all rocks! I was fascinated by people just sitting in rocks. No sand!

The water felt great. Hearing the waves crash against the rocks and feeling the water between my toes was the perfect way to end our Saturday drive.

Oh yea…and a frozen strawberry lemonade *might* have happened on the way home. Smile

After a week of feeling totally out of it, this weekend was the perfect recovery. Saturday’s outing was just what the Dr ordered. I felt refreshed and ready to face the week when I woke up on Sunday! Shouldn’t all days be filled with time with the people you love doing things you love?! I’m pushing that up on my To Do list to #1.

I hope you guys had a great weekend! Did you do anything fun? Is it hot where you are? If you have central A/C can I come stay with you for a couple of days?! Seriously. I’m not kidding. Have Mutt, Will Travel.

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Weekend Recap

by agirlandhermutt on June 13, 2011

This weekend I was a total waste of space and I loved every second of it. if you follow me on Twitter (um…hello? come chat me up there!) then you were privy to a couple of tweets that managed to outline my uber boring weekend.

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FRIDAY!

I got a few jealous replies to that one. Sometimes you just need a night to be with yourself and enjoy the silence.

The wine, from Frog’s Leap, was excellent. It was bright, crisp and everything a Sav Blanc is supposed to be. I loved the notes of citrus and think this could be drinkable by almost any wine lover. At about $18-20 a bottle, this is a wine that will be making another appearance in the AGAHM household. Maybe I’ll share next time!

People’s Court is the best. Don’t hate. Judge Judy follows in a close 2nd.

Have no fear. Grown-ups was totally worth the time and effort I put into watching it. “I want to get Chocolate Wasted!” (watch the movie!) For sure it wasn’t the best movie ever, but it was enjoyable and isn’t that was Netflix is for?!

Speaking of Netflix, why is it that when my batteries die in my Wii Remote EVERY.SINGLE. BATTERY. in my house is dead at the same time?! Ugh. I need to invest in a recharger thing. I spent a good 20 minutes scraping around the house to dig up two old batteries that gave me a solid 2 minutes of Wii Remoting. Just long enough to get the movie started and then done. Boooo.

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Saturday!

This weekend was filled with Winne-the-Pooh kind of moments. It was blustery and such the whole time. When life gives me rain, I dye my hair. Smile

I want to share a before and after but I need a sunny day so you can see the red. This stuff washes out in about a month so it doesn’t do much harm to me. I’m digging it so far. The Scientist isn’t convinced just quite yet. Before & Afters soon though!

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Sunday!

I managed to convince The Scientist to go to the mall with me. Wow…that was a bad idea. Everyone and their mom was there. I used to go to the mall ALL OF THE TIME when I lived in CT and FL, but not its not as close as it once was and its kind of pain to get there now. This was a big trip for me! I bought some smelly soaps, some fun jewelry and called it a day.

Say hello to all the jewelry I don’t really need and is geared towards women about one-two decades younger than me. *coughFOREVER21cough*

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Overall,I achieved what I set out to do…nada! Should you ever need tips on how to do absolutely nothing productive, I am your woman. Everyone needs some down time and I don’t feel guilty one bit.

I hope you all had a great weekend! Lets get the week going!

Are you a shopper? Can you do window shopping?