Wine Country Adventures

I had high hopes for my end of 2007/beginning of 2008 blog post.

Inspired by the deluge of best-of-the-year lists that crop up around this time, I considered one of my own. Mostly, I was inspired by best-meal, best-restaurant, and best-eats lists, and relished the opportunity to meditate on the feasts of 2007. I soon realized that I could remember very little that I had done or eaten earlier than August, beyond the menu tasting for our wedding and some great appetizers at the Blue Room this summer (grilled calamari stuffed with braised oxtail, and a pizza with peaches and bitter greens). Now I understand why movie producers try to release their Oscar hopefuls shortly before the nominations are chosen.

There was, after all, a lot going on for us in 2007. I slogged through four more classes in library school while working full time. Stacey and I planned and orchestrated our wedding. We packed up all of our earthly belongings and managed to get them and ourselves (and our cat), no small feat, to California. We started new jobs in our companies, both with their own new challenges and benefits. We visited Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey, Maine, and upstate New York. We attended four weddings other than our own, including Stacey's sister Christine's and my father's. We welcomed a new nephew, Gavin, and two little boys, Austin and Chase, for our friends Rebecca and Dan.

The new year came along, and I had no list. But Stacey and I were headed to Sonoma on January 3rd, and I was sure our wine-and-relaxation weekend would make for good blogging.

Enter one of the worst rain storms in recent northern California history. The Golden Gate Bridge had to be closed due to high winds. Roads flooded. Thousands of Bay Area residents were without power for days. Fortunately, Stacey and I were safely installed in our hotel room by this point, ordering room service and preparing for a marathon spa day, which was unaffected by the weather.

On Saturday the rain let up a bit, and we went out, stopping first to taste olive oils at The Olive Press. They make citrus-flavored olive oils using the oils in the skins of the fruit rather than the juice; the Meyer lemon olive oil, which we bought, is incredible. I can already tell that we are going to have to have it shipped to us if and when we leave the area, and that if the company ever dissolves or the oil is discontinued, it will be a moment of profound grief for us.

Next we stopped at Gloria Ferrer Winery to taste sparkling wines. While we were there, the rain finally stopped and as I looked out over the hills and dormant grapevines, I thought about taking a picture for the blog. Too bad my camera's battery was dead.

In many ways, January is a great time to visit Sonoma. Hotels have plenty of rooms and wineries are empty. Everyone we visited was delighted to see us, offered us more wines than are usually included in the tasting fee, and had plenty of time to talk wine or recommend places to eat. A gentleman at Cline Cellars even gave us a private tour of the property and wine-making operation. I think the weather, while potentially rainy, is better in January than in the summer, when it is typically above 90 degrees. I prefer the rain and the clouds sliding in and out of misty hills -- especially when the sun tries to break through. While we were driving to one winery, we actually saw the clearest, brightest and most complete rainbow I have ever seen. You could see both ends.

We had a lot of good food in Sonoma, but I'll just highlight my favorites.

The Red Grape was a recommendation from the aesthetician who did my facial at our resort's spa. She said it was where the locals go, and it was the best pizza around. They describe their pizza as "New Haven style," which made me nostalgic for my trip with Emily to New Haven for the express purpose of sampling pizza at the Big Three: Frank Pepe's Pizza Napoletana, Modern Apizza, and Sally's Apizza. (OK, we were also going to Ikea). Our efforts were thwarted by the fact that none of these establishments serve pizza by the slice, so a scientific study such as we'd planned would have required us to order three entire pizzas in a period of about five hours. One of them -- I believe it was Sally's -- was closed. And I think we compromised our study by failing to order white clam pizza at Frank Pepe's, as that is the house specialty. In fact, white clam was on the menu at The Red Grape, and right across from our table, a black and white photograph on the wall featured the sign at none other than Frank Pepe's Pizza Napoletana in New Haven. These people knew what they were doing.

The Red Grape is exactly the kind of place we like: the food is simple, but everything was done well. The pizza (we didn't actually order the white clam -- I need to have Frank Pepe's first) was excellent, and the salad was well-dressed. But I must somewhat sheepishly admit that the biggest revelation of the meal came when we were served our order of garlic knots. Garlic knots seem to hail from the New York tri-state area, and I had never heard of them until I met Stacey. For those of you who may not yet be enlightened, they are basically a soft pizza-dough breadstick that has been tied into a little knot. The garlic is usually brushed on by way of garlic-infused oil. Herbs may or may not be included. They're good enough. When Stacey and I got our Red Grape garlic knots, we were a little skeptical. They were huge, but there were only two of them in the order. The surface looked somewhat dry, rather than oily, and there was no garlic in sight. I know what I was thinking, anyway: these Californians. They don't know what they're doing.

But the garlic was on the inside! Not minced garlic, which usually adorns garlic knots, but whole cloves of creamy roasted garlic. The knots were stuffed with them. The flavor was both stronger and less sharp than the usual flavor of garlic knots: mellow, but really garlicky. I think everyone should make them this way.

We also had good meals at The Girl and the Fig and Carneros Bistro, but my favorite meal was at El Dorado Kitchen, in the swank and stylish El Dorado Hotel. They have an amazing cocktail list -- perhaps a bit surprising in a town where it's all about the wine -- so Stacey and I had a peach jalapeno martini (her) and a kir (me) made with local pinot gris, the most delicious elderberry liqueur, and a bit of sparkling water. It was just the thing after drinking cabernets and zinfandels all day. And Stacey and I are still daydreaming about the mussels I ordered, which may have been the best I've ever had. The mussels were totally sandless and plump, and they were cooked in a creamy, buttery sauvignon blanc broth with a bit of tarragon. They arrived at the table nearly hidden by a mound of perfectly cooked french fries, which were pretty incredible dipped in the broth.

Last weekend, Stacey and I had the opportunity to spend a few hours in Napa with her friend Chris and two of his friends from Virginia, who came out to California for a whirlwind Macworld/San Francisco/Napa tour. Though I always enjoy wineries -- and Napa is beautiful -- the trip confirmed my preference for Sonoma County, which is less crowded, less pretentious, more rustic, and has less traffic and cheaper tastings.

Things are settling back to normal and busy. My spring semester has begun, and with it, the usual piles of reading. The Bay Area has finally started to settle into a typical rainy winter, and we are looking forward to an early spring.