California Wine Country - Day 2

Tour and Tasting of Wineries in Dry Creek Valley

plus an unscheduled move to B&B #2

We had one day to spend in Sonoma wine country, so we decided to hire a tour guide since Sonoma county is not as easy to navigate around as the Napa Valley. We opted to tour with Gene Warren of Healdsburg Area Winery Tours - http://www.healdsburgareawinerytours.com/.

We enjoy our tours (this is our second one) with Gene as he is very friendly, knows the Sonoma area, the vintners and wine makers, and will accommodate a group as small as two or as large as seven for a very reasonable price. Since Gene provides tours in several of the Sonoma County Appellations (wine growing regions), we opted to tour Dry Creek Valley.

Two friends of ours who live in Livermore, California joined us for the tour and dinner later that evening. You will see them in the photos.

Our first stop on the tour was the Michel-Schlumberger Winery - http://www.michelschlumberger.com/index.cfm?method=storeproducts.showList&productcategoryid=9aeab8c2-cd71-ef08-a2eb-a6dbb5b64853

M-S focuses on red, mainly Bordeaux varieties, but offers visitors the chance to taste a couple of white wines as well. I believe they use organic methods in growing the grapes and maintaining the property.
The winery, grounds and views at M-S are very nice. The tour guide was friendly and took us out into the vineyards and around the property.
We enjoyed the visit, but did purchase any of the wines since they didn't stand out the four of us. While the wines did not strike our fancy, it is a nice winery with a good reputation.

Our second stop on the tour was at Ferrari-Carano - http://www.ferrari-carano.com/.

This estate in Dry Creek Valley is gorgeous. The 'chateau' is surrounded by vineyards in the distance and beautiful gardens leading up to the entrance. If you have ever been fortunate enough to visit the gardens at Versaille, visiting this winery will make you nostalgic for them. It is not nearly as grand as Versaille, but beautiful nonetheless. Gene told us that in the spring they plant around 10,000 tulips - can you imagine the view!

Below this text is a photo of a cork tree. It was interesting to touch as it felt just like cork. You could feel it 'give' as you pushed on the bark.

We asked Gene to stop at Ferrari-Carano because I was interested in trying their Chardonnay's. I have heard and read very positive things about the Chard's and wanted to check it out for myself. Here's the group before we went to the tasting room.

Great views from the estate as well!
We enjoyed the regular tasting upstairs with a view of the vineyards outside and then ventured downstairs for the reserve tasting. Both tastings were great and did not dissappoint. Dave and I bought F-C's Sauvignon Blanc and two Chardonnay's (Tres Terre and Emilia's Cuvee) while our friends bought a very unique and tasty Black Muscadet. F-C has a nice red selection as well.


You had to pay for the reserve tasting and one thing we appreciated was that if you bought a bottle of wine, they refunded the tasting fee. We recommend visiting this winery if you are in the area.

Our third destination was Bella where we ate lunch and tasted their wines in the caves. http://www.bellawinery.com/all_vineyards.asp

Prior to arriving at Bella, Gene took us to the Dry Creek General Store Deli. They had a nice selection of sandwiches and pre-made salads. We picked up our sandwiches prior to visiting Michel-Schlumberger, which turned out to be a genius plan on Gene's part because when we drove by at noon and the place was packed. Bella had a beautiful view, probably the best of the day, of the various Dry Creek Valley vineyards. We ate outside at picnic tables at the winery and people watched. A very relaxing and pleasant setting.

The photo above shows the cave where we tasted the Bella wines. Bella focuses on Zinfandel, so while I am not a huge Zin fan, we have friends who are Zin people and highly recommend this winery. It's also fun to taste wines in the caves - not as grande as Del Dotto or Schramsberg, but still fun.

Our fourth winery visited was at Ridge, another Zinfandel house. http://www.ridgewine.com/#home

Ridge has history with the 1976 Paris-American tasting. The new movie Bottle Shock focuses on this tasting that moved California, primarily Napa Valley, wines onto the forefront of the wine scene as the Chateau Montelena Chardonnay and the Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon beat out it's French competitors. Back to Ridge, it has a nice tasting room, simple setting, but again if you enjoy Zin's it is worth a stop. We purchased one of their Zin's and shared it with some friends later on in the weekend.

The last winery we visited was J. http://www.jwine.com/inside/.

The first time we toured with Gene, he took us to J, which Dave and I really enjoyed. We regularly purchase their sparkling wine. They produce very nice Pinot Gris, Pinotage and Pinot Noir's as well. We definitely recommend J as a stop if you are in the Russian River Valley. This was the only winery not in Dry Creek, but Gene stopped since he knew we enjoyed it so much the last time. Also, I believe they do a food and wine pairing if you make advance reservations.

Our new Bed and Breakfast in Healdsburg was called Belle de Jour Inn outside of Healdsburg square. http://www.belledejourinn.com/index.html. It is about 2 miles from the square. However, upon checking in, Tom and Brenda provided us with a card for a cab company that could transport us for a reasonable fee to and from the square.

We stayed in this cottage behind the foliage at the Inn. It was a wonderful cottage - spacious, clean, nicely decorated, etc.

The breakfast Tom and Brenda provided was perfect and really got us ready for a day of tasting. Below is a photo of their property. If you don't mind taking a cab to the Healdsburg square, this B&B is one we would recommend.