Wine Tasting Part 1

I have an embarrassing confession.  I am a graduate of UC Davis, home of the Robert Mondavi Wine Institute, and yet I have never been wine tasting in Northern California.  To my credit, I was underage during three of the four years I lived in Davis, and I wasn't really interested in wine during my senior year- that was my liquor phase.

Carina has been wine tasting with my parents a few times, mostly to Napa I believe, and when she decided to come out for the weekend she requested another visit.  To my joy, I got to piggy back along!  Friday morning (after trips to the dentist) we piled into the MDX and headed up to the Russian River wine country.

Our first winery was Rodney Strong.  Their tasting room was really pretty and we got to try some really nice wines while we were there... even a special one that wasn't on our tasting menu!  It was the 2002 Reserve Cabernet- very yummy!

From Rodney Strong, we walked across the parking lot to J.  J is owned by Judy Jordan of the Jordan Winery family.  Her senior employees are all women from what we learned during our tasting- which is pretty cool.

She's also got a great pond with turtles and great landscaping.  There were benches outside to accommodate guests' picnicking which is always good when you're wine tasting.

Mom likes their sparkling wines and she had just been up to the wine country with my dad and another couple two weeks ago.  We got to try some of the wines she purchased and started thinking about the menu during the holidays when we'll all be together again.

After we finished at J, my dad drove us to Ferrari Carano.  Wow. Talk about beautiful landscaping- that winery is definitely built to entertain!

There are gorgeous gardens (pictured to the left) which we walked through before we went up into the tasting room.  The tasting room overlooks the fountain/pool and behind it, the vineyard.  It was a really stunning view to pair with some delicious wines.

I really like white wines, and they had a really lovely selection on

tasting menu.  My mom bought me a bottle of their 2010 Bella Luce to take home and share with Sam.  It's a blend of Chardonnay, Muscat Canelli, Semillon, Muscat Giallo, Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Blanc.  Absolutely perfect!  It's not quite as sweet as the Gewurztraminers I usually like to sip on, so it's much easier to pair with foods, but it's not bitter which I really hate about white wine.

After we were done at Ferrari Carano, our lovely Designated Driver took us to the main attraction: Francis Ford Coppola!

My beautiful Sister

We hung out at the pool and enjoyed a chilled beverage before our dinner reservations.  Carina had a mojito, Mom had a margarita (she said it was really good), I had a lemon chiller with some of their sparkling wines in it, Sophia Blanc de Blancs.  It was very refreshing!

Dinner was amazing.  Not only were the views of the vineyard spectacular from the terrace where we were sitting, but the food was just unbelievably good.  It was definitely some place I would go back to in a second!  Mom and Dad split the Marrakesh Lamb which is served in a clay pitcher it's been cooking in for 10 hours.  The subtle spices were perfect and didn't overpower the flavor of the meat.  I think I might be a lamb fan after all!

Carina ordered what was my favorite dish of the night,

she ordered the Chicken Mattone.  It was possibly the best chicken I have eating in my life.  The next time I go there- that is 100% what I want to eat.  No question.

I had Mrs. Scorsese's Lemon Chicken.  To say the dish was very lemony would be a gross UNDERSTATEMENT.  It was so lemony that I had a bit of a tough time eating it- now, I did have fair warning from the menu that the chicken came "swimming in lemon" but I thought perhaps that that was a little bit blown out of proportion.  My mistake.  And it was still very good!  The meat fell off the bone and was remarkably tender.  I just felt that the lemon was too overpowering for me to enjoy the chicken.

After dinner, we went through the museum... this was the highlight for me:

The desk from The Godfather trillogy.  This is my I'm-gonna-make-you-an-offer-you-can't-refuse face.  They also had a display of his many awards, and the cards read by the presenters when he won two of the oscars.  It was quite a moment to stand there amidst all of that memorabilia and think back to the nights we've spent as a family sitting together watching The Godfather movies.  For Heaven's sake, we just watched the first 2 with Brock for the first time when we were in Hawaii for Christmas!  

 

All in all, it was a smashingly successful Friday.  One I am so glad I was able to be a part of.