California is Amazing

I spent the long weekend in Northern California, and although I have visited here several times, I always come away impressed with the scenery.

I traveled instead to the wine regions of Northern California: Napa, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma. These areas are ridiculously beautiful, even if you have no interest in Wine (I might even post pictures later). If you are a wine person and haven't been to these places, then holy crap, why haven't you?

Everyone knows Napa, but have you tried the Robert Mondavi reserve wines? Wonderful wines and (relatively) cheap. My favorite part was the final tasting at Mondavi where I could tasste the 2005 Stags Leap Reserve Cab against the 2006 Oakville Reserve Cab. These growing regions are maybe 10 miles apart and the difference between the two is very discernible - it's like a wet baseball mitt versus a dusty mocha-like wine, respectively.

Santa Cruz has two of the highest quality wineries right now (IMHO) and I went to a tasting at one of them: Ridge's Monte Bello vineyard. Again, even if you don't like wine, you should go here. The area is located at the top of a mountain in Cupertino and has a free picnic area. Next to the picnic area is a garden that overlooks the valley, allowing you to see all the way to the San Francisco Bay. A gorgeous view and the wines were pretty good too.

The highlight of the weekend, though, was Sonoma. If you like oysters, cheese, baked goods, and/or wine, you really want to go here. We grabbed a few dozen freshly harvested oysters, an amazing strawberry/apple/peach pie, and some wonderful cheeses (more on that in a minute) and headed to the beach to eat. After we ate, we went to Copain Vineyards, which just might be my new favorite vineyard - the Kaiser en Haute Pinot Noir was that good.

So about the cheese. We went to the Cowgirl Creamery in Sonoma and found a cheese made at Jasper Creek in Vermont. Jasper Creek is an aging facility that allows small cheese makers to have a sustainable business, which provides consumers with some incredible cheeses. We found a cheese called Oma, made by the vonn Trapp Farmstead and it is de.lic.cious. It's washed in lambic beer - need I say more? We bought some more cheeses from the creamery and they are all outstanding. The cheese and the creamery are highly recommended.

When I post about wines, I plan to append tasting notes that I leave on grapestories.com. In the meantime, you can just look up the profile "dtodd" on said website to see the notes.