As you can guess, we are still catching up, so we are still verbally in California. Tuesday September 25th dawns bright & clear and promptly at 9.30am we meet up with Guy's best buddy Dragon who works for a Limo company carting people around the vineyards, wine tasting. Dragon, who we know of old (he's become my second son & he calls me Mom!) has organised a trip for us. As you can see by the photo, he arrives in style in the longest Limo we have ever seen. We get underway & Guy opens a bottle of Californian Champers to get us in the mood, not that we needed much persuading.
The first stop is at Iron Horse Vineyard where we sampled some excellent white & champagne type wines accompanied by a spectacular view. If you speak nicely to me when we get back I have a video clip I can show you.
The next stop was at Arista winery where they had a lovely ornamental rock garden. We sampled Red Pinots & Zinfandels. The Russian River Area is best known for its Pinot wines. The red Pinot Grigio is a different grape to the white that is grown mainly in France & Italy.
Feeling somewhat inebriated after sampling four wines at each winery (what silly person said we were supposed to spit them out!!) we decided it was time for some lunch. Dragon drove us to Dry Creek Stores where we each munched our way through enormous sandwiches and drank a lot of much needed water.
Having sobered up a bit we set off again this time to Ferrari Carano Winery where they have some spectacular gardens including fish ponds. No cars- different Ferrari. Guy especially wanted to come here knowing my love of gardens. Again we sampled four different wines that all contained a Wow factor. However Dragon had organised for us to have a special pass down to the wine cellar where we sampled some double Wow wines.
We set sail for the final winery of the tour in the Dry Creek Valley where some very fine Zinfandel wines are produced. Again we were treated to a spectacular view but we were all a bit three sheets to the wind by now and our taste buds rather shot at so the Sbagria winery wines I am unable to make comment!
We are driven home floating in an alcoholic haze. Guy managed to Barbecue something - can't quite remember what, not surprising really. Dragon, took the Limo back to base then re joined us for tea and was able to drink having had to remain sober all day & stayed the night.
An exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable day - one that will stay with us a long time.