CALIFORNIA
Sonoma Wine Tasting
I’ve been really needing a vacation lately and this 3 day weekend was the perfect opportunity to get away! My boyfriend and I were in Napa not too long ago. His friends were interested in Sonoma though so we decided to switch it up.
I’ve been to Sonoma once before in 2016 but I recall doing a wine bus tour and didn’t pick out any of the wineries myself. So this time around our wineries and restaurant choices were more curated as a group.
Friday we headed up to Sonoma from my place. We left in time to grab lunch at Cornerstone Sonoma, specifically at Folktable. I got the avocado toast and thought it was pretty good, although the bread was too crunchy. That wasn’t the real highlight of this place – the flower garden is incredible. Get lunch or a drink and then walk around the grounds!
We got our nails done somewhere in Sonoma but I’ll be honest I don’t remember the name of the place and I thought they did a kind of mediocre job. That didn’t really matter though because I was focusing more on the back massaging chair and just chilling doing nothing for a while.
Since we still had time to kill before we checked into our Airbnb, we checked out a very instagram worthy champagne bar called Sigh. We got a frosé with nerds the candy and a champagne floater. I was skeptical of the nerds but they were actually really effective in this drink. I also got the champagne flight and enjoyed the traditional champagne the best.
I was a little hungry still so we popped by a nearby taco food truck, El Coyote. I thought the fish taco wasn’t very good, but the carne asada taco and strangely, the rice that came with the plate, were both excellent.
With that we headed back to our Airbnb and waited for our friends to arrive for dinner at Tasca Tasca Tapas Restaurant and Wine Bar. You can get 7 plates for 40 but just know for 4 of us we ordered 14 total. I’d say the goat stew was the most memorable, but it was all very good.
The dessert here was also stand-out, with creamy flan and sea salt topped chocolate tart! You can see we shared a port flight as well.
Saturday morning one member of the party was training for a marathon so while she was running, we headed to Basque Boulangerie Cafe for coffee and pastries. This is at the Sonoma Plaza which is the cute central square of town, with a ton of wine bars, restaurants and cafes.
Our 12PM appointment was at Enkidu Wines. They share a venue with a few other wineries/businesses which is a plus because we randomly saw some people showing off lasso maneuvers with horses while sipping our wine. The proprieter was also really friendly and gave us a tour. He let us try some of the wine in various stages of fermentation and told us a bit more about the process.
Lunch was at Lou’s Luncheonette which has EVERYTHING you could want in a lunch location when you’ve been drinking wine in wine country. I got a cheeseburger that felt like it was saving my life.
For our next tasting, we headed over to Bedrock. This was a pretty small operation that focuses on preserving old vineyards in California. It was pretty interesting because they predominantly make wines from grapes from old vines, something we learned a little bit about in Napa.
We popped into a place called Valley Bar and Bottle before dinner. It wasn’t very noteworthy but I figured I’d mention it. It wasn’t bad at least.
Dinner Saturday night was at The Red Grape for some tasty pizza. We just picked this out randomly but I really enjoyed it!
Finally it was Sunday, and time to go home. But first we had brunch at the Girl and the Fig. It is remarkably true to its name with how many fig related items there are on the menu. I got the pork belly hash which was delicious (although I do prefer my pork belly to be a little softer) but my boyfriend got the beef cheek hash which was AMAZING! They also somehow fry their eggs better than I ever will at home. The fig tartine starter was also to die for.
With a full stomach we then had to turn towards home. Until next time, wine country!