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Melissa & Dave - Adventures at Sea

Sonoma

This morning we left with Mike and Christina to head for Sonoma.  First stop was Gloria Ferrer for some champagne.  The poor gal serving the wine started to put a big tray with glasses on the table, and it was one of those slow motion things where the tray, not quite onto the table, started to tip over backwards.  Glass and champagne everywhere.  Ooops.  She was super embarrassed.  But soon all was well when a new set of drinks was served.

Next stop was Chateau St. Jean.  Their facility is quite elegant.  We decided to splurge and taste their premium wines - which were excellent.  But none of us had the stomach for $80 to $100 per bottle prices.

Then it was onto BR Cohn.  We were way less than impressed.  None of their wines was particularly good, and all had just silly price tags - particularly given the quality.  Yet the tasting room was packed and people were buying like crazy.  It was one of those "the emperor has no clothes" moments.  Just goes to show what happens when a name brand goes down hill - only the name remains and apparently that's enough to continue to convince people "it must be good".

We had reservations for 6:30 dinner and had time to kill, so we walked around the square in Sonoma.  We wandered past a sign advertising a "new generation" tasting room.  Wondering what a "new generation" tasting room was we stuck our heads in to find a modern plush room with couches - empty but for the gal behind the counter.  The winery was called Passaggio.  She invited us in and we asked what they were about.  She explained that their wine maker believed in crisp fruit forward wines - nothing aged in oak.  We figured it was worth a try.  Turned out to be really good and we bought a couple of bottles.  Their Chardonnay and Sangiovese were our favorites.  On some of their wines they give 5% of the sales to the fallen officers fund because the owner used to be a police officer.

Then it was onto dinner with Jerry and Carol from Angelina.  They live in Petaluma - so we were super happy to be able to see them while we were here.

 

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