We picked Sue and Denis up at their RV around 9:00 and headed for Windsor to meet up with Joanne and Dave at their house.
We stopped at the farmers market to get a couple of Baggett's from Red Bird Bakery.
Their bread is so good!
We got to Joanne and Dave’s around 9:45 and hung out there for a while visiting.
Around 10:30 we left to check out our first winery for the day.
Alexander Valley Vineyards
Our first stop was at Alexander Valley Vineyards.
The Alexander Valley Ranch was established around 1840. The vineyards have been in operation since 1964.
Here we are in the tasting room waiting for the wine cave tour to begin.
The yard is full of barrels stacked everywhere.
Eventually the tour begins.
These caves are enormous. There are several branches going off in all directions and they are all stuffed with barrels of aging wine.
We stopped at two special barrels. Our tour guide was Robynn.
The barrel on the left is American oak and the right one is French oak. The wine in them is unblended and set aside to let tourists taste the difference between the same wine aged in French or American barrels. We all tasted a little from each barrel. There was a noticeable difference in the flavor of the wines. Then a vote was taken to see which was preferred. I liked the American oak but most people preferred the French. What do I know?
Here is our group in the caves.
From here we headed for the tasting room for some serious wineing.
Joanne wanted to be sure that she got every last drop.
We tasted several kinds of wine here; Cabernet, Pinot Noir and three types of Zinfandel.
We all liked the Zinfandel the best and each purchased at least one bottle.
After having several samples we all decided that we should have some thing to absorb the wine, so we found a picnic table and broke out the Baggett, water and some cheese.
One thing I found interesting was that they had a Cork Oak tree. I had never seen one in person before.
Cork trees have to be at least 50 years old before the bark can be harvested. They can be harvested every 7 years after that. This tree is only about 25 years old.
Frances Ford Coppola Vineyard.
Our next stop was the Coppola Vineyard.
This place is huge. Here is the main stairway up to the tasting rooms, museum and pool area.
Here is the pool area.
They were having a Halloween Carnival and there were kids everywhere. I didn’t expect kids at a winery.
There was a guy selling animal sculls and some small animal skeletons. I’m not sure how this fits with a winery but I guess it was a Halloween thing.
He also had a display of some enormous bugs.
Looks like something Bear Grills would have for a snack.
We toured the museum.
This display was of Bram Stokers Dracula.
Here is the cocktail girl.
And I couldn’t let the Tucker pass.
We tasted a few of their wines but decided that they weren’t as good as one would expect for the price.
Mazzocco.
Our next stop was a smaller winery called Mazzocco.
While the rest of us were “tasting” wine,
Patti wandered around the grounds taking flower pictures.
After tasting a few different wines we decided that we needed to get some food.
We followed Joanne and Dave to the little town of Geyserville where we stopped at an Italian restaurant.
Great building!
We sat out back in the courtyard.
The food was good and you may notice that there is no wine at the table.
Sue and Denis treated us to the meal. That was so nice of them. Thanks kids!
From here we drove Sue and Denis back to their RV and said our goodbye's. We will keep in touch and hopefully see them in AZ this winter.
Okay, that was our wine tasting adventure.
We all decided that the Alexander Vineyards wines were the best of what we tasted this time.
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