Several weeks back, three friends joined us on a day trip up to Sonoma wine country. We were participating in Sonoma Valley's annual Wine Road event, where we tasted wines at several wineries that had each paired a bite of food with one of their wines.
We started off at
Kendall-Jackson to pick up our cookbooks, wine glasses, and the first taste. We were all surprisingly impressed with their Chardonnay and pork sandwiches, which we enjoyed outside in their sunny veranda.
Our second stop was
Hook and Ladder, where we tasted osso buco over polenta
(polenta was a repeating theme!)
Hook and Ladder also paired some of their wines with chocolate. My favorite was the cabernet paired with a mocha chocolate.
Forchini Winery paired an excellent soupe au pistou (a Provencal soup) with their red wine blend.
Next, our friends introduced us to
Mazzocco winery, where they are members, so we were able to try several of their award-winning Zinfandels that weren't offered to other tasters. They paired one of their Zinfandel wines with
beef short ribs over polenta. This was my favorite stop of the day!
Amista lured us in with their chocolate and wine pairings, but they also made a delicious shrimp and garlic-herb risotto. Outside the tasting room, we saw this guy:
Martin Ray Winery served a flavorful
wild mushroom ragout with their pinot noir in this huge warehouse below.
We ended our Wine Road tour with a stop at
Truett Hurst, one of favorite places from
our last visit.
The winery's logo is a red adirondack chair, of which they have several down on the banks of Dry Creek. That day they also handed out sunglasses so we could see the Coho salmon swimming upstream.
Truett Hurst's property has a beautiful vegetable garden and lots of animals, as well.
It was a beautiful fall day with great friends, and it was a nice reminder that we are only 75 minutes south of this remarkable wine region.
