8th October 2009
We were picked up at 10.30 by Jennifer from Terriffic Tours (clue’s in the name!) before heading off to pick up another couple Amy and Tony (hi guys!) from New York. That was our group for the day which was lovely, and the fact that we got on really well with Amy and Tony who are in town for a conference (my type of conference!), we chatted for most of the day (in between tastings of course!).
Our first stop was the Simi winery which is one of the oldest wineries in Sonoma Valley. There we were taken on a tour of the behind the scenes. At this time of year they are taking delivery of tons of grapes every day and while we were there there was a lorry emptying its load into the hopper where the grapes are separated from the stalks.
In the case of red wine, everything is then crushed seeds, skins and all and put into stainless steel vats for fermenting. With white wine the grapes are crushed to remove just the juice, which is then fermented.
Then we visited the barrel rooms, where the wines are stored in oak barrels for varying lengths of times depending on the flavour that is required for the wine. The barrels are really expensive, costing up to $1200 per barrel and are only used for a maximum of five years (after that they impart no taste into the wine).
The tour was really interesting, especially since the lady who used to own the vineyard, Isabel sounded like a real character, from inheriting it from her father and uncle when she was a young girl, to hiding two 25,000 gallon barrels of wine during prohibition, to being the first in the valley to have a tasting room for people to taste her wine and serving in that tasting room until she was 85 when she sold the winery.
The next winery we visited was completely different. Amista is a small boutique winery producing just 2000 or so cases a year, and in existance for just 2 years, but which in that time has already won several awards for its outstanding wines. It was really lovely, with the tasting room set amoung the vines themselves, the wines were good too and we couldn’t resist buying a really light Caberet Sauvingnon (unlike traditional cabs).
Then we headed to a deli in the middle of the wine producing valley to pick up some sandwiches for lunch at Pedroncellis Winery. We sat with Tony and Amy and enjoyed a lovely bottle of wine (of course) with our delicious and humungus sandwiches. A really pleasant lunch with great company in the Sonoma sunshine surrounded by vines - what could be better!!
After lunch, onto more wine tasting (starting to feel a bit squiffy now!). We were chatting to the guy at Pedroncellis and were surprised to learn that not only did he know where Wales was, he had been married to a girl in Weston Super Mare, and knew about the pier burning down last year, what a small world! As we were leaving, he gave us a complimentary bottle of wine, bonus!
Our final stop was another of the larger wineries in the area. This one had wonderful landscaped gardens and a huge tasting room. We definately preferred the smaller, more intimate wineries, this operation seemed a bit slick to us, but the gardens were lovely.
All in all, a really lovely day. Terrific tours definately lived up to their name, Jennifer was really knowledgable about the wines and the production operation, and it was great to meet Amy and Tony. The fact that it was such a small group and with like minded people really made it a great tour.