The Weekend! Best Ever!

I know that I just posted a post on Friday and today is Monday, are you getting sick of me?  I just had one of the best weekends ever and had to share!

I had Wednesday and Friday off of last week so my weekend was really the majority of the week!!  On Wednesday I went to Coppola Winery (the one near Healdsburg, not Rubicon) which is currently being renovated but still open to the public during construction, it seems almost done.  What really got me is that they are installing a public pool at the winery complete with a swim up bar!!

I went there for lunch as I heard it was a good spot, so I grabbed my seat at the bar and started chatting with the bartender, who informed me that the restaurant (Rustic Restaurant ) had only been open for about 3 weeks.  I was certainly impressed, I started out with a side salad, later the chef brought out some fried bread, awesome, which I smothered with a little balsamic and oil!! Yum! 

By the time I was done eating I didn't feel like tasting any wine, I was sooo dang full. 

yes, I ate all of this, Italian sausage, mushrooms, mozzarella, and grated parmigiana

Entrance to Coppola

As Friday rolled around I was getting extremely excited for two things, my girlfriend coming to town and the Rochioli BBQ!  I picked her up pretty late on Friday at SFO and we drove straight to Healdsburg which is about a 2 hour drive, I was sooo sleepy and tired.  Saturday we woke and went to the Healdsburg Farmers Market!  It was small, compared to what I am used to at DC's Eastern Market, but Healdsburg has maybe a population of 12,000 vs. DC permanent residents at 500,000.  Anyways, the market was so good.  From cheese producers to roasted red pepper guy to the best dang tomatoes on the planet, hands down.  I don't like tomatoes by themselves, however, I was talked into trying REAL tomatoes and I was absolutely amazed.  I can't even describe them, you don't need to doctor them at all, I just eat 'em straight up, just like an apple!!  They are so flavorful!  And it totally makes sense, the same climate/soil that produces some of the best wines in the world produce the best produce in the world.

Tomatoes as big as your hand!!!

After a little farmers market action, we decided to just walk around Healdsburg.  We stopped at the Downtown Bakery (Downtown Bakery) which supposedly is the best bakery west of the Mississippi!  Boy did it hold its own, we stopped in and grabbed a Sticky Bun which is the daily breakfast choice by the Asst Winemaker at Rochioli so I had to stop in and try one.  IT WAS SOOOO GOOD, I wish I had a picture to share.  We strolled through the plaza park and walked up and down the streets of downtown Healdsburg until we found this place for lunch.

I have been told multiple times that Healdsburg is a foodies paradise.... I can see why.

Seared Tuna, pickled ginger, some crunch chips, wasabi mayo!

 
After lunch we went over to Rochioli for a tasting which was impressive (as usual, ha).  We went back home and rested up for the BBQ.

The BBQ started at 6 with hor d'oeuvres and some wine of course, after some mingling it was time for some of the single vineyard stuff aged to perfection.  We started with multiple chardonnays, my favorite was the 1999 (I believe) Rachel's Vineyard Chardonnay, which was absolutely beautiful (floral, peaches, lime, and a minerality to it).  A true Chardonnay!

As we sat down to dinner (krcatering) the wine really began to come out, 1999 - 2003 single vineyard Pinots!  I have never in my entire life enjoyed a better bottle of wine than what I tasted through that night.  Each wine (5 single vineyard labels total) showed not only it's difference in vintage but also it's personality of being planted in different spots on the property and of different clones.  The wines expressed their different terroir beautifully.  Each single vineyard had it's own personality.  I now fully understand why people will spend hundreds of dollars on bottles of wine and lay them down for years.  Age makes a wine so soft and silky smooth and the fruit so balanced.  It's really hard to put into words what I am feeling right now while attempting to recall that night.

Not only was the wine unreal, the people, again were wonderful.  The nicest, funniest, and humblest people around.  Big thanks to the Rochioli family, and all of the other people involved with the winery that I met.  I'm so lucky to have found this job at such an awesome company!      

If you have an interest in wine, go out to your favorite wine retailer and have them help you find a ultra premium wine of your favorite varietal and if it's old enough drink it!!  If not, lay it down for a while and pull it out on a special occasion.  It will blow your mind!  Set aside some money for it and enjoy, do it now!!!! 

The food by KR catering was superb, the wine was ok (haha)

What a great night!!!

Sunday rolled around and we ate some more tomatoes, went wine tasting at Ferrari-Carano, lunch/wine tasting at Terroir in Geyersville, then back to the airport! 

An awesome weekend!! 

Ferrari-Carano

Cork tree, it was so spongey! so cool!

Terroirs in Geyserville!