A year in Sonoma, or How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Grape
Before we started down the path to wine obsession, we exclusively drank the same inexpensive California reds over and over again. Nothing offensive, but nothing inspiring. To be fair to our younger selves, we didn’t know what we were missing. A trip to wine country with some friends totally changed our perspective on the matter.
This trip was four days packed full of winery tours and tastings. The volume of wine wasn’t what fired our imagination, though. It was the variety. We tasted Pinots & Merlots, Reds & Whites, Italian varietals & French-style blends. We did side by side tastings of Chardonnays from the same vineyard aged in oak & aged in steel. For the first time, we had a real appreciation for all the variables that go into making a bottle of wine.
Since that trip we’ve been obsessed with trying new wine & pairings. We’d had good luck finding places in Boston to feed our habit, but it just wasn’t enough. We wanted more. Last fall we started making plans to spend a year in Sonoma. And now, here we are.
This is just growing in our back yard. Seriously.
Just living in Sonoma is fantastic, but we came here with a larger mission. We're hipsters when it comes to wine. We'd love to deny this, but its true. We love learning about new wine grapes and regions. The more obscure, the better. We get excited when we can share a tale of some cozy, little, off the beaten path winery or restaurant. This year is an opportunity for us to ferret out these experiences and get a real understanding of the wine & food culture here.
The plan is to visit at least two new wineries each week. The smaller, the better. We're not going to stick to any particular publishing schedule, but we'll try to put our thoughts on paper as often as possible. By the end of our year in Sonoma, we should have visited over 100 wineries, tasted barrels full of wine, and given you, dear reader (i.e. our one reader 😉), a list of great destinations for your next trip to California wine country.
