Cruise 2024

 

CRUISE 2024

Pictures and video from our land touring and cruise on Crystal Symphony in June 2024.

Four days in Venice, then cruised with stops in Split, Bari, Argostoli, Cephalonia, Chania, Crete, Athens, Santorini, Rhodes, Bodrum, and Kusadasi. Ended with four days in Istanbul. It was a fantastic way to visit these Eastern Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean locations in Italy, Croatia, Greece and Turkey.

A few pictures from Italy to Turkey.

Click here to watch the video.

 

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Wine Tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley

 

August 2022

Los Olivos

Los Olivos in the Santa Ynez Valley has been around since 1861 when The Overland/Coast Line Stage built a station to the south in Ballard. It is a nice place to spend the weekend while touring Santa Barbara County’s vineyards. Just to get started, there are 27 Los Olivos tasting rooms and wineries. And beginning in Los Olivos, the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail heads north through scenic vineyards with 16 wineries and tasting rooms along the way stretching 30 miles to Santa Maria. And even more in the Sta. Rita Hills... I suppose you'd want to stay longer than a weekend to cover even half of all the wineries.

Santa Ynez Valley AVA

The restaurants in and around Los Olivos are world class. 

We enjoyed lunch at Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe - very good as usual - and small plates for dinner at Nella Kitchen & Bar. Fantastic food at their bar!

I ordered a glass of 2019 San Sé Pinot Noir, Donnachadh Vineyard, SRH. WOW! It was a fantastic find! I don't think San Sé has a tasting room, but you can order it online.

Bob's Well Bread Bakery (Ballard location) bakes old world style artisan breads and is a great place for breakfast or lunch. Their Cafe Mocha is a work of art!

We missed the relatively new seafood tavern, Bar Le Côte, that replaced Sides Hardware and Shoes restaurant in Los Olivos in 2020. I've heard good things about Bar Le Côte and from looking in the door I can say that it's still a relatively small seating area. Maybe next trip.

Meanwhile, former owners of Sides, Matt and Jeff Nichols, are doing a great business at Brothers Restaurant at the Red Barn in Santa Ynez. We have been there a few times and it is always special. We met up with two friends and enjoyed a gourmet meal and some very good wines at Brothers on a Monday night. The only downside was the wait staff, while excellent in many ways, seemed in a rush to pick up our plates before we finished. Otherwise, I highly recommend it.

Devon, Doug & Tricia after dinner.

 Koehler Winery

Our trip to Santa Barbara Wine Country began with Devon and her friends going to Koehler Winery for an Art Spot watercolor painting class. I met them after their class at Koehler and tasted some of the wines being poured that day. 

Devon

Maggie

Robin

Anon

While waiting for the artists I had the 2020 Rosé of Grenache, 2019 Gewürztraminer, 2018 Viognier, 2018 Red Quartette, 2017 Syrah, and 2017 Rebel (60% Syrah and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon). The last three reds I sampled were pretty good and the watercolor paintings by the group looked even better as I tasted.
 

Chateau Relaxeau 

It was good to visit Los Olivos and we stayed at Chateau Relaxeau, part of the Fess Parker Wine Country Inn and next to The (currently closed) Bubble Shack sparkling wine tasting room. We enjoyed our view of the Epiphany wines tasting area in front of the cabin during the day, it was convenient to tasting and dining in Los Olivos, and was very tranquil (or should I say "Relaxeau"?) after tasting room hours on the patio. There was also fire pit in the back of the cabin, but we didn't want to start any wildfire.
 

Tercero Wines 

After lunch at the Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe I walked over to one of my favorite wineries in Los Olivos.  I was on a mission to taste Tercero's 2021 Outlier (Gewürztraminer), Carrari Vineyard. I'm not much of a Gewürztraminer fan and it was good having a frame of reference tasting the Koehler Gewürztraminer earlier. I wasn't crazy about the spice in Koehler's Gewürz. The Outlier, on the other hand, was dry and I liked the flavor profile (mineral, earthy, tropical, stone fruit). 

In addition to buying the Outlier, I picked up a few more bottles: the 2021 Trilogia (60% Grenache Blanc, 24% Clairette Blanche, 16% Gewürztraminer) which had a nice amount of Gewürz in it, the 2017 Carignane - always a favorite, and the 2014 Verbiage Rouge (46% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 20 Mourvèdre, 4% Cinsault) - a great red blend. I'm glad to see that a 2020 Pinot Noir (Clone 114), Kessler-Haak Vineyard, SRH has been added to the Tercero wine list. Tercero is a wonderful place to taste wine and talking with winemaker Larry Schaffer is a great way to learn about wine.

Dragonette Cellars

Somehow, we can't seem to visit Los Olivos without tasting at Dragonette Cellars. All of their limited production wines have been called world class and I agree with those reviews.

We liked everything on their tasting list and brought home these great wines:
2021 Rosé, Santa Ynez Valley (80% Grenache, 14% Mourvedre, 6% Graciano)
2020 Sauvignon Blanc, Grimms Bluff Vineyard
2021 Sauvignon Blanc, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara
2020 Syrah, Seven (96% Syrah, 4% Grenache)

Rusack Vineyards

It was probably some time in the late 90s that I discovered Rusack Pinot Noir at the LA Wine Company. I remember buying cases of it because it was very good and reasonably priced. Years later we began visiting the winery in Ballard Canyon and enjoyed both the wines and the scenery. 

Our visit this past week was a bit of a surprise; the outdoor tasting scene was even better, but the wines we tasted were not, except for the 2018 Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County, which was very good. All together we tasted a flight of six wines. There were a few sparse tasting notes on the menu and very little interaction with anyone to share more info, just someone to deliver the flight and pick up the payment.

 

Math Quiz - Price Break for 5 oz?

Actually about 6% higher per ounce than the first 5 (2 oz) items.

We tasted ...

2019 Sauvignon Blanc, Ballard Canyon Estate
2019 Chardonnay, Mt. Carmel Vineyard
2018 Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County  
2018 Chardonnay, Bien Nacido Vineyard
2017 Reserve Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills
2016 Pinot Noir, Solomon Hills Vineyard

If you're looking for a great getaway I highly recommend wine tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley and staying in Los Olivos.

 

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Back on the Wine Trail in 2022

During COVID we managed to continue tasting at home with some ZOOM events, but being back at wineries and restaurants in person is a great improvement. Hope you can take tasting trips soon!

April 2022 

Sedona, AZ

We drove to Arizona and stayed at L'Auberge de Sedona for some hiking and peaceful R&R. The view from our cliff-side cabin was breathtaking and the vibe along nearby Oak Creek made it a great spot for relaxing or dining at their restaurant, Cress on Oak Creek. 

Oak Creek

Although we didn't tour any wineries in Sedona, we did enjoy several other restaurants - The Hudson Grill for lunch and one of Chef Lisa Dahl's award-winning Sedona restaurants: Mariposa - Latin Inspired Grill. 

A side trip to Cottonwood, southwest of Sedona in the "Heart of Arizona Wine Country," was where we found an interesting boutique winery. Burning Tree Cellars had a surprisingly good range of wines. We bought their 2019 Rosé B (73% Grenache, 20% Sangiovese, 7% Syrah) and 2020 Colibri Grenache (90% Grenache, 10% Syrah). 

Sadly, I never felt any Sedona vortex vibe, but I think I did get a picture of one ...

May 2022

Big Sur

On our way to wine tastings in Healdsburg we took a fun detour and stayed at Glen Oaks in Big Sur. Our peaceful Sycamore Cabin was surrounded by redwoods and near the Big Sur river.

Big Sur Fernwood Tavern

The tavern next door had the BEST Build Your Own Pizza with sesame seed covered crust!

"Little" Big Sur River

Andrew Molera State Park

After a few days of hiking around Big Sur and making S'Mores over the fire pit we drove to Healdsburg and stayed at the Harmon Guest House. It was located near the Healdsburg town square and was convenient to restaurants and wine tastings in town.

Harmon Guest House

While we stayed in Healdsburg we found a restaurant that was outstanding for food and drink options, or as they describe it, "Modern wine country cuisine." The Matheson, is a Sonoma Farm-to-Table Restaurant & Bar that serves fantastic cocktails, gourmet dishes and it's where I discovered Rivers-Marie "Sonoma Coast" 2020 Chardonnay. Rivers-Marie is a small-production winery in Calistoga owned by Thomas Rivers Brown & Genevieve Marie Welsh. If the rest of their wines are anything like the Chardonnay that I tasted, then they are fabulous! More on that later.

If it seems like we ordered a lot of food, that's because we had to go back a second night for dinner. It was out of this world - including the service.

Copain Wines

Although the weather was a little toasty during our visit we thoroughly enjoyed tasting at Copain. We sipped their Rosé, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah wines with a perfectly paired cheese plate while overlooking the Russian River Valley. All of the wines we had were very good.  

Our wine tasting was informative and very generous! I tallied up 12 tastes, although the official tasting menu only had 5 listed. 

The wines we purchased were:

2021 Les Voisins - Rosé of Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley - From an estate vineyard, which is also home to Edmeades Pinot Noir

2018 DuPratt - Chardonnay, Anderson Valley, DuPratt Vineyard - Near the town of Elk.

2018 Maggie Hawk - Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley - Named after the vineyard owner’s beloved horse, Maggy Hawk. It is near Navarro. 

       
2018 Sealift - Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast - SeaLift Vineyard is in Annapolis, four miles from the Pacific Ocean.

2017 Brosseau Syrah, Chalone - Old vines planted in 1980.

PLUS:

2017 Tous Ensemble - Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast - Provided in our room by the Harmon Guest House. Nice touch!

An interesting side note: Jackson Family Wines bought Copain in 2016 and has not changed their boutique operation.


Soda Rock Winery

Soda Rock in Healdsburg's Alexander Valley burned down in October 2019 in the Kincade Fire, but they have managed to keep operating from their barn. Some of the winery’s 1869 stone façade survived and they hope to rebuild it completely in a few years. We enjoyed visiting them because they have retained the authentic spirit of wine country, before everything became ‘all fancy.’And we just dropped in, no appointment.

The Soda Rock experience was fun and we took home these wines: 

2020 Lord Snort Blanc White Blend, Mendocino County
2021 Rosé Wine (Primitivo), Dry Creek Valley
2019 Primitivo, Lytton Station, Alexander Valley

Stonestreet Estate Vineyards and Winery

 

Our VIP tasting at Stonestreet was fantastic and it completed our tour of Stonestreet businesses across the country. Devon's father, Gail Scheef, worked for Stonestreet Farms in Lexington, KY (as well as Buckram Oak estate before Jess Jackson purchased it in 2005) and we had regular tours there until he retired in 2012. Notice the barns are named after varietals.

We liked all of the wines we sampled at Stonestreet Estate, but decided to buy these three:
2019 Broken Road Vineyard Chardonnay, Alexander Valley
2017 Farrier Mountain Blend, Alexander Valley, Mountain Estate    
2010 Rockfall Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley

Papapietro Perry Winery
This is the place to taste Pinot Noir! Papapietro Perry Winery hosts a very nice wine tasting on their patio overlooking Dry Creek Valley. In the early 1980s Ben Papapietro and Bruce Perry began making Pinot Noir in a San Francisco garage before starting Papapietro Perry Winery in 1998.  Their Pinot Noir wines are made with fruit from the Anderson Valley, Russian River Valley and the Sonoma Coast.

We took home these great Pinots:

2018 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
2018 Peters Vineyard Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
2018 Charles Vineyard Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley, Boonville, Mendocino County
2019 777 Clones Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley - Various vineyards with five different soils and microclimates.    5

Holman Ranch Estate Vineyard & Winery

The Holman Ranch began in 1941 and in 1989 grape vines were planted. Over the years the ranch diversified with weddings and events and their first wines were produced in 2009. The Tasting Room opened in Carmel Valley Village in 2020. We arrived in 2022.

It was an interesting tasting in a comfortable setting.

The 2017 Hunter's Cuvée Pinot Noir, Carmel Valley was the winner of the tasting and we bought a bottle.

Northern California wineries are always a great get-away and we're glad that we can drive up there from southern California. Arizona is a big drive but worth it in the spring. Hope you can go wine tasting again soon too!

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