Wine Country

We spent Thursday driving thru wine country and the vineyards. On our way out of town we noticed the current gas prices.

We did not actually view the 2nd Old Faithful Geyser because they wanted to charge $10/person, but we did drive out to it. We figured the one we saw in Yellowstone was sufficient.

Our 1st wine tour and tasting was at Sterling Vineyards and was probably our most favorite of all.

The only way up was on a gondala which provided some amazing views of the country side.

Once inside we took a leisurly self guided tour and tasting.

The view from the top.

After the tour we got to pick three additional wines to taste. Obviously we enjoyed ourselves because we left with 6 bottles!

The same mode of transportation to get down as we used to get up the hill.

From Sterling we visited the "Castle" otherwise known as Castello di Amorosa. The winery itself was absolutely breaktaking. We also left with 2 more bottles of wine.

Once we left the castle we headed down the road to Beringer. We did not actually do tasting or a tour here, but managed to snap a few pictures. Beringer is a wine I usually drink at home and did not require a necessary stop. As you can imagine every stop included a few glasses of wine and well we did not have a driver.

We did make a quick visit to Sutter Home which is another wine brand that I enjoy. We snagged 2 more bottles here, 1 being a reserve that I absolutely love.

Our last tour and tasting for the day was at Robert Mondavi Winery. This was probably the best tour we took of all, but we did not get to choose the wines to taste.

The grape plant.

Looking inside the large wooden barrels you can see the red wine line from the fermentation process.

The machine they use to completely crush and grind remainig skins after fermentation.

Once the barrells are full they are stored in the below cellar for 9 months then moved to another cellar for another 9 months and it takes approximately another 6 months to bottle and ship for distribution.

After all our wine tasting for the day we decided it was time to put some food in our stomach. We ate at the Buckhorn Grill.