California or Bust…
Day 15 – Food & Wine Fest (Day 1)
Saturday, November 5th, 2011
We started the first day of the 2011 Wine Road Food and Wine Fest at Korbel… this was just up the road from the River Bend RV Resort so we met the family there. At this winery, we received our official souvenir wine glass to carry to each winery and a beautiful Wine Road Cookbook with all of the food pairing recipes. Korbel was serving Roasted Golden Beet Salad w/Pears, Arugula & Point Reyes Blue Cheese… we were not so sure about beets for breakfast but it was very good and great with the champagne.
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| First stop on the Fest! |
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| Majestic Redwoods at Korbel |
A little history of the Wine Road…
Founded more than 30 years ago, the Wine Road is an association of wineries in the Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys of Northwest Sonoma County. It’s not actually a “road” in the sense of a single paved highway, but more of a treasure map to the wineries nestled among the hills and valleys of a region. Each appellation has its stars: Russian River Valley’s is Pinot Noir and Chardonnay; Dry Creek Valley is known for its Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc; and Alexander Valley is known for its Cabernet and Merlot.
We tasted our way along the Westside Road with stops at Hop Kiln, VML, Mill Creek, Matrix, Amista, Dry Creek, Mazzocco and finished at Wilson. Of course we purchased several bottles for our cellar and for gifts. Although Dry Creek was not officially one of the festival stops, Drew and I wanted to make a point of stopping there to see our friend Michael Longerbeam who we met on a European Wine Cruise with Beringer and St. Clement in 2008. It was great to see him, give him a hug and taste some of the nice Dry Creek wines… one of which we had to purchase… the Meritage. Michael is recently engaged and we invited him to honeymoon in the Keys at Club Cora.
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| Hop Kiln Winery |
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| Enjoying the food and the company! |
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| Beautiful Cabbage Flower |
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| Mill Creek Winery |
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| This one is for Liz... |
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| Nice valley |
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| Mazzocco Winery |
It had began to rain by the end of the day… but that didn’t dampen the spirits of us or the other festival participants. By 4pm, the event is suppose to be over for the day… but wherever you end up seems to be a good party with conversation of wine and food with people you may have met throughout the day. What a BLAST!!!
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| A little rain can not dampen our spirits. |
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