Honeymoon in Napa Valley - Part 2: Sonoma Wineries

Andy and I hit Sonoma County for the first time on day 2 of our honeymoon. Sonoma was incredibly beautiful, but I was a little disappointed in it. I’ve had so many girlfriends talk it up in comparison to Napa Valley that I was kind of expecting Tuscany. You definitely can’t beat the views. My friend Tracey grew up in Santa Rosa and now that I’ve seen it, I am so jealous of her. I was DD that day, so I don’t have very many pictures.

• Chateau St. Jean: Chateau St. Jean is a huge winery and very pretty. The wines were OK. Since it was recommended by my friend Laura and we tend to love everything that she suggests, I’m wondering if we did the wrong tasting. The gift shop is nice in this one. They have a lot of cool picnic supplies.
  
• Ferrari-Carrano: Ferrari-Carrano was a recommendation of a man at St. Francis. The grounds are STUNNING! Absolutely beautiful. We did the Reserve tasting and agreed that the whites are divine. F-C is a White House favorite, as they had a bunch of framed menus from White House events. My friend later gave us a bottle of F-C as a wedding present.

Can you believe that I drove with these purple teeth?
Thank the Lord that I did not get pulled over.

 

  

 

• Hanna: GORGEOUS grounds and an incredibly friendly staff. It wasn’t my type of wine though. This would be a good place to visit if you wanted to have a little picnic between stops.

 

Image: Hanna

• Imagery: Imagery was recommended by my friend Laura. It was GOOD. They have an art gallery and just a  good, casual vibe overall. We bought Aunt Ruth a bottle from here as a thank you gift for our airline miles, but we never heard her review.

• Sausal: This place was recommended by blog readers. It wasn't as quaint as I expected. The place is CAT CITY. I am allergic to cats, so smelling them kind of makes me sick. The tasting was free and the wine was very well priced. It wasn’t our favorite, but we bought my dad a decent bottle as a gift for $20.00. He opened it on Christmas and he and my brother liked it. The winery is located at the top of the valley and was picturesque.
  
• St. Francis: Another Laura recommendation. The winery itself is beautiful and the wine really good and affordable. They sell adorable engraved bottles for the holidays. I bought a bottle of Cab with a wreath for my family to drink on Christmas Eve. It was delish. I was trying to hog it for Andy and I when my drunk brother poured the last of it into his class and mixed it with cheap wine. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The guy who poured our tasting at St. Francis drew us a map of where to go in Sonoma. Since he talked up the grounds of Ferrari-Carrano, we spent an hour driving straight there and ran out of time. We filed the list for next time.