Food + Travel: A Food and Wine Affair

As if wine tasting in Dry Creek Valley isn't amazing enough, Wine Road (an association of wineries and such in Sonoma County) adds food to the mix with the annual Food and Wine Affair, which includes Dry Creek, Russian River and Alexander valleys. The group I went with stuck to Dry Creek Valley.

We were lucky, because it was pouring the morning of November 7, but the rain had stopped by the time we made it to Healdsburg. It was beautiful.

Kokomo Winery paired wild mushroom risotto with camembert + butternut squash (above) with a 2007 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. (Best. Pinot. Ever.) Fun side note: Kokomo is named after Kokomo, Indiana (sorry Beach Boys), which is where the owners/founders are from. And the majority of the people in our group (below) were from Kansas.

Papapietro Perry Winery had wild mushroom soup (delicious but not photogenic) and these pretty chocolate truffles (above). They were tasting pinots and zins.

Bella Winery (above and below) had some kind of cornbread patty with a fig compote on top and a Louisiana gumbo that went really well with their Russian River Primitivo.

Bella also had hula hoops ...

Pedroncelli Winery had a leek and goat cheese torte flamiche with apple-endive salad (bel0w). Most people in our group liked their Mother Clone Zinfandel the best. They also had a port tasting with homemade truffles. Amazing.

Our final stop, Truett Hurst , had meatball sliders and was tasting a variety of wines including a zinfandel rose, zinfandels, a petit sirah, a blend, a cabernet sauvignon and a pinot noir, but their goats stole the show.

The sunset as we drove home. (Early sunset, I might add, as this was the day after daylight savings).

Travel: Where grapes grow

More shots from Dry Creek Valley. Am I the slowest blogger ever? I think so.

Travel: West Dry Creek Road

I went through this phase where I was obsessed with taking photos of trees while I travel (it started when I went to Israel in 2006, my first big trip out of the country). I've come a long way since, but still can take a moment to appreciate a spectacular tree here and there. Or in this case, a row of trees on West Dry Creek Road in Dry Creek Valley. The vineyard behind the trees is actually one we picked grapes at several months ago.

We biked along West Dry Creek Road. So spectacular.

Travel + Style: Wine Haven

There's a reason Dry Creek Valley's "Wine Road" is called "Heaven Condensed." Cute, right?

I'm just lucky my aunt and uncle have property on West Dry Creek Road (the place is actually for sale now), which we were able to spend a night in a few weekends ago. (Gotta milk it while we still can.) It's just a few minutes from Healdsburg and right in the middle of Dry Creek Valley, probably one of my favorite places on earth (more wine country photos coming soonish).