The Russian River and Dry Creek Valleys are incredibly beautiful areas with lots of rolling hills and winding country lanes. After six months of living in the desert, it was so nice to be around trees, flowers, and just general greeness. I had no idea how much I had missed plants since moving to Vegas, but I kept on catching myself staring out the car window with a smile on my face as I took in the incredible landscape. It was even more beautiful since all of the leaves on the grape vines and trees were turning.
Aside from the natural beauty, good wine, and great food that made us love this area of Wine Country, we have never met so many nice and interesting people on one trip. Since so many of the vineyards and beer brewers in this area are fairly small and often family run, we got to meet quite a few of the people that actually make the wine or beer. This is in stark contrast to Napa Valley where all of the big and well known vineyards are located and each tasting room/wineries is more of a tourist trap than an authentic wine experience.
One of our best wine experiences was getting to visit Brogan Cellars on Sunday morning. There was no fancy tasting room or anything like that. Instead we met the winemaker Margi in a garage that she used as her office. We got to taste all of her upcoming wines that hadn’t even been released yet and they were all amazing! Brogan is a very small wine producer (like some many vineyards in the area) and make only 2,000 cases a year. They weren’t even listed in any of the literature we read on Dry Creek Valley. The only reason why we knew about her and her wines is because we had ordered a bottle of Brogan Cellars Pinot Noir when we went out with Mike one night to celebrate his first big deal at Vintner Grill in Vegas. Turns out that the chef at Vinter Grill used to work in Dry Creek Valley and knew Margi and liked her wines. Anyway, it was just a cool experience and I can’t wait till our case of Brogan wine that we ordered arrives at the beginning of November. Happy drinking ahead!
Vines at Iron Horse Vineyards. They produce many wines, but are most known for their sparkling wines which are served at all Whitehouse functions. They were pretty tasty!
Pretty happy after some sparkling wine.
The incredible view from Iron Horse
Drinking beer at Stumptown Brewery
Afternoon snacks on our hotel porch
Incredible fall colours
Fritz Underground Winery
Carlo at Fritz
Harvested grapes
Very happy after our 4th wine tasting of the morning. Yes, I did say morning 
View from Sbragia Family Vineyard
Carlo playing Turkey Hunter at Steiners Tavern in Sonoma
1 Comment
October 16, 2007 at 9:45 pm
[...] Alex and Carlo’s Vegas Adventure wrote a fantastic post today on “Country Getaway III”Here’s ONLY a quick extract and trees were turning. Aside from the natural beauty, good wine, and great food that made us love this area of Wine Country, we have never met so many nice and interesting people on one trip. Since… to meet quite a few of the people that actually make the wine or beer. This is in stark contrast… is more of a tourist trap than an authentic wine experience. One of our best wine experiences… is a very small wine producer (like some many vineyards in the area) and make only 2,000 cases a year [...]