Friday 8/29/08 - Arrived in San Fran. to find that Avis didn't have our car reservation (will never rent from Avis again!). After the prerequisite stop at In-N-Out Burger, we checking into our hotel. After a quick nap and shower, we were off for our first event a wine tasting with Georg Riedel the president of Riedel Crystal stemware. It was an amazing once in lifetime experience! He taught us about wine tasting, what different types of glasses do to help enhance the wine and gave us a set of his Vitis wine tasting glasses. After dinner we had dinner in the Alexander Valley at the home of Rodney Strong Vinyards owner Tom Klein. Dinner was prepared by Chef Josh Silver of Syrah Bistro and Chef Jeff Mall of Zin Restaurant with a "Down home meets Downtown" theme. The food, wine, surrounding and overall experience was amazing and to top it off Georg gave us all the 50th anniversary edition of the Burgundy Grand Cru wine glass.
Saturday 8/30/08 - On Saturday we attended Taste of Sonoma at the historic MacMurray Ranch. Taste of Sonoma features over 100 wineries pouring thousands of wines with over 60 local chefs whipping up tasty pairings. We strolled around sipping wine and noshing on appetizers, but after a few hours we were too full and too hot and had to head out. We stopped at St Clement for wine tastings and some fantastic cheese. After that we went back to the hotel, took another nap and then went to Bistro Don Giovanni's for dinner.
Sunday 9/31/08 - Sunday was our anniversary and we started the day off with breakfast in bed and then went to the Fairmont Mission Inn for a morning of relaxation. We each received hour long massages, followed up by the bathing ritual and then a little nap by the pool. After that we drove up in to the Valley and had lunch and a few wine tastings at Chateau St Jean. We then headed back to Viansa where we got married last year and spent some time reminiscing and again tasting some wine. We finished of the evening with an amazing dinner at our favorite restaurant Etoile at Domaine Chandon.
Monday 9/10/08 - On Monday we took a group wine tour. We were picked up at our hotel and went to four small boutique wineries... of which I can only remember one, Saddleback. On Monday night we had dinner at Bouchon, one of Thomas Keller's "other" restaurants.
Tuesday 9/2/08 - On our way out of town we stopped by two wineries; Peju & Franciscan and of course one more stop for a double double at In-N-Out burger before heading home.
