Keesha

Tonight I'll be enjoying a 2007 Keesha Cabernet Franc made by Bruce Walker. We met Bruce while visiting Sonoma county. Bruce is a winemaker and is on the board of directors for ZAP. (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers)

We met Bruce for lunch and he took us to see one of his many vineyards. We were able to see where the Starry Night Caboose and Nurvo Station Old Vine grapes are grown. I have a bunch of pictures to post from this afternoon. Bruce is super nice and knowledgeable about all things wine. It was a treat and highlight of our trip to personally meet him.

So I have Bruce to thanks for all things Keesha!! THANKS :)

Meeker

One morning we drove up to Geyserville to taste wines at Meeker Vineyards. I always see the painted Meeker merlot bottle at Petty's and Viera Wine Cellar. I wanted to visit the tasting room. I enjoyed the wines at Meeker. The merlot and rose are the distributed around the country. Some of their other wines are not.

The tasting room is an old bank and there is still an old bank vault in the back. They also play the blues all day long. Nothing like some John Lee Hooker and wine.

I actually saw the rose at a gas station in West Virginia last week. I couldn't believe it. I bought a bottle of the beautiful and damned petit verdot. Yummy. Still saving it for when I make a special dinner.

Meeker will be attending the food and wine festival at Epcot this year. I think the dates are Nov. 3-5 or 6. I might have to go.

Ravenous and Barn Diva

For our first night in Healdsburg we had drinks at Ravenous and at Barn Diva. Both places are awesome, but I really loved Ravenous. We ended up having dinner there twice during the week.

Here are some pictures of that night. The Barn Diva bar is pretty with all the fresh herbs and ingredients sitting along the bar. The boys had single malt scotch. I had dirty martinis.

Jimown Store

One of my favorite stops during our time in California was at the Jimtown store in Healdsburg. There are certain places where you feel totally at ease, this is one of those places. When you walk inside, you just start to relax.

It reminded me of places that I frequented when I lived in West Virginia. Down home style.

The place is kind of farmer/wine chic. We went for their thursday wine bar event. One thursday a month the store has wine reps pour and pairs these wines with Jimtown food favorites.

Our friends Jim and Debbie, who live part of the year in Healdsburg, were our hosts. We couldnt' have had better hosts while visiting Healdsburg. You two are pretty much locals!

I have to say, I fell in love with their green goddess dip that night.

The wineries at the event included: Truett-Hurst, Rodney Strong, and Preston.

Seghesio BBQ

The second event we attended at Seghesio winery was the annual BBQ. This event was totally amazing. The winery invited two BBQ experts to compete in a BBQ cook-off with Pete Seghesio. I had a huge amount of BBQ and Zinfandel that day. My favorite BBQ item was the pulled pork sandwiches. They were out of this world amazing with the pork fat dripping right off the sandwich. OMG

I don't even have a picture of the sandwich, because it lasted a whole of 2 minutes. lol

The two BBQ professionals hailed from Kansas and North Carolina. He brought a BBQ cooker in the shape of a wine bottle. He said this was the first time he had used it to cook for an event. This cooker will make any wine-oh stop and say...oooohhhh.

Not to be outdone, Pete Seghesio cooked his own BBQ for the entire party. That's right folks, the wine owner was outside cooking for like 4 hours. You don't see this everyday. Pete Seghesio can cook some BBQ.

I would book a future trip to Healdsburg just around this event.

Seghesio Family Tables

Seghesio Winery Website

Our friends Jim and Debbie introduced my mom and me to Seghesio winery this summer. The winery is a few blocks from downtown Healdsburg. It is a family run winery and has been family run since 1895 when the family started the Home Ranch. We went to two events at this winery.

First, we enjoyed the Family Table food and wine pairing. A small group, six of us, had Seghesio wines paired with food from the resident chef. While we were sampling the wine, we were told about the Seghesio family story by the Seghesio matriarch, Rachel Ann Seghesio.

It was really interesting experience and the wine great, as usual.

V. Sattui Winery

We visited one more Napa Winery, V. Sattui. This place is like the Disney of wine shops. They know how to move people through this place. If you see tour buses in Napa, they have likely stopped here or will stop here. I don’t discount a place because of mass tourists. I like Disney, most of the time.

The first thing a visitor sees at V. Sattui are European looking buildings covered in ivy and flowers. The outside has a huge picnic area. It mostly consists of large picnic tables and some grassy areas. If you are looking for a romantic picnic in the countryside, this is not it.

If you are looking for mostly inexpensive wine and amazing artichoke cream cheese and all other cheese/meat combos, this is it. Inside is a circus of wine tasting. We quickly found a spot at one of the two expansive tasting bars. Our tasting room guide was named Jordan. (I think that is the spelling…) He was around my age and if I remember correctly, he hoped someday to become an optometrist. (if not that, some type of field in medicine)

He should stick to the wine business, because he was a charmer. I think all the women in the tasting room were flirting with Jordan lol. So ladies…..you now know who to visit while in Napa.

The wines were not my favorite but they were not bad either. There were a few I really liked. The store is a great place to buy gifts and food. The food hall at V. Sattui is awesome and is the best place to buy cheese and meats at a winery.

Many people had a different reaction when I told them about my visit to V. Sattui. “Why did you go there? It is a tourist trap! Too many people.” That was the response.

I thought it was a fun stop with fun people and good wine and food. I would highly recommend that Napa visitors stop here FOR the tourist atmosphere. No other winery was this “happening.” So thanks Jordan for the fun afternoon!! J Don’t quit your day job.