Wine Wine Wine and Food Food Food

Monday, July 2, 2018, Healdsburg, California--From 102F (39C) the temperature dropped yesterday to 60F (12C) by breakfast.   We enjoyed the cool weather and then headed off to Russian River valley Acorn Winery to meet up with Dixon and JR, old friends from Washington, who are really into wine.

Acorn is a small winery run by Betsy Nachbaur and her husband, Bill.  Dixon and JR are part of their wine club and have visited before.  We, of course, were the only tasters, their having made an appointment for Sunday.    They only use their own grapes and served a collection of their vintages.  The range from a rosato combination of zin, cab franc, sangiovese, syrah, petite syrah and drops of others to a full cabernet franc, sangiovese, dolcetto, super Tuscan mix, zin mixed with several other wines, and their "medley" which they put together every year from the wines they make, drawn into a mixture a pipette at a time.  The 2013 we tasted was combination of virtually all the grapes they grow.  

Dixon and JR have studied and learned far more than Ben and John.  The discussion included how Betsy's husband was out trimming leaves off the wines to encourage ripeness in the grapes, to the various mixes, to current events.  In all, a very full morning.

David left us to return home to work on dinner while we headed of J Winery, an upscale, larger place, with a crowd of very well-dressed tasters, particularly well-coiffed and enjoying the day.  We tasted six different wines ranging from a sparkling rosé  and two other sparklers (including a demi-sec), a lovely pinot noir, a pinot gris, and a chardonnay that John particularly liked with a lingering taste of caramel fudge!  

By that time we were ready for lunch.  Heading back on the Old Redwood Highway to Healdsburg, we aimed for Willi's, a seafood and small plate restaurant with a fine outdoor seating area.  Lunch ranged from seafood ceviche (Peru), to pork pot stickers (China) to scallops in bacon (cocktail party), to Ipswich fried clams (Massachusetts) to French fries (international).   

After lunch we went across the street to the tasting room of Hawley Winery where we tasted a range from zinfandel and various whites to a superb 2015 Oehlman Vineyard Russian River Valley pinot noir that JR bought for dinner.

After a short nap, we enjoyed a barbera that we acquired in Amador County from Fate Winery, then moved on the County Mayo cold cream of pea soup with crème fraîche with a Davis white blend wine, cold roast of pork loin in a sherry and soy marinade, potato salad, and steaming corn on the cob.  This coupled with JR's purchase and finished with a galette from the local Downtown Bakery, made for a full meal.  

After much conversation of current events we were off to bed.

This morning, we enjoyed a breakfast of strata of cheddar and bacon, fruit and coffee.  We even managed a shot of all of us at the table.