We took off work the Friday before Labor Day and flew into the San Francisco airport where we rented a car. On our way to our adorable bed and breakfast in Kenwood (about 10 miles north of downtown Sonoma), we made a stop at the brewery / tap room of one of our favorite beers - Lagunitas in Petaluma. They have an awesome taproom and even better beer. We got several beer flights and ended up trying 12 of their beers and loved them all. We had dinner there also and really enjoyed their food. It was an awesome start to our trip!
From there we headed to Birmingham Bed & Breakfast in Kenwood. We searched for quite awhile for accommodations. We initially looked in Napa and found everything to be extremly overpriced. Even less-than-awesome accomodations on the outskirts of Napa were pretty pricey too. After a lot of searching, we finally stumbled upon Birmingham B&B. It only has four rooms and is very reasonably priced. We read that if you call to book and talk to the owner (Jerry), he'll often give you a discount. So we did, and Jerry gave us the rate of a promotion that had just ended! That was just the start of how Jerry, along with his wife Nancy, went above and beyond to make sure our stay was perfect.
The B&B is located on two acres and has fruit and nut trees, berry patches and vegetable and flower gardens. The two-course breakfast is prepared using fresh, locally-grown produce and a lot of it actually comes from their gardens onsite. Each of the breakfasts we had were fantastic. On the last morning, we had to leave before breakfast was served (9am) to catch our flight, so Jerry arranged for an early meal for us.
Another great thing about this particular B&B is it's within walking distance of eight wineries / tasting rooms, and it came with a complimentary wine tasting card. The card was valid for free tastings at 31 different wineries. A lot of places used to serve complimentary tastings, but in recent years, they have started charging $5, $10, and sometimes as much as $20 dollars per person, per tasting, so the tasting card was fantastic. It was valid at great wineries, too.
We got in late Friday night, so Saturday morning we started the day with the two-course breakfast at 9am. We had never stayed at a bed & breakfast before so we weren't really sure what to expect. It was really nice because you have breakfast as a group with the other guests who are staying there. You can each share stories about what you did that day and get recommendations from each other. My Aunt Jean had a bottle of champagne waiting in our room for us for Brian's birthday when we arrived Friday night, so we brought the rest down for breakfast to share for mimosas. Needless to say, I think we were welcomed by the group. :)
After breakfast Jerry gave us a tour of the property which was very cool to see. After, we set off on foot since there were so many wineries and tasting rooms nearby.
After stopping by Paradise Ridge Byck Family Winery (extremely friendly and informative staff) and The Muscardini Cellars & Ty Caton Vineyards Tasting Room (also friendly staff and good wines), we took a break for lunch at Cafe Citti, a great local Italian restaurant. Apparently their caesar salad with smoked chicken is one of their most popular dishes, so that's what Brian went for. It was really good, just be prepared to reak of garlic after!
After lunch we continued walking and visited the Kenwood Winery. The wines were pretty good, but the place was so crowded it was kind of overwhelming. We didn't stay very long there. After, we went to the Family Wineries tasting room where they had wines from seven different wineries. We didn't care for many of these, but the staff was friendly and informative here also. We kept on walking and went by the VJB Vineyards and Cellar. We really enjoyed this one. The wines were great and the staff really knew their stuff. For the last stop of the day, we went by Enkidu's tasting room. We really enjoyed the wines here also (and even bought a bottle). The winery has a cool history and way of thinking. You can read more about it here.
Yes, you counted correctly - that was six different tastings! We left the B&B around 11am and returned around 5pm. While it was awesome we did all of this on foot, we wouldn't recommend six tastings in one day. When we got back to the room we laid down for a quick "nap" and woke up three hours later! Although, it was an awesome day!
After we woke up from our "nap", we headed down to the Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa to check out their beers, eat dinner and enjoy some live music. Their brews were good, but unfortunately nothing compared to Lagunitas. It was a cool place to grab a drink and dinner though. It was pretty crowded, so evidently it's a pretty popular spot.
The next day we drove so we could visit wineries farther away and go to downtown Sonoma. we started at St. Francis Winery which I think was probably the prettiest of them all. The grounds were absolutely beautiful. The wine wasn't bad either!
After, we went to Chateau St. Jean which was also beautiful and had great wines as well. We were a little smarter on this day and split tastings instead of getting our own.This way we were still able to taste all of the wines, we just weren't trying as much of each. This winery had a great patio area for relaxing which we took advantage of for a bit. Wine tasting is tough work!
For lunch, we went to downtown Sonoma (really cute area) and ate at The Girl & The Fig Cafe. It came highly recommended and several people suggested it for a meal. We, however, weren't overly impressed. It was fine, it just didn't live up to the hype. I would actually recommend skipping this one.
One of our favorites wineries of the trip was the Larson Family Winery. The tasting room was in an old barn. The property used to be a rodeo ranch, and is now converted into vineyards and a tasting room. It had such a cool, laid back atmosphere, complete with dogs roaming the tasting room (a couple of their signature wines are named after their three labs). Outside, overlooking the vineyards, was a great picnic area with bocce ball, horseshoes, and other games. We really liked the atmosphere at this one.
We ended our wine tasting extravaganza at Cline Cellars. This was a good winery as well. The tasting room is fairly small and was a bit crowded, but the wines we tasted were unique and really good. We even brought a bottle home from here.
When we were in Napa Valley nearly four years prior, we ate at Sushi Mambo in downtown Napa. We remembered it being amazing with really unique sushi rolls. So, we decided we wanted to give it another try and relive the experience. Unfortunately, although the food was good, it didn't live up to the hype we had created in our head during the last four years. We're glad we went though because we had been craving it since we last ate there!
Our last stop of the trip was HopMonk Tavern in Sonoma which had been recommended by Jerry, the B&B owner. It too was a really cool place. They had some of their own beers on tap there; they were okay, but I think we ended up getting another Lagunitas while we had the opportunity to. :)
The next day we had an early breakfast at the B&B, then hopped in the car and headed back to the San Francisco airport. While we only had two full days there, we actually felt like it was plenty of time. We went at a pretty slow and relaxing pace, so it didn't feel too rushed or busy. We actually don't think we could have tasted for more than two days in a row! Overall it was an awesome trip. Our accommodations were perfect, the wineries and breweries were all great, and we wouldn't have changed a thing! If you're looking for a slow-paced, relaxing, fun getaway for a long weekend, we'd definitely recommend this one. Especially staying at the Birmingham B&B which was so convenient to everything.
Next up is a Western Caribbean cruise to Roatan, Honduras, Belize City, Belize, Costa Maya, and Cozumel, Mexico. Stay tuned!
