Napa Sonoma

Because a wine loving guy from our group didn't want to believe there are good wines in California, we had to check this. Luckily there is Birdland where you meet all sort of people, as it happens also a local wine connoisseur. So last Saturday morning after a fried egg for breakfast we left with the usual Californian delay of about an hour.

Chris, our friendly guide had chosen some nice wineries. And after a 2 hours car drive we arrived at the first place: Francis Ford Coppola Winary. We had picked a beautiful day, but somehow I'd expected something different, or would you say this is a winery?

This is America and they have some good wines. We spent some time trying more than half a dozen different wines. Chardonnay, Syrah, Touriga and a 2006 Archimedes, to mention just some of them. Then we went on driving towards the second destination through a very nice landscape.

But sometimes you just have to wait...

The second and already last place we visited was Beringer. Another huge winery with a beautiful castle and garden. Again we tasted us through the assortment. We even got the possibility to take a sip of a 115$ bottle. Even as a not-vine specialist I've to admit, that this is better than two-bucks jack. But finally I'm happy with the few bottles I acquired without blowing up the budget.

We thank Chris for the trip and we hope to find time for a second expedition to taste some other good wine.