Wine Country, Baby!

Of course we watched the movie, Sideways and therefore drove up to wine country with unrealistic romantic notions of what a trip to Sonoma and Mendocino Counties would be like :-(  However, the quaint country roads and the many signs offering wine tastings every few hundred yards was enchanting.
      Since the 1990's in NYC, I have had a fondness for a wine called Fetzer; their Cabernet Sauvignon specifically, although I've also had their Chardonnay. Before the "organic" status was the rage it is today, it was rumored that Fetzer had refused to pay the then "new" licensing fees to advertise their organic and sustainable business practices. They were a fairly priced bottle of wine, and remain so, even in Canada. (We found it for FIVE dollars in a Walmart in Indianapolis on this trip! and will be filling the Airstream with it on the way back!)
      If I couldn't get Fetzer, I had found in the past few years that another organic, that HAD obviously paid for the right to call it's self that, also had a lovely Cabernet Sauvignon and did not cause a "hangover" if ACCIDENTALLY over-consumed. :-)
      Somehow, in discussing my passion for the two, some Liquor Store employee somewhere, told me that Fetzer also owned this licensed upstart, Bonterra, so I was psyched to find out how this had all played out.
      I scoured their website for information about tastings and their address but could find nothing saying where nor when, but also nothing saying that there wasn't one. I was getting worried and also while reading of their many awards, their Blue Heron preservation site etc, well, you can read it all here if you want: FETZER WINERY

   In the end, we just drove up there, I eventually found a telephone number, though confusingly it was also the number for another vintner called CampoVida. I'll spare you all the gory details, but it seems that the Fetzer family business was sold after the death of the patriarch and is still run by an arm of Concha Y Torro from Chile who bought the vineyard and continues to run it with all it's high standard practises. One of their sustainable practises is to have this guy take the weedeaters to the grape vines. They weed and prune and then he takes them all back at night. >>>>>>>>>

There was no Fetzer/Bonterra tasting room but the lovely Rosanne at CampoVida took us through a tasting list of their selections and we bought two bottles of their Red Blend they call a Cuvee.

     It was disappointing but we did find this GREAT radio/cassette player for the Airstream at a fantastic Vintage Collective on the way back!

We just love it, and hey, it plays Cassette Tapes!!!

Elisa, a co-owner at the shop, The Vintage Collective, in Geyserville, California took our picture in front of the Airstream in her parking lot and posted it to
 her Facebook Page.

We SO wish we lived closer to this great.