For Andrea’s birthday this year, we took a simple day trip to Sonoma for some wine tasting. Our first stop was to Ferrari-Carano Vineyards & Winery in Healdsburg, CA. Ferrari-Carano is owned by Don and Rhonda Carano, owners of the Eldorado Casino and Silver Legacy in Reno, Nevada. Their sons now concentrate on managing and running the casinos as Don and Rhonda focus on their hobby, wine making.

Day 1: November 3, 2008

When you first arrive at Ferrari-Carano, it’s hard not to be impressed by the decor and splendor of the grounds. According to our wine pourer (I’m sure there is a fancy term for this person), it takes five grounds-keeper working five days a week to maintain the beauty of the grounds. With all the beautiful flowers, gardens, fountains, etc., the grounds are not open to public events such as weddings. You are permitted to venture, explore, and appreciate most of the grounds as long as you stay on the trails. Ferrari-Carano offers tours by appointment only (24-48 hours notice) and generally are done only at 10 AM daily. There are two tasting rooms, the one upstairs for their standard wines available in major stores (such as Costco) and the bar downstairs for their Reserve wines not available anyone else. The standard wine tasting is $5 per person and $15 for the Reserve tasting. Andrea and I did the standard tasting as Andrea and I are more particular to white wines and the majority of the Reserves are red wines. The whites that we sampled were: 2007 Pinot Grigio (our favorite), 2007 Fume Blanc, 2006 Tre Terre Chardonnay – Russian River Valley, and 2006 Chardonnay – Alexander Valley. All were very smooth and very tasting. I would certainly like to return and do a tour of their grounds.

Our next stop was a smaller winery, Arista, also located in Healdsburg. Their grounds are also nice, but obviously not to the same scale as Ferrari-Carano. For $5 per person, we sampled two whites and two reds. The ones we tried were: 2007 Mononi Vineyard Pinot Gris, 2007 Anderson Valley Gewurztraminer, 2006 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, and their special the 2006 Longbow Pinot Noir. Most of all their wines were a bit too sweet for our liking. The last one, the Longbow had a unique, spicy flavor to it. By the time we finished at Arista it was already about 5 PM and all the other winerys were closed, so we figured it was best to check in to where we were going to stay: Inn at Occidental. Forgot to mention that Al McWilliams, one of the owners, is an excellent photographer. All the photographs hanging in the tasting room was taken by him.

We usually go to Occidental to have dinner at famous Italian diner, Negri’s. On a few occasions, Andrea has mentioned she would love to stay at the famous bed and breakfast at the top of the hill. So I figured this was the best time as any to fullfill her wish. So I reserved the Wine Country Room. The Inn at Occidental, owned by Tina and Gerry, is a beautiful place that is well decorated, large, with nice views. The Wine Country Room is absolutely goregeous with it’s own private entrance, fireplace, spa tub, king size bed, and more. They certainly take service very seriously as when we checked into our room, they had a homemade mini chocolate cake for Andrea. The spa tub even had three duckies in it! We were provided with stationary with our names printed on them, a welcome card with our name on it and dinner reservations at Bistro Des Copains, a French Bistro. They even have these really, really nice plush robes with Inn at Occidental embroidered on them.

We’ve never heard of Bistro Des Copains, despite being open for two years. It’s right next door to Negri’s and we’ve been to Negri’s many times. We figured we would try something different this time. The place is nicely decorated and seats a good amount of guests. We started out with the Salade Verte, butter lettuce in creamy fine herb vinaigrette. They started us off with bread and this paste of olives, anchovies, and other secret ingredients, way too salty because of the anchovies and olives. Tasted fine, nothing special. We also had Moules a la Provencale which is P.E.I. mussels with tomatoes, garlic, & pastis. The mussels were good, but the sauce was a bit too salty. Andrea ordered the Magret de Canard which is pan roasted duck breast with haricot verge and green peppercorn sauce. She liked the duck (more than the duck at Negri’s), but said the haricot verge didn’t have any taste to them. I ordered the Blanquette d’Agneau, poached shoulder of Sonoma lamb with mushrooms, onions, and au gratin potatoes, which I liked, it was good. Our waitress, Debbie, was very helpful and kind and so was the waiter who kept refilling our water. The Sauvignon Blanc Andrea ordered was on the house because it was her birthday. The bill came out to over $70 with tip. It was a different experience, but we probably wouldn’t eat here again because the food was too salty.

Day 2: November 4, 2008

Wished Andrea a very happy birthday! Breakfast at the Inn at Occidental is served from 8 AM to 10 AM, so we went to the dining room in the main house down stairs around 9 AM. There are pastries, coffee, tea, and fresh fruit available as they cook the specialty of the day: scrambled eggs with red peppers and other things in a Parmesan crusted “cup”. It was certainly good.

We started packing to leave. We decided to stop into Petaluma Village Premium Outlets in Petaluma to check out some stores and then home.

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Tags: Arista, Don Carano, Eldorado Casino, Ferrari-Carano, Healdsberg, Inn at Occidental, Negri's, Nevada, Petaluma Village Premium Outlets, Reno, Rhonda Carano, Silver Legacy, wine tasting

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