(Monday) It's a race to get the wine....

Mendocino is approximately 85 miles from Healdsburg which is where we are headed next and booked onto a wine tour from 12pm..
Meaning we should be fine as that is about 1.5 hours driving so no worries, leave by 10am to give time to spare.

So we get up leisurely and faff about. I spend ages trying to get my hands on an iron and we just generally mooch. Hadto get a different top because they sent me a childs ironing board to work with. In fact, I think Aaron had a bigger/better one when he was 4!  We've actually done really well with living out of suitcases as we worked out some time back that the easiest way was to have the vital stuff - eg toiletries -- permanently in our rucksack & satchel and then as we arrive at each hotel we pull out the next set of clothes/underwear etc and pack it in our other bag. We've also got a set of dirty laundry bags in a separate section of the car!  Haha.. never thought I would take to 'living' out of a car so easily but it's not been a problem. And this way, we don't have to drag our cases in and out of each hotel. Much better since we haven't stayed anywhere for more than one night since Portland....

Anyway, I digress.. so we packed up and drove around to find a little cafe/bakery to get a take out breakfast. Found a lovely one. Organic, gluten free, homemade, none offensive, vegan friendly, dog friendly etc etc type of californian cafe!  All the women were dressed in the same type of clothes ie yoga outfits or running outfits with perfect hair and make up! Ha..
Mendocino is a very cute little place by the way. At first I thought it was a bit contrived as this is, by all accounts, the trendy beachside place for Northern Californians.. but it really is like that.Very chocolate box pretty and really quite small too. Lots of bakeries & cafe's though!

We stopped off oceanside at a picnic table to enjoy our breakfast which was stunning. I could eat breakfast like that everyday...
And then we pushed on. This was now 9.45pm so we had LOADS of time right. No, our Sat Nav
declared we wouldn't get there until 12.00.. brilliant. But of course, Sat Nav doesn't know that it's me driving and I will not accept her timings!!  Hahah..  Made it there for 11.36am thank you very much. Whilst its not that far away, it's all very windy, narrow roads so you do have to keep your speed limit down but I did OK.. and it was fun really especially with the wine tour on the end of it.

Parked our car at our hotel, quick freshen up and then Sid, our private wine tour guide arrived in a massive car to take us out for the afternoon.
His company foster relationships with a lot of the smaller bespoke wineries as well as the large ones so that their customers can get a more informal, intimate tasting session but also, they are helping to support the smaller outfits.

The first place we went was quite high up in the mountains. They were a winery but mainly winery consultants. A family run set up but Dad was away in India so their son Drew was going to look after us.. at the family house!!  He greeted us at the front with such a lovely warm welcome and then took us into his kitchen.. he had it all set up with a little cheeseboard on the table too!
He was ACE. Loved him instantly and we sat with him for over an hour and a half... we were only supposed to be there for hmmm about 45-60 mins!  He did talk to us about his company and what winery consulting actually was. He explained about the geology of the area, the soil requirements for growing grapes (vines prefer shit soil amazingly!) the difference when growing high up like where we were now and also how he got involved in the wine business. He was very honest and super informal. It really was like we were sat with a mate.. We had a great laugh with him and also ended up talking about England and Marmite!  (Bizarrre how Marmite keeps coming up in these conversations with Americans). He had spent time in Scotland and a flat mate offered him some Vegemite which he spread on his toast like Nutella!  He was still stressed by that experience!!

We talked about beer and he even opened up a bottle he had been storing for over 2 years when he realised how into beer Dan is. Oh we covered so many topics and were all getting slightly merry as his tasters were pretty large. His mum then joined us - I think she thought we had gone - as Drew had just had approval on his house purchase so she was a bit excited. He then told us all about it, the price, how he found it and showed us pictures.. well we're family now!

His Mum is a huge Anglophile she told us, so was super excited that we were in her house. She said that going to Liberty's in London was like others visiting St Paul's Cathedral!!
We bought some wine from him as it was seriously good stuff and he actually wrote on our bottle 'God save the Queen' - with love Drew!  Nutter.  We had to tear ourselves away then as we were conscious of the time ......
So we finally moved on from there as also poor Sid was still waiting for us. He took us on to pick up food that we had pre-ordered from this amazing deli. At the next winery (Lambert Bridge) there were beautiful gardens that you were encouraged to picnic in so we sat there and tried to sober up a little!!

This place was a little more formal but not too much. We had a table set out for us with a little card with our names on and details of the wine were were going to be tasting..

Here we were given proper tasting measures and after JP had told us about the wine, he would move away to leave us to it more often than not.  Though in the end, he did start staying and properly chatting to us. Just like Drew did, he gave us some recommendations for places to eat in Healdsburg - which bizarrely was the same as Drew had suggested.
We had some different wines here which was great as we were now starting to feel quite the experts!  Ha. I still cannot get pick up the tobacco leaf undertones highlighted by the 28 year old oak of the barrel with just a soupçon of mulched coffee grindings ;-) Nope.. but I know if I want to quaff it or not!

Again we purchased a bottle here as these are wines we're not going to get hold of at home. (Though we still need to check on how much we can actually bring home).
Anyway, after here Sid suggested we try one of the much larger wineries so we can see how they operate and see the difference in wines. So these are the ones most people head to and you stand at the wine tasting bar amongst lots of others etc etc. Wine is much cheaper to buy too...

Yep, we were happy to do that (it was actually nearly 3.30pm now and we had only booked the tour until 4pm!)
This place Ferrari Carano was really lovely but yes, much bigger. We pulled up at the bar and requested our tasters. Turns out the lady doing the session was from London so she loved hearing our English accents. We had a great time chatting to Judith, especially about Trump and Brexit.  She was explaining her move over here 26 years ago and how she had nearly gone straight back to London. She had originally gone to Omaha with her husband and hated it!!!  Ahh we have friends there but as we haven't visited couldn't really comment. 

Cork tree!

Judith had always lived in lovely areas around London so it had been a shock to here but when she came to California she realised all was OK. She now lived in a place called Windsor!  Yep honestly, there is a place called Windsor just outside of Healdsburg.

We chose more wine to buy here and bless her she knocked money off for us as we were fellow Englishmen! Said it was on her.....
Back out to Sid and he offered to take us to one more place if we wanted as it was rather special -  errr OK then!

And it was a lovely place - Dutcher Crossing... Much smaller again and set in the most stunning area. Again we had a lovely chat with the man pouring the wine for us and he even tried to take off our accent.. but ended up sounding like the character Simon out of Frasier who's English accent is shocking!!

More wine purchased and we were off back to our hotel. What a bloody fabulous day and thankfully, we weren't too smashed either as we now had to try and sensibly check in!
Our hotel in Healdsburg was gorgeous. I completely loved it and they also provided wine and cheese for the guests to help themselves too!  So whilst Dan freshened up I went downstairs to take advantage of their generosity and enjoy their beautiful garden.
Sid had given us a recommendation for dinner and as Dan had found that the previously recommended place was closed on Monday's we decided to try it out. Especially as it was a tapas place and that would be a welcome change.

So as we were wandering along trying to spot it, guess who we bumped into.. only bloody Sally and Tom!!  They 'didn't know this was where we were heading...'. Ahem, yeah OK!!   They were also looking for Bravas the tapas restaurant... hmm awwwwkwaaard!  Anyway they were eating now and we were just looking to reserve a table as Dan had a brewery that he REALLY wanted to visit so we went our separate ways. Found Bear Republic and had a couple in there and then tootled back to Bravas to get a table. Sam and Tolly (as I have now tipsily renamed them!) were still there finishing their meal and we were only bloody seated next to them!!  Ahh well, lets embrace the situation.. so we chatted but they really were finishing up and soon moved on.

The food here was magnificent.  Some of the best tapas I have had in a long time I have to say. And the setting was fab... we took our time over the food and some lovely wine and just enjoyed being there. This was a really wonderful way to (almost) end all the travelling and road tripping as next stop is San Francisco which is about 65 miles away and then the car goes back :-(............