Sonoma - Ram's Gate Winery

As promised, here is my review of Ram's Gate Winery! This past Sunday on a gorgeous sunny day, we drove out to Sonoma to visit Ram's Gate. It is only half an hour from the city and is simply beautiful! Ram's Gate is the first winery you will hit when coming into Sonoma Valley. This winery is just four months old and is already getting a lot of attention.  They took over the old Roche Family winery vineyard (see review HERE) and inherited some Pinot Noir grapes in the process. The Pinot is absolutely delicious!!!

We arrived at the winery with our 15 month old baby and were not sure what to expect since it looked more "posh", "hip" from the website. We were relieved to see another family sitting on couches with babies. (plural) and around the bend was a nice looking husband and wife with their 2.5 year old daughter and 14 month old son. So it is family friendly and a great way to get out of the city, enjoy some awesome food and wine. Truth be told it became a bit of an adult romper room by the end of it. The 2.5 year old girl, Julia, took a liking to our daughter, Cali and they were crawling around squealing with glee.  That is not to say that everyone was okay with this. Some of the staff was super loving and others glared with disgust. Patrons didn't seem to notice or mind. (well the odd one gave our sweet girl the stink eye but that comes with the territory) We had a great time, made some friends with that other family, took in some sun on the vineyard, wines and cheese.

The great thing about this winery is they offer wines by the glass, a tasting flight for $20 and they have food!!! Real food that is really really good. Small plates that can pair with the wines. The menu offers codes beside each dish which indicate which wine they are suggested with. More information on the food and executive chef, Jason Rose, HERE.

The other great thing is that is so beautiful and the decor is gorgeous. It is modern and brand new and there are fireplaces and heat lamps everywhere.

Along with beautiful views.

Here is a picture of the entrance way when you first walk into the winery.

And looking the other way towards the parking lot:

There are mainly three different areas to sit, along with a VIP members only area as well.

We sat here:

This was a covered, windowed terrace. The great thing about it, is the ceiling is open air slats. So you get that nice breeze and there are heat lamps in case you get chilly. They also offer blankets. Here is another shot of the hall we were sitting in: 

The outdoor seating on the other side was filled up. There are less than a dozen chairs on that side so they go fast. Here is a picture: 

And if you wanted to sit inside, they have a bar setting with a fireplace and some tables looking to the outside area (open to the outdoors so yo get the breeze also.) Here is a picture: 

They also offer all kinds of different options, including picnics. Click HERE for more information.

I decided to do the $20 tasting flight and my husband ordered a glass of Pinot Noir. The tasting flight comes with the Sparkling Brut, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon (which at $68 dollars/bottle I noticed they pour a particularly small measure) and the Late Harvest Zinfandel dessert wine. We also ordered the warm olives, cheese plate and beet salad with goat cheese. 

The food was amazing. 10/10. The wine was also excellent. My favorites were the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. 

My husband adored the Pinot Noir and I did as well. It a dark ruby red and was spicy and smooth. They describe it as having Black Pine notes.

The Chardonnay was crisp with caramel hints. Really delicious. We took a bottle home. :)

Their wines are fairly young since it is a new winery, with the exception of the Pinot Noir since they inherited those grapes from the Roche vineyards. Here is a LIST of all the wines they offer.

MY RATING: 

I give this winery 4 stars. Great atmosphere, delicious food, excellent wine. 

It would have been 5/5 if did without the few dirty looks. ;)

Here are their hours and more INFORMATION.

Happy Sipping!
xoxo
Caroline

CELLAR 360 WINE CLUB

I went for a walk yesterday in San Francisco with my 14.5 month old daughter.
It was a beautiful, sunny, crisp day and we jogged along the Marina and looked at the boats and then over to Fort Mason and up through the park and looked at the stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay. We walked along to Ghirardelli Square where I planned to check out Peekadoodle classes/membership for my daughter. We went into the adorable little shops in the square and I finally caved and bought my girl a large Elmo stuffed animal. The minute we entered the store she spotted him. Squealed and pointed at him. She has two small Elmos ( which I have not seen lately ) and wants the bigger one to hug. :) So we left with some Valentine's cards, a valentine hello kitty and an Elmo.
There is a sweet little tea shop in the square where you can get high tea. Colorful and cute. It is called Crown and Crumpet.

But alas, on to the wine! As I made my way down to the Peekadoodle, I was told the elevators were inside Cellar 360. Oh how nice! A wine tasting room. My favorite! I contemplated stopping to taste some wine, but my baby had a runny nose and was growing impatient. I did, however, stop to talk to a very nice gentleman and get the details about the place. I was impressed! At Cellar 360 you can taste wine at the bar, buy wine and get deli sandwiches, heated up panini's and you can buy chilled champagne, white wine and salami.

The really cool thing about Cellar 360 is the Wine Club. It is free to join and it gives you access to the private tasting room that has views of the harbor, straight shot of Alcatraz and the water. Really neat. You can come with friends and taste wines in there if you're a part of the club. Also when you visit their wineries ( I will get to the list shortly ) up in Sonoma, Napa you get VIP access there as well. Sometimes you get complimentary reserve tasting, like at Beringer Vineyards. Here is a LIST of all the perks when you visit their wineries.

Local wineries that they represent in Sonoma and Napa are:

Beringer Vineyards

2000 Main Street, St. Helena, CA 94574
Phone: (707) 963-7115

Chateau St. Jean

8555 Sonoma Highway (Highway 12), Kenwood, CA 95452
Phone: (707) 833-4134

Etude

1250 Cuttings Wharf Road, Napa, CA 94559
Phone: (707) 257-5300

St. Clement

2867 St. Helena Highway North, St. Helena, CA 94574
Phone: 800-331-8266

Stags' Leap Winery

6150 Silverado Trail, Napa CA 94574
Phone: 800-640-LEAP

They also represent Meridian Vineyards in Paso Robles,CA and Souverain / Cellar No8 in Cloverdale, CA. They have some great Australian wineries under their name too including Penfolds and Wolf Blass!

The wine club works like this:

You can either join the World Club or the Cellar Club.

With the World Club you can get:

-  quarterly shipments of white if that is your choice for $59.99/6 bottle shipment. (around $10 a bottle)
OR
- quarterly shipments of mixed reds and whites for $69.99/6 bottle shipment (around $11 a bottle)
OR
- quarterly shipments of red for $79.99/ 6 bottle shipment (around $13 a bottle)

With the Cellar Club you can get wines that are hand selected and chosen for rarity, quality, vineyard designations and reserve status. These wines are designed for the connoisseur who is looking to enhance their cellar. These range from $119 to $169.99 per quarterly shipment. Click HERE for details and to choose a club.

And that is it! I am definitely going to join. Especially since I will be making a trip up to Beringer in the near future. And fun to use the tasting room when friends/family visit at Cellar 360.
I am going to do the World Club mixed reds and whites! :)

From their website their very own reasons to join the wineclub:

Five Reasons to Join Now:

1.	Six bottles from over 150 well-known wine labels from over 40 regions across four continents delivered go your door each February, May, August and November.
	2.	Receive 20% off all wines purchased, and 10% discount on merchandise in the San Francisco Tasting Room, and our wine discounts and complimentary tastings at our esteemed California wineries. (click here for specific winery discounts).
3.	Each shipment is hand selected and can be customized with red, white or mixed varietals and is a fixed price that never changes.
	4.	Wine Club Members are invited to exclusive Wine Club events at the San Francisco Tasting Room, and our esteemed California wineries.
5.	Access to professional Wine Consultants five days a week, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST toll-free at 877-774-WINE (877-774-9463).

Happy sipping!
xoxo
Caroline

http://crownandcrumpet.com/

Sonoma Roche Family Winery

Roche was the second winery we took in on New Years Day. This winery is right in downtown Sonoma just off the famous Sonoma plaza. It offers both indoor and outdoor tasting. It was a beautiful day, so we opted to sit outside. The patio was quaint and had picnic tables, a fire pit and trees with a large tree growing right in the center. Here is a picture of it: 

It is super casual and a different experience than going to the actual vineyard. I prefer going to the winery and seeing the gorgeous landscape and the little grapes working away on the vines.
However, since we only took in two wineries that day it was a nice juxtaposition. We enjoyed walking down the main street and seeing the shops and the park and stopping to taste some wine.

When we got there our baby somehow had no milk and because it was New Years Day many places were not open. It was surprisingly hard to get milk. One place was "sold out." We eventually found some in a hotel restaurant. Needless to say the happy wine buzz we had on our faces from the previous winery, B.R. COHN, had worn off.

So, it was a nice treat to sit outside at Roche with the setting sun and the happy patrons. There was a lively group of people sitting around the fire pit celebrating a 40th Birthday party. A couple of older ladies in the corner who seemed quite sloshed, a gay couple with their dog sitting at a nearby picnic table, a family with a baby in the corner and a couple at a hightop table in the other corner. I found a spot in the shade near the gay couple and my husband went to get the tastings. He came back with my favorite varietal - Chardonnay. This was the 2010 Carneros Estate Chardonnay. We went home with a bottle.

Ahhh... a buttery, savory Chardonnay, a setting sun, my loving family, baby happy with a full bottle of milk and we settled in.

The Roche Family Winery is still owned and operated by the Roche family and their wine is not sold in stores. They offer bike tours of the vineyards if you would like to do that. They also make olive oil. I sampled one that was extremely delicious.  I didn't take home a bottle though, because I had just purchased the lemon infused oil from B.R. COHN.

NOW FOR THE WINE!

It was $5 to taset 6 wines and they waive the tasting fee if you buy a bottle. Good deal. 

I tried four wines instead of six, because they were sold out of a few. 

1/ 2010 Carneros Estate Chardonnay $23.95/bottle. 

I went home with a bottle of this stuff. Has a nice mixture of fruit, vanilla and caramel. 

I also tried the Pinot Noir, A Cabernet Sauvignon and a Muscat dessert wine. They were sold out of a few whites and reds so we tried the Muscat dessert wine which I hate! I don't like sweet wine. Oh well. Drank it anyways. lol. My husband, who is not a drunk, left his.

The Pinot Noir was forgettable but the Cabernet Sauvignon was quite good! Earthy and robust. 

We had a fun time and the elderly drunk ladies fell in love with our baby, who was now out of the stroller and walking around with her bugaboo and the empty milk cup. She was smiling and flirting with everyone and these ladies adored her.

These two women were strange though. They reminded me a bit of the witches around the cauldron in Macbeth. Not sure what happened to the third one. They started talking to us when they heard we had just moved to town from NYC and then the two gay men on the other side of us got interested. They started chatting to us about places to go and see in San Francisco.

We stayed much longer than we would have as we were engaged in stimulating conversation and the baby was happy. We told us about Bartholomew Park Winery where you can take a hike and then have a glass of vino. We will go there next and review it for you. We also got the hot tip to check out Rams Gate Winery. It looks lovely and I will review it soon as well.  They officially opened for business on Sept.16th and they took over the old Roche Winery site! Aha. They're the culprits!! So where did Roche's vines go?? Not sure.

One of the men told me how his mom knew he was gay at the age of 2 years old, because he was playing with pots and pans and his mom took him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist told her not to worry and that if he was "gay" then that is who he was and there was nothing she could do. This was back when being gay was still considered a disease. Back in the 1960's. So it was lovely that the psychiatrist was so open. Perhaps he too was gay? Anyways when he came out to his mother, she told him she knew he was gay since he was two years old. 

Too much information? Sorry, but these are the types of connections you can make when drinking wine on a sunny afternoon in Sonoma!

Soon after this, one of the witch ladies came over and picked up my baby... then she told me to wait before having another child because this one is "strong." Okay...

Anyhoodle. Back to the winery!

MY RATING: 

I give this winery 2 stars. The wines were okay, the atmosphere was nice and pleasant, but it could have been a restaurant on any main street in any small town. I didn't get that Sonoma winery feel that you crave when you drive out there.  As well, there is something to be said for labels and their bottles are a little boring. Here is a picture: 

Sonoma - B.R. COHN Winery in Glen Allen

This past Sunday we headed up to Sonoma. It was New Years Day 2012. What better way to start off the year? The weather was sunny and crisp. A stunning day. We got in our new Jetta SE with sunroof
(and huge dent on the door thanks to my husband), packed up our baby girl and we were on our way! We turned on Sirius radio (free for 3 months) and set it to Howard Stern who was in mid interview with Steven Tyler. They talked about drugs, sex and rock n roll. What else?! We learned that Steven Tyler has a big penis, he enjoys threesomes and...well that's not important. Back to the wine!
The baby was happy, we had the sunroof open and we were on our way to country. All was right with the world!

It was New Years day and so only a select few wineries had their doors open. We chose two to go to that morning.

B.R. COHN 
and
Roche



We had no idea that B.R. COHN was the winery of the Doobie Brothers manager, Bruce Cohn. How cool! My husband loves music and this was a nice surprise!

There are many great things about B.R. COHN winery. Firstly it is beautiful. See below for a picture of the grounds and the beautiful white home.  One of the sommeliers told us that Bruce Cohn originally lived in the main house and never planned on making it a winery. He just wanted a country house. "I wanted to recreate my childhood for my family." Cohn's family moved from Chicago to Sonoma in 1956 when Cohn was 10. Both of his parents were part-time musicians and his dad designed shoes for Florsheim.  They moved to Sonoma and ran a goat dairy in the Russian River. Cohn had a bunch of cash from the Doobie's hit album Toulouse Street and he bought the Olive Hill Estate in 1974. There were some old grapes left on the property and he tended to them but ended up selling them to other Vineyards. Charlie Wagner, a Napa winemaker helped Bruce learn and encouraged him.  Eventually Charlie made wine with Bruce's grapes and the results were successful! Ronald Reagan took wine produced from the Olive Hill Vineyard grapes to China. Bruce decided he should make his own wine and in 1984 B.R. COHN winery was founded.

Secondly, the fact that Bruce Cohn, manager of the Doobie Brothers, is the owner is very cool. They sell Doobie Brothers hats and t-shirts and even wine glass markers made of different color guitar picks. The Doobie Brothers do a concert at the vineyard every year in September for the Fall Music Festival.
What is great is that he raises money for various charities as well. Over the years Cohn has raised over 6 million dollars for various local and national charities including national veteran's organizations.

Next years event is scheduled for the week of October 5th-8th. I might just check it on out!! Word is though it's tough to get a good seat in the shade. People line up super early!!!

Here is a picutre of the tasting room.

WARNING: There are no seats. So it is like a bar and quite small. Got a bit crowded when we were there.

NOW FOR THE WINE!

I tried four wines. It was $10 bucks for four tastings and they waive the fee if you buy a bottle. 

1/ 2010 Carneros Chardonnay $35/bottle. 

Click for description

I went home with a bottle of this stuff. Yum. It is fruity, but also with yummy caramel and vanilla. Delish!

2/ 2008 Sonoma Valley SyrZin $32/bottle ( a mixture of Syrah and Zinfandel ) 

Click for description

I was NOT a fan of the SyrZin.

3/ 2007 Olive Hill Estate Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon $100/bottle

Click for description

This wine is all kinds of delicious. Just didn't want to pay $100 for a bottle. I adore OLDER wine and this one came from the old grapes that were on the property when Cohn bought it. This wine was like a stinky blue cheese. Like dirty socks. Tasty socks. :) 

4/ 2009 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir $40/bottle

Click for description

This wine was good and had nice spice!

The other really great thing about this winery is they also have an olive oil company and sell olive oil, vinegar and gourmet food. We tried several infused olive oils, including blood orange olive oil. They were all super yummy! We took home a lemon infused olive oil. I just made a salad with it and it adds a nice pizzaz to plain oil.


MY RATING: 

I give this winery 4 stars. Good wine, nice buzz, kind to the baby, beautiful grounds, cool music angle, delicious olive oil. Why not 5 stars? I guess if they had chairs inside or nicer modern decor, comfy chairs outside that would be the fifth star. 


Here I am on the B.R. COHN grounds: 

To Sonoma I go with baby in tow!

Hi.

This is me and this picture was taken on Sunday in Sonoma:

This is my very first post. I am a wine lover, a wine enthusiast...
Okay let's just call a spade a spade. I am a wino.
A drunk.
A lady who loves vino.

I have a 14 month old daughter. Who knows how I went 10 months without ONE single swig of wine.

Okay!

So 2 months ago I moved from NYC to San Francisco. What?! It is only ONE hour away from TWO of my favorite wines! Clos Du Bois  http://closdubois.com/ and Kendall Jackson?? http://www.kj.com/

Oh my sweet goodness gracious. This is dangerous. But wait a minute!  I can be of service to the people. To all the other winos out there. Or the aficionados. If there really are any. I mean who spits the wine out in the spittoon??? Unless you're trying to impress someone.

So! I decided to create this blog and taste the wine for you. Visit the gorgeous wineries and tell you the good, the bad and the ugly. Your time is precious. I will sort it all out for you. Break it down. Tell you which wineries are worth your time. I mean it's something I do well. Drink wine. So I will do the hard work for you. ;)

And twice a month I will attach it to a video vlog of my journeys to Napa & Sonoma.

xoxooxoxo Caroline in Cali with baby Cali (that is my daughters name!! ) and hubbie.