Thursday, Napa Sonoma & vino !!

     The athlete party and Railroad museum in the rear view mirror we woke up refreshed, stressless and google our map to the wine country.  On the road at 9:00 and arrive in Napa about an hour later...Napa is not what I had expected, high end but not real folksy or touristy. I am to learn later that I wasn't exactly in the picturesque part of Napa..We didn't spend a lot of time there , and drove onto Sonoma.  Now this is more like our kinda town, a downtown square reminiscent of an old town atmosphere---remember the square in Back to the Future--bingo!  Lots of really neat little shops -even a few thrifts- an incredibly good smelling bakery, and just plain fun to walk around ..We spent a bit more than an hour and asked some of the shops where to go to view a winery..We settled on Ledson which was about 12 miles out of town..off we drove , going thru some beautiful vineyards and numerous other wineries which we may or may not have time to come back to.  Ledson was picked because we asked one of the downtown Sonoma merchants where a

Ledson winery

Kunde Winery Cave

downtown sonoma
true old fashioned mansion was like the french wineries .  Ledson is all of that, as the grounds are beautiful approaching with the vineyards and a fountain in your line of sight as you go up the road.  We walked into the huge oak front doors and proceeded to the rear of the house to the tasting rooms and large bars.  The wine tasting at this winery are free---different than several others we were to visit..In the old days they were all free, but now many of them charge ten bucks for three tastings...not my idea of a good sales pitch.  We bought some zinfandel from them after the barista tricked me. I had told him I really only preferred Merlot that I didnt think I liked zinfandel, so he told me that he gave me merlot but several minutes later after I had finished, he asked me how I liked it and I said very much he then admitted it was not merlot but their zinfandel...so much for me knowing my wine..i mean how good can you be when you specialize in two-buck-chuck? We then went to another winery close by that wanted to charge us, not happening !  We then made it to Kunde winery which also charged but had a free tour of their mountain caves where they store their wine barrels for several years while they age.  All in all a fun tour we did enjoy one glass of their merlot while we waited for the tour to begin and it was a far better bargain than most restaurants offer, a full glass for 5 bucks.  We headed back to town and arriving at the motel, slightly tired , devoured  our lean cuisines...fine food at a fine establishment.  We turned in at our usual senior citizen time..with the dreaded
400m for Betty tomorrow in the early evening..Whoesme !