Still 'Stuck' in Wine Country

The next morning, Wednesday, June 23, we went back into Sonoma and had a light breakfast at a coffee shop where you sit out back in a garden area surrounded by great plants.  We then went back to the early California museum area and finished what we didn't see yesterday.  There was a mission called San Francisco de Solano, which was the last of the Spanish missions built, and the northernmost one.  We then walked to the home of Vallejo, the first general of the Mexican forces here and later an American leader.  Walked back into town for a hamburger and drove to a place called Cornerstone for their art exhibit.  We camped at the same place as last night, Sugar Loaf Ridge.

Thursday morning, we went to the town of Glen Ellen for breakfast, then went to Chateau St. Jean Vineyards.  It was truly beautiful.  We sat in the gardens for awhile.  There was no tour scheduled for that morning, so we went on to Benziger Vineyards in Glen Ellen.  This is a really interesting vineyards that goes beyond organic to bio-dynamic farming methods.  We took a 'tram tour' and learned from a man who used to be a grower about the philosophy of this family vineyard.  After finding the choicest land they could find, they brought in experts who helped them discover what types of grapes would grow best in this soil, and what kinds of plantings to do in between the different vineyards in order to attract just the right insects, etc. to keep their vineyards healthy.  They use no fertilizers or insecticides.  They have goats which clean out the weeds in between the rows, and the goats are where the fertilizer comes from.  Really very interesting.  The tour also included the cave where they store the wines in the barrels, and we learned about the various types of barrels, where they come from, what they are made of and how much they cost. Then, of course, there was the tasting.

We celebrated the end of the tour with a picnic on the grounds, then went and did laundry and ran errands for the rest of the day.  I called my sister that evening for her birthday and we talked for about an hour.