I didn’t mention much about our trip to Sonoma last week, but I’ll give a brief synopsis here: After reading a confusing map and crossing the same bridge three times, we explored the sunny hills of Sonoma, Napa’s more spread-out and less traveled neighbor. Our first stop was the beautiful Schug vineyard, where Jen and I actually bought a delicious, dry sauvigon blanc (a white?!) and we got our first buzz on.

From there we tried Cline, where they offered a sample of fresh grapes from the vine and a selection of rich, full-bodied reds. (Cline also features the actual Red Truck from the label you may have seen.) After some more obfuscation, we found Ravenswood on a sloping hill outside town, climbed some stairs and sampled a variety of wines not offered outside the vineyard, of which we bought two.

Our final stop, after trying to find Gundlach Bundschu (it’s somewhere outside of town, but all signs led to nowhere) was the Castle tasting room in town, where a wonderful lady led us through all fifteen or so wines offered. From Castle we walked around the square and found an Italian restaurant, paid a $15 corkage fee, and enjoyed a hearty dinner.