Recent Visit to Wine Country

Above is a picture from the brand new Trinchero Winery location. (The new open kitchen) My husband and I enjoyed a wonderful private luncheon at their new facility.  We had ribs, crab cakes, heirloom tomatoes w/ buffalo mozzarella, Caesar salad...and of course, wine. 

Below is the view of the vineyards from their new location.

 

Trinchero purchased their new winery from two psychiatrists.  The psychiatrist partners (romantic, I think) made their own label of wine and named it "Folie a Deux"...because everyone thought they were crazy for quitting their practice and starting a winery.  It translates as "two people who share the same madness or delusion".  Trinchero liked the wine and the name -  and so they kept it.

From Wikipedia:  

Folie à deux (English pronunciation: /fɒˈli ə ˈduː/, from the French for "a madness shared by two") is a rare psychiatric syndrome in which a symptom of psychosis (particularly a paranoid or delusional belief) is transmitted from one individual to another. The same syndrome shared by more than two people may be called folie à trois, folie à quatre, folie à famille or even folie à plusieurs ("madness of many"). Recent psychiatric classifications refer to the syndrome as shared psychotic disorder (DSM-IV) (297.3) and induced delusional disorder (folie à deux) (F.24) in the ICD-10, although the research literature largely uses the original name.

Too Funny, right?!

 

The Beringer Estate House is exceptional and beautiful. (See Below)

 

We visited a lot of wineries on our trip.  We went to both Napa and Sonoma.  It was so much fun.  Silver Oak was super nice, Chalk Hill, Beringer, St. Francis, Rodney Strong, Stag' Leap,...Oh, there were so many that were unbelievably nice!

Blackstone: 

We met a wonderful woman, Judy Oliver-Rose, at Blackstone Winery.  We tasted everything!  (Here is my new friend, Judy)

We tried a wonderful new wine that I highly recommend.  It is Blackstone Rubric. 

It is a blend of: Cabernet Suvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot, Tannat, Merlot, and Petie Sirah.  And - It is amazing!

Judy was so generous with her time...she took us into the barrel room, with a thief in hand, and allowed us to sample some truly wonderful wines.  

Judy then took a little time off and we followed her to the local Cheese Monger.  I do so love cheese.  

Thanks to Judy for her hospitality and making me a fan of Blackstone!

Here is the Cheese Monger: 

Raymond & Company Cheesemongers in Jack London Village - Glen Ellen, CA.

Oh, and I have to say Cakebread Winery, BV, Rutherford, and Charles Krug were all outstanding!

I totally should have taken more pictures, but, I was too busy drinking wine!