Saturday was a very good day. I knew it held promise Friday night when my husband, Kimber, and I plotted a day of diabolical fun.
It started as all great Saturdays tend to do -- sleeping in. Our kids each had their own plans (or were out of town), so our only responsibilities were attending to basic hygiene and feeding our zoo of pets. We then brewed some coffee-to-go and launched ourselves toward the expectation of some exceptional wine tasting in the Dry Creek Valley near Healdsburg.
It started as all great Saturdays tend to do -- sleeping in. Our kids each had their own plans (or were out of town), so our only responsibilities were attending to basic hygiene and feeding our zoo of pets. We then brewed some coffee-to-go and launched ourselves toward the expectation of some exceptional wine tasting in the Dry Creek Valley near Healdsburg.
As you can see from the map above, there are a lot of wineries where we could spend our tasting time. Armida has become our favorite by virtue of consistently tasty wines, fun and knowledgeable people, creative marketing, and amazing, picnic-worthy deck and views. We belong to their wine club which "forces" us to visit four times a year to pick up our "Wino Club" wines. As you might imagine, this burden weighs heavily on us.
The day promised perfect spring weather pushing into the upper 70's, so we slathered on some sunscreen and dropped the top of our 10-year-old stick-shift convertible. We traded in our motorcycles for this "new to us" car as a nod to safer transportation while still hoping to convey our hipness, youth, and badassery. Kimber fondly refers to it as his car. I'll let you come to your own conclusions about how deeply he's embraced that imagery. He just claims that it's "fun to drive." Whatever. On this stunning day, he was kind enough to "let" me take the wheel.
Our son's high school baseball game started at 2pm, so we headed up somewhat early with the intention of collecting our wine and finding a bite to eat in Healdsburg before heading back for the game.
As I maneuvered up the beautiful winding Armida driveway, we quickly realized that it wasn't "business as usual." Turns out, it was the second weekend of the Wine Road 37th Annual Barrel Tasting event. Our complete cluelessness worked in our favor. We would've been too intimidated to actually plan to be there on a big event day. A concentrated number of drunk people jockeying for the limited road and parking spaces feels like a recipe for disaster. Or at the very least, someone is going to end up spilling their wine. Probably me.
The other factor working in our favor is that we got there early enough that the crowds had yet to descend. We got front row parking and were greeted by very enthusiastic workers. (I think they were pre-tasting for breakfast to ensure they were knowledgeable. And friendly). As Wino Club members, they handed us logo'd wine glasses and sent us in search of the barrels.
Our son's high school baseball game started at 2pm, so we headed up somewhat early with the intention of collecting our wine and finding a bite to eat in Healdsburg before heading back for the game.
As I maneuvered up the beautiful winding Armida driveway, we quickly realized that it wasn't "business as usual." Turns out, it was the second weekend of the Wine Road 37th Annual Barrel Tasting event. Our complete cluelessness worked in our favor. We would've been too intimidated to actually plan to be there on a big event day. A concentrated number of drunk people jockeying for the limited road and parking spaces feels like a recipe for disaster. Or at the very least, someone is going to end up spilling their wine. Probably me.
The other factor working in our favor is that we got there early enough that the crowds had yet to descend. We got front row parking and were greeted by very enthusiastic workers. (I think they were pre-tasting for breakfast to ensure they were knowledgeable. And friendly). As Wino Club members, they handed us logo'd wine glasses and sent us in search of the barrels.
As you can see, we found them. I look slightly drunk-happy because I am. (I think this was my 4th tasting out of 9 or 10 on an empty stomach). If you've never barrel tasted, you should. It's a unique opportunity to taste "futures" - or wines that haven't been bottled yet. I think you're supposed to be able to conceptualize the vibrant finished product once it has reached its potential in 12-18 months. I was ready to conceptualize how to fit one of those barrels in the back of our little convertible. Full potential or not, it was good.
In Armida's case, we also had the opportunity to chat with the winemaker, Brandon. Which really was us gushing about how much we loved their wines and Brandon thanking us while wondering how much wine they were pouring in the other room. Though he did reward our effusiveness with an extra special reserve tasting. Like we needed it.
After tasting way more wines than we expected, we loaded up our club order and headed to lunch. I wisely "let" Kimber drive.
We didn't have a lunch place in mind but drove towards Healdsburg square where we knew we could find a quality lunch. I think practically every restaurant in Healdsburg uses some secretly addictive ingredient, because we have yet to find a less than stellar meal. Turns out, we didn't get that far because we impulsively pulled into this place:
In Armida's case, we also had the opportunity to chat with the winemaker, Brandon. Which really was us gushing about how much we loved their wines and Brandon thanking us while wondering how much wine they were pouring in the other room. Though he did reward our effusiveness with an extra special reserve tasting. Like we needed it.
After tasting way more wines than we expected, we loaded up our club order and headed to lunch. I wisely "let" Kimber drive.
We didn't have a lunch place in mind but drove towards Healdsburg square where we knew we could find a quality lunch. I think practically every restaurant in Healdsburg uses some secretly addictive ingredient, because we have yet to find a less than stellar meal. Turns out, we didn't get that far because we impulsively pulled into this place:
I really need to clean my camera phone lens.
It might be obvious that we've been missing New Orleans. We haven't properly been since running the New Orleans Rock & Roll Marathon over a year ago. (Technically, I was there in December. But it consisted of my daughter picking me up from the airport in her loaded Prius where we immediately began the three day cross-country Thelma and Louise road trip back to California).
We were seated at a picnic table outside and given the task of choosing from among a menu of traditional specialties such as the muffaletta, po'boys, gumbo, and jambalaya.
We were seated at a picnic table outside and given the task of choosing from among a menu of traditional specialties such as the muffaletta, po'boys, gumbo, and jambalaya.
Kimber settled on the fried green tomato po' boy, I ordered the gumbo, and we split an order of fried pickles. We somehow avoided slipping in an order of beignets. My gumbo was good and gumbo-y, while Kimber proclaimed his sandwich to be the best he's ever had. I don't think the waitress believed him. But she played along.
After our fabulous lunch, we made a quick dash back home and exchanged the wine for chairs to watch the baseball game. The only thing that would've made the day better is if the boys could've pulled out a win. Final score: Dublin 7, Petaluma 4. But we'll get 'em next time.
Just in case you were wondering, I have in no way been paid or sponsored by Armida for this post. But as you probably gathered, we were served a lot of free quality wine. It was such a great day that I'm pretty sure we'll be attending the 38th annual barrel tasting next year followed by lunch at The Parish. I can only hope it'll live up to my very high expectations.
Just in case you were wondering, I have in no way been paid or sponsored by Armida for this post. But as you probably gathered, we were served a lot of free quality wine. It was such a great day that I'm pretty sure we'll be attending the 38th annual barrel tasting next year followed by lunch at The Parish. I can only hope it'll live up to my very high expectations.
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