The Vintner's Inn was wonderful! Our stay included a welcome bottle of wine, breakfast, turn-down service at night, complete with home-made chocolate chip cookies, and a gift certificate for dinner at the John Ash restaurant.
The weather was beautiful during our stay. We did lots of wine tasting, and we were just amazed at how the wine industry has grown in this area. There were vineyards everywhere! The receptionist at the Vintner's Inn gave us tasting coupons for lots of wineries, which was really nice! On Tuesday we visited the Hook and Ladder winery. We had discovered their Zinfandel wine in Tucson when visiting Cody, so it was great to visit the winery.
We also visited De Loach and Harvest Moon on Tuesday. Dinner on Tuesday night was at a great little restaurant very close to the Inn. It was very yummy!
Wednesday morning after breakfast we again visited the front desk for more tasting coupons, and headed up the West Side road, which is west of and parallels Hwy 101. There we found the Russian Hill winery, Gary Farrell, with an amazing view of the valley, Hop Kiln winery and finished up with Geyser Peak! We got smart on day two, and shared the tastings! We had a wonderful picnic on the grounds of the Hop Kiln winery.
We wandered back to the Inn along the Old Redwood Highway. The weather was gorgeous, everything was green and blooming - a perfect time to be in Sonoma County.
Dinner that night was at John Ash - a wonderful restaurant! I had butternut squash ravioli, which was to die for! Lee had the lamb shank, one of his favorites! We had a lovely bottle of red wine, a view of the vineyards, and a gorgeous sunset to go with our meal - life is, indeed, good!
Thank you, you wonderful children and grandchildren! We SO enjoyed and appreciated our Vintner's Inn experience! What a great Christmas gift!!
Fountain in the courtyard of the Vintner's Inn
Entry way to the courtyard
Everything was lush and green, and all the trees were leafing out!
This beautiful marble fountain was across from the Inn, at their event center
Our room
The room was huge and beautiful! To the right is our own private patio!
Closet and entry way to the bathroom
We got a kick out of the fact that they were providing New Zealand water! This is Waiwere water - "wai" means water in Maori - not sure what "were" means - can any of you Kiwi's tell us?
Plaque at the Hop Kiln winery. This is one of the last 3 hop kilns left in Sonoma County.
Hop Kiln winery - the smoke stacks were to left out the smoke resulting from the fires that dried out the hops. This building was made of stone by Italian stone masons, and was built in 35 days!
A beautiful day at the Geyser Peak winery!
Our wonderful "Christmas" dinner at the John Ash restaurant - how lucky are we???
1 comment:
Oh it does sound wonderful! Thanks for the excellent pics...it's almost like being there :)
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