posted 12-17-2010 12:21 PM            

You really crammed a lot in such a short time. We, too, use Buffalo Shipping. We tried another on just up the street from them once and we were not as pleased. Again, the customer service was lacking.

Sorry you didn't get in to Gustavo Thrace. The last time we were there, they had run out of their cab. Their other wines were just so so.

As I was typing this, my order of the Maple Vineyard Zin arrived from Arvida. I bought two of the Maples' and two each of Arvida Maple Zins. Will be anxious to try them . . . the anticipation is great.

I am working on our March trip and when I have the schedule done, I will share it with you and ask for any feedback you may have.

posted 12-16-2010 07:02 PM            

Next we went by Ledson - our daughter had requested some Riesling, which I hadn’t found anywhere yet, so I said to the spouse, “Let’s try Ledson, they have everything!” Guess what? They had two! And while we were there, we forced ourselves to try lots of their zins and cabs. Oh, and their mustards - one was bright green, so I said to myself, Self, don’t try that one, it’s wasabi and probably hot. So I tried the one next to it and then read the label - not so smart of me: Sweet Fire! My head exploded. Fortunately there were three jars of chocolate sauces right around the corner and I was able to soothe my poor mouth. Look before you leap OR read before you dip. Lesson learned.

We headed on down the road to Sonoma. Walked around the square for a bit and then had lunch at LaSallette - a place I had read about on OpenTable. So glad to find it - cute little place off the square. It was down an alleyway that I had never noticed before - there are all kinds of shops hidden away! Anyway, it was a Portuguese restaurant and we enjoyed our lunch.

Next stop was Ravenswood. I have enjoyed their zin at restaurants so I thought it would be fun to go to the source. Oddly enough, the zin which is in wide distribution is the one wine of theirs that I liked. The ones they poured were not impressing me - go figure.

At this point we needed to get over to Napa and the Buffalo Shipping folks - my brilliant plan to bring home two cases as luggage was making us tired, so we decided to let UPS handle it for us. Too much great food and wine makes us lazy But I had noticed that Gustavo Thrace was open on Sundays and open to at least 6, so that was perfect! We shipped the two (or 3 1/2) cases at Buffalo and headed over to Gustavo Thrace. Which had a note on the door saying that they were closed today and would re-open on Monday. So sad - I’ve been trying to get there for the last 3 trips and finally got there! Oh well, next time.

Nothing left to do but head to Oakland for our flight the next morning. We did stop first and have dinner at Skates on the Bay. Another delicious meal - all we do is eat great meals and drink great wine! Tough life...