The next morning, bright and early, we were on the road again for a trip north to Clos du Bois vineyards. We met at the main winery and drove a short time to the main vineyards, where we met Tom (Constellation’s Sonoma vineyard manager) and his boss, who showed us the inner workings of the actual harvesting machinery.

 

 

 

We toured most of the vineyards bordering the Russian River and tasted the many different grape varietals in the vineyards to get a feel for how different each tastes on the vine, as well as comparing how close they were to harvest, based on the sweetness. After a morning of tasting the grapes, we got our chance to sample the wines paired with each course with lunch at the Clos du Bois tasting room. One thing you can count on with any wine trip: great wine and delicious food to go with it! The head winemaker for Clos du Bois met with us and discussed some of the wines, the blends, and the status of the harvest and production to this point in the season. With very large temperature fluctuations, they were in a waiting game for some of the reds to be ready.

 

We were then off to Simi (noted correct pronunciation, “see me”) and met one of their wine educators, who drove us off-site to the Landslide vineyard and gave us a tour.

 

We then headed back to the Simi winery site and toured the facilities. We got to see grapes fresh from the fields coming in on their way to the crush.

 

After the tour, a very nice five course meal—each course paired with a wine—was prepared in the tasting room and Tom (vineyard manager) met us to talk about some of his work managing the fields and the upcoming harvest that night at the Clos du Bois vineyard.