Glen Ellen: A Beautiful Home Base for Sonoma!
On Monday of our trip, after we spent the morning looking at the Golden Gate Bridge and having sushi in Sausalito, we drove out to where we would be staying in Glen Ellen, CA! This town was adorable and tiny. Not even sure I could call it a town, since it was more like a collection of wineries, restaurants, and our amazing hotel.
We loved staying at Gaige House! We got a great deal (stay 1 night get one free) so we ended up getting to stay in one of their nicest suites. Especially compared to our hilariously tiny room in San Francisco, this was an absolute sanctuary for us. We had so much space, including our very own private zen garden and a bathroom with a tub carved from one giant rock. Apparently these tubs are so big, they put them in, and THEN built the suites around it. Amazing!
Once we went and stopped by our hotel to get coupons (hotels in wine country almost always have free or 2-for-1 tasting coupons, just ask!) we drove about 5 minutes to our first winery visit and tour! I figured we should start with at least 1 tour so we could learn something, and it ended up being wonderful!
Since it was mid March, it's somewhat between the off season and the busy season for wine country. It can tend to rain in March, but we had absolutely beautiful weather! Take a look at this view!
We went on a tour of Benziger Family Winery, and I would highly recommend it. We went on the special partners tour, and while it was the most expensive tour/tasting we did (I couldn't find a coupon) it was absolutely worth it, and it was a perfect introduction to wine country. Benziger practices biodynamic farming, so there are no pesticides or anything. They described it as Organic 2.0 because they do a lot of balancing with planting different crops alongside the vineyards and with introducing different animals and insects into the farm.
You're welcome for the image on the left. I promise there are some veggies under all that amazing bacon!
We loved staying at Gaige House! We got a great deal (stay 1 night get one free) so we ended up getting to stay in one of their nicest suites. Especially compared to our hilariously tiny room in San Francisco, this was an absolute sanctuary for us. We had so much space, including our very own private zen garden and a bathroom with a tub carved from one giant rock. Apparently these tubs are so big, they put them in, and THEN built the suites around it. Amazing!
Our beautiful door. The suites were separate from the main house where we had breakfast every morning, fresh baked cookies in the afternoon, and a wine and cheese reception in the evening.
Huge room! We had an armoire for all our clothes, and the door on the right took us outside where we had lounge chairs and a private view of a creek.
Our zen garden! The whole room wrapped around the zen garden in a U shape. We had sliding doors on all sides to go out there, and there was a neat fountain out there.
The ultimate bathtub. It was HUGE. Another view of the zen garden too!
Once we went and stopped by our hotel to get coupons (hotels in wine country almost always have free or 2-for-1 tasting coupons, just ask!) we drove about 5 minutes to our first winery visit and tour! I figured we should start with at least 1 tour so we could learn something, and it ended up being wonderful!
Since it was mid March, it's somewhat between the off season and the busy season for wine country. It can tend to rain in March, but we had absolutely beautiful weather! Take a look at this view!
We went on a tour of Benziger Family Winery, and I would highly recommend it. We went on the special partners tour, and while it was the most expensive tour/tasting we did (I couldn't find a coupon) it was absolutely worth it, and it was a perfect introduction to wine country. Benziger practices biodynamic farming, so there are no pesticides or anything. They described it as Organic 2.0 because they do a lot of balancing with planting different crops alongside the vineyards and with introducing different animals and insects into the farm.
This tour was awesome because there were only 4 people on it, including us. It was basically a private tour! And we got to drink wine the whole time. Our hilarious tour guide was nice enough to snap our picture.
We got to go in the wine caves where they store all the wine aging in French oak barrels. We love a good oaky Chardonnay now!
We got to do a tasting down in the cave and it was amazing. I loved the places that had their winery name on the glasses! I believe here we had a sauvignon blanc and a couple of cabernet sauvignons. We even got to taste a cab sauv right from the barrel that hadn't been aged all the way yet. It was so different!
At the end of the tour, we went to their tasting room and got to taste another red and a great port with dark chocolate. Yum!
After our tour, we went back to our hotel and got ready for dinner. We decided for our first night to stay in Glen Ellen, so we walked to dinner at the Glen Ellen Star! We ended up splitting three things so we could try multiple dishes. Glen Ellen Star cooks everything in a huge wood fired oven. We had brussel sprouts with bacon in a skillet, chicken with amazing creamy polenta, and a margherita pizza. Jason had a beer, which was a nice change from all the wine, and I just stuck to water. Drinking that much is hard for a lightweight like me, even though I have the advantage of coming from high altitude!
You're welcome for the image on the left. I promise there are some veggies under all that amazing bacon!
Well, this is getting really long, so I think I'll split up the days again! We had such a lovely time in Glen Ellen, and it was a wonderful home base for Sonoma. It was pretty centrally located and I would recommend it!
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