Sonoma Valley and a View from the Top
On on second day in wine country, we decided to explore Sonoma. After a great breakfast at Gaige House, we ventured out to the oldest family owned winery in Sonoma, Gundlach Bundschu!
We didn't have a tour scheduled, so we planned on just sharing a tasting. Had I looked it up sooner, I would've realized that we could do our tastings for free! If you have a Visa Signature credit card, there are a TON of wineries that will let you taste for free. Anyway, it was only $10 and we shared it (since I can't handle that much anyway) and it was delicious!
Gundlach Bundschu is a German family winery, and they had a fantastic Gewurztraminer wine that we loved. We took a bottle home with us, and then we ended up finding it at our local liquor store as well! Hooray! We walked around the grounds a little bit and it was so beautiful! We were so lucky with the weather that we got.
After GunBun, we went and had a really quick lunch at The Fremont Diner. Oh man. So good!! I wish we had had more time or been more hungry and I would have gone to town there. It was southern food in California and I loved it so much. We both got mini fried chicken sandwiches with house made mayo and pickles, then we shared some mac and cheese and cornbread. So amazing!
After lunch (which was super cheap by the way, which really helped the vacation budget!), we had scheduled a mountaintop tasting at Kunde Family Estate. This mountaintop tasting ended up being the absolute highlight of our time in wine country.
I didn't know what to expect when I booked this tasting, and it was one of the only other ones we had to pay more for. Luckily, I did have a coupon for this one, so we got a 2-for-1 deal! When we got there, we found out that AGAIN we were going on the tour with only one other couple! After we got a glass of Chardonnay, the four of us got in a van and our tour guide John drove us up through the vineyards. We got to see several different spaces where they do events at Kunde and where they filmed some of the movie Bottle Shock. We drove all the way to the top, while our tour guide told us all about the different vineyards and types of grapes.
Again, our tour guide was awesome about being willing to take pictures of us! We also got to take a selfie to be able to use our coupon, haha.
Up at the top, we got to try four different wines. We ended up loving their Red Dirt Red, Drummond Cab Sauv, aaaaand basically everything else we tried! We liked all the wine at Kunde the best, and it was so hard to decide what to buy to take home with us! We actually ended up coming back later to decide. The mountaintop tasting was such an amazing experience, and again, we got to take things slow and enjoyed our time together so much. I would say this experience at Kunde can't be missed if you're in Sonoma.
After Kunde we decided to go back to our hotel again to get ready for dinner! We drove into Sonoma the town for dinner at the girl & the fig. We realized when we felt a bit off at dinner that we hadn't been drinking enough water all day. Once I downed a couple of glasses of water, our night improved considerably! We split a fig & arugula salad, then I had steak & frites (all that red wine had me craving steak) and Jason had an incredible duck leg confit. After dinner we walked around Sonoma square for bit, then ended our day and went back to our beautiful room to enjoy the evening.
Summary of Tuesday in wine country? Make sure to go to Kunde, and drink enough water!!
We didn't have a tour scheduled, so we planned on just sharing a tasting. Had I looked it up sooner, I would've realized that we could do our tastings for free! If you have a Visa Signature credit card, there are a TON of wineries that will let you taste for free. Anyway, it was only $10 and we shared it (since I can't handle that much anyway) and it was delicious!
Before we went in for our tasting, we found a bench with a view of this beautiful water. This vacation was all about just enjoying time together and taking it slow. I loved just being able to sit and be with Jason.
Gundlach Bundschu is a German family winery, and they had a fantastic Gewurztraminer wine that we loved. We took a bottle home with us, and then we ended up finding it at our local liquor store as well! Hooray! We walked around the grounds a little bit and it was so beautiful! We were so lucky with the weather that we got.
After GunBun, we went and had a really quick lunch at The Fremont Diner. Oh man. So good!! I wish we had had more time or been more hungry and I would have gone to town there. It was southern food in California and I loved it so much. We both got mini fried chicken sandwiches with house made mayo and pickles, then we shared some mac and cheese and cornbread. So amazing!
I'd like to go back now, please.
After lunch (which was super cheap by the way, which really helped the vacation budget!), we had scheduled a mountaintop tasting at Kunde Family Estate. This mountaintop tasting ended up being the absolute highlight of our time in wine country.
I didn't know what to expect when I booked this tasting, and it was one of the only other ones we had to pay more for. Luckily, I did have a coupon for this one, so we got a 2-for-1 deal! When we got there, we found out that AGAIN we were going on the tour with only one other couple! After we got a glass of Chardonnay, the four of us got in a van and our tour guide John drove us up through the vineyards. We got to see several different spaces where they do events at Kunde and where they filmed some of the movie Bottle Shock. We drove all the way to the top, while our tour guide told us all about the different vineyards and types of grapes.
Gorgeous view from the "mountaintop." Of course, we're from Colorado, so we thought the 1400 ft mountaintop was hilarious, but it was a beautiful view.
Again, our tour guide was awesome about being willing to take pictures of us! We also got to take a selfie to be able to use our coupon, haha.
Up at the top, we got to try four different wines. We ended up loving their Red Dirt Red, Drummond Cab Sauv, aaaaand basically everything else we tried! We liked all the wine at Kunde the best, and it was so hard to decide what to buy to take home with us! We actually ended up coming back later to decide. The mountaintop tasting was such an amazing experience, and again, we got to take things slow and enjoyed our time together so much. I would say this experience at Kunde can't be missed if you're in Sonoma.
After Kunde we decided to go back to our hotel again to get ready for dinner! We drove into Sonoma the town for dinner at the girl & the fig. We realized when we felt a bit off at dinner that we hadn't been drinking enough water all day. Once I downed a couple of glasses of water, our night improved considerably! We split a fig & arugula salad, then I had steak & frites (all that red wine had me craving steak) and Jason had an incredible duck leg confit. After dinner we walked around Sonoma square for bit, then ended our day and went back to our beautiful room to enjoy the evening.
Summary of Tuesday in wine country? Make sure to go to Kunde, and drink enough water!!
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