We haven’t felt like writing in a while. What’s left to say about the crisis that put our travel dreams on hold? So let’s look forward and summon our creativity to make the most of the present.
In that spirit, we virtually gathered some of our closest friends for the closest thing we could do to experience a wine tasting tour of beautiful Sonoma, California. It was a wonderful escape, letting the wines take us away, sparking our imaginations.
Thanks to the expert guidance of winecubetours.com founder and Sonoma Wine Tour Guide, Raymond Rolander, we were virtually whisked away to rolling hillsides, foggy coastlines and windy plains. In my mind’s eye I could recall several amazing trips to the California wine country and falling in love with Sonoma, the quieter, more laid back neighbor to world-renowned Napa, populated with many smaller and lesser known vineyards. Our highly anticipated ‘trip’ began with a lot of preparation. After an initial consultation of our particular likes and dislikes, each couple who participated was shipped four full carefully wrapped and numbered bottles, concealing the labels to enable the ‘blind’ tasting experience. The wines were stored as instructed and opened at precisely specified times before the tasting.
Our virtual event started with an invitation from Raymond to let the wines take us on a sensory, imaginary journey. Just as music always does for me, wine and food conjure memories of magical moments, and we associate those sounds, tastes and smells with times and places stored away in our mind’s treasure chest. And sure enough, with each new glass poured, the wines did just that. We were soon chatting away about remembered trips to the California, Oregon and Washington wine countries, as well as more distant travels as far away as Tuscany, Germany and France to relive those experiences.
Now, our goal here is to not be the spoiler who tells you the end of the movie! So, we will not reveal any specific wines here on the blog (sorry friends). But imagine this…the fun of a blind tasting was in the total focus and discussion of each varietal. We guessed as best we could, and were most often wrong at identifying what we were tasting. So Raymond would expertly guide us through, and lead us to the ‘reveal’, where we were told the wine and producer. From there, the screen share that followed pinpointed each vineyard on the map of Sonoma where he described the area and its climate, giving us a behind the scenes story into each family-owned vineyard.
As the night progressed, so did the wines, moving from from crisp whites to lighter reds, to the full-bodied varietals that typically complete a tasting. We discussed our favorites and went back for seconds (and thirds, etc…) and continued our virtual party far into the evening.
One day soon, our blog will once again be filled with adventures near and far, and Carla will be to back booking dream vacations for all of you (shameless plug…feel free to start as soon as you’re comfortable). But for now, we tip our hat to entrepreneurs such as Raymond who are keeping our wanderlust alive in creative ways.
Until next time, open a bottle of your favorite vintage and allow yourself to be whisked away to the warm sun, cool breeze, and the manicured hills of a distant vineyard, gazing at the rows of vines that fade into the horizon.
