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San Fran & wine country in Sept.

Toogs said:
Budget, and how into wine are you and what kinds? How much do you spend on a daily bottle with dinner, and a special occasion wine?

I have a spreadsheet covering most of the wineries in Napa/Sonoma, but it's really only worth it if you are a wine geek. If you want to get hammered and don't care much about quality then this is easier.
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Does it cover the Russian River area too? Heading out there in October.
 
DistrictDeacon said:
Does it cover the Russian River area too? Heading out there in October.
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yep. I need to redact some stuff and it's a little bit outdated, but I will send to anyone. Shoot me a PM with your email if interested, or someone explain if there can be attachments to pm's

It covers a lot of places I've never been but still has decent info. Also if you share what types of wine you like I can give some recs. My man Bill Frick is out there and that is one of my favorite wineries. All affordable, Rhone style stuff. Interesting varietals of rhone grapes you basically never see as varietals too.
 
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Truchard. Family run vinyard in Carneros off the beaten path with great wine and they give you a very personal tour of their vinyard, cellar.
 
KennyRogersRoast said:
I would love to go to The French Laundry.
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Incredible hassle to get a reservation-have to call exactly 2 months in advance and the phone line is always busy. Several people have concierge services which have ways to game the system to get a reservation for a fee. Last I heard it was $300 per person (service included, but tax on top of that). Wine pairings are an additional $250. Almost everyone I know who's eaten there raved about the food and service, but most never eat there twice because of the hassle and the cost.
 
Some friends of mine at Google had their concierge make them reservations. Said it was a great experience, but when you can eat so well in the Bay Area, I find it very hard to justify spending that kind of dough on a single meal.
 
In general, the Bay Area is terrific, but there are some things that are so pretentious and over the top it's ridiculous. Michael Mina is a well known chef and he'll have a restaurant in the new Niners' stadium in the heart of Silicon Valley. The restaurant will host tailgates on game days and the season cost per person in $5000. So Mina's trying to get people to drop 10 French Laundry value meals during football games?!? Giants had a steakhouse at AT&T for the first ten seasons before they wisely split it into a really nice brewpub and a Mexican place. Healdsburg and Yountville are both really nice, but some places in both towns are waaay over the top. Sonoma and St Helena are still really nice and they both dial it back enough to be far less precious than some of the other towns.
 
meh, still best food region in the country without question
 
I am going to be spending 4 nights in October in the Kenwood/Sonoma area. We are going to Benzinger for the partner's tour & probably going to do the Platypus tour of north Sonoma/Russian River Valley. We also plan to head over to Point Reyes for half a day.

Has anyone here ziplined through the redwoods? / http://sonomacanopytours.com/

What else other than wine should be done?
 
DeacWatcher said:
I am going to be spending 4 nights in October in the Kenwood/Sonoma area. We are going to Benzinger for the partner's tour & probably going to do the Platypus tour of north Sonoma/Russian River Valley. We also plan to head over to Point Reyes for half a day.

Has anyone here ziplined through the redwoods? / http://sonomacanopytours.com/

What else other than wine should be done?
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Muir Woods. Go on a weekday. There's the other half of your PR day
 
It's a straight shot from Kenwood down Highway 12 into Santa Rosa. 12 turns into 4th Street in Santa Rosa and Russian River Brewing is on 4th in downtown Santa Rosa. Not much to look at and the food is pretty blah, but it was recently ranked as the third best microbrewery in America. Gets packed, and their Belgian ales and hoppy IPAs are exceptional. Pliny the Elder's their best known beer and people line up for 4-6 hours to taste Pliny the Younger in February. Only one keg of PTY gets shipped East of the Mississippi (to some Belgian place in Philly). Damnation's their best beer.
 
FuckmouthedRube said:
It's a straight shot from Kenwood down Highway 12 into Santa Rosa. 12 turns into 4th Street in Santa Rosa and Russian River Brewing is on 4th in downtown Santa Rosa. Not much to look at and the food is pretty blah, but it was recently ranked as the third best microbrewery in America. Gets packed, and their Belgian ales and hoppy IPAs are exceptional. Pliny the Elder's their best known beer and people line up for 4-6 hours to taste Pliny the Younger in February. Only one keg of PTY gets shipped East of the Mississippi (to some Belgian place in Philly). Damnation's their best beer.
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Two Belgian places actually, Monks and Eulogy.
 
FuckmouthedRube said:
Incredible hassle to get a reservation-have to call exactly 2 months in advance and the phone line is always busy. Several people have concierge services which have ways to game the system to get a reservation for a fee. Last I heard it was $300 per person (service included, but tax on top of that). Wine pairings are an additional $250. Almost everyone I know who's eaten there raved about the food and service, but most never eat there twice because of the hassle and the cost.
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What kind of fee for reservations? I am not planning a visit soon but would love to go someday.
 
I'm heading out to Napa/Sonoma Labor Day weekend and we got a reservation for 6 at FL for lunch on Saturday. Just have the AMEX platinum concierge do it for you next time, it was free! #humblebrag
 
spiffylubes said:
I'm heading out to Napa/Sonoma Labor Day weekend and we got a reservation for 6 at FL for lunch on Saturday. Just have the AMEX platinum concierge do it for you next time, it was free! #humblebrag
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let me know if anyone comes down ill.
 
i guess that $500 a year has some worthy perks. my wife and i were quite skeptical, but thats a nice one.
 
deacphan said:
i guess that $500 a year has some worthy perks. my wife and i were quite skeptical, but thats a nice one.
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Actually I don't have one, one of the couples we're going with does. Double bonus!

That article about the kid eating there was cute as hell, but holy crap did a lot of people in the comments get INCREDIBLY offended.
 
lolzz

Sorry, but I fail to see the "cuteness" of this. What four year old has the palate to appreciate the food or the capacity to realize what an amazingly special experience dining at FL is.

I would have been more impressed if at the end of the review, the author stated they had made a donation to a food bank to make up for the guilt of wasting expensive food for the "fun" of it.
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