Healdsburg Welcomes Karl & Lila

After our sales conference, we decided to take an early weekend. Afterall, we've lost most of our '09 weekends to work so far this year - including this Sunday which will be spent on yet another plane, going to yet another continent.
This morning we took a gentle cruise up Highway 1 to introduce Lila to Point Reyes and Bodega Bay. Sad that this has been in our backyard for so long, and she'd never been. Just north of San Francisco, we enjoyed the fresh ocean air with the windows down and heat turned up. We’re convinced the amount of fresh air from this 2 hour journey added days back to our life, after Shanghai-air.
The first stop of our 3 day weekend was Hoggs Island Oyster Company. This is where you shuck your own oysters right next to the mud flats, and enjoy the freshest oysters you’ll ever eat! We selected 3 types, our favorite was Kumamoto (or something like that), tiny oysters slightly larger than a man’s thumb. The highlight was Lila doning the shucking apparatus, proving that women can shuck oysters without chipping a nail. :) After a few, she let Karl finish the rest. After our aphrodisiac-inducing lunch, we continued on to Healdsburg for check-in at Duchamp, a 6 cottage post-modern B&B. Later in the afternoon, we visited Seghesio, Simi, and Wilson for some Zinfandel tasting. Made it back just in time for a refresh before dinner at Bistro Ralph. Dinner was lovely, and we finished with a walk around the old and charming town of Healdsburg.
Friday at 10am we were off in our own private tour of micro-wineries with Joe, our driver. This was the first wine tour we’ve ever done, and gave us a chance to not worry about where to go or about drinking & driving. Joe took us to 5 micro-wineries in 5 hours. The first stop was to visit Peter who owns Duchamp. His winery was the largest West Coast slaughterhouse in the 1800s. Today he runs art exhibition and wine tasting out of the very unique building. Next stop - Medlock-Ames, a bio-diverse winery that you won’t find on any map. The winery was 360 acres, planted with 100 acres of grapes. The 2 former college buddies have created a gravity-fed, spare no expense wine production facility. Ames spent quite a bit of time helping us barrel taste a few varietals. Then it was on to WF Wines, where Edith (a former HP exec), has a great taste for wines and a keen understanding of the wine business. We really enjoyed sitting around the dinner table with her & husband Tony discussing the pros/cons of asset-light wine production.
After just 3 stops, it was clear we were running behind. We were having such a wondeful time talking with the owners/wine makers. Joe finally fed us phenomenal sandwiches from Jimstown deli, while we drove to a few other wineries. We made the mistake of telling Joe we liked Zin’s, so we went off the planned tour in search of Zins. While the final 2 places were good, they were not as charming or memorable we where Joe took us at first. We’ve learned our lesson! The 5 hour private wine tour ended with a short rest before dinner.
For dinner, we went to Cyrus (Chef of Year '06). We sat at the bar area and ordered a la carte since we didn’t think we could manage a 5 or 8 course tasting menu! We stuck with 2 fantastic courses, including the best foie gras Lila has ever had (& she loves that stuff). Whether you’re a foodie or not, Cyrus’ mixologists have to be among the best! We ended the evening with a walk around the town searching for a low-cost dessert. We accidently got seduced by the Gratitude Café, with their fancy dessert names. Little did we know that it was vegan, a feel good hippy hang out. We tasted our vegan ice-cream while playing a self-discovery Gratitude game that had us in hysterics. When karl pulled the card, “What are you grateful for?” He immediately answered the “cashmere & silk sweater I’m wearing.” We soon questionned whether this was an ethical response at a vegan hang out while everyone else wore hemp & tie-dye. Needless to say, it was an offbeat & fun way to end the night.