Saturday, December 29, 2012

‘Twas Three Days Before Christmas

And up in Sonoma,

‘Twas a feast full of color,
Mouthfeel and aroma.

Hey, so what’s new, huh?

Well, this time our little jaunt up to Sonoma Valley last Saturday began with one of Kathy’s screaming Internet deals from livingsocial: an 80-minute massage for each of us, preceded by a refreshing glass of bubbly, at the Sonoma Holistic Center, located a mere chakra’s throw from the downtown Plaza square in the actual historic city of Sonoma.

It was wonderful! So much so that my blood pressure stayed out of the red zone when having to make a left turn onto the main drag afterward.

And since we were at the south end of the Valley anyway, it didn’t take a whole lot of arm-twisting to get Kath and me to motor a few clicks north to Kenwood and our new hang, Naked Wines. As posted before, we’ve amassed a considerable, if quickly eroding, “store credit” with Naked, having scored three $500 NaWi vouchers at substantial discounts during Sonoma County PBS station KRCB’s recent on-air wine auction.

It’s always a great time up at the NaWi wine works; tasting room diva Ashley, director of winemaking Robin, and founder-slash-honcho Rowan are convivial and generous hosts up at the ranch. Last Saturday, December 22, K and I tasted a few new releases from some of our fave winemakers in the NaWi stable, including more than one Pinot Noir, which broadens their already extensive varietal portfolio.

Our plan was to not make it a full day on the wine road, but since we were next already heading south to go back home to Oakley, Kath suggested that, since we’ve had a two-for-one Internet coupon for Imagery Estate gathering moss in our voucher file, let’s live a little before hitting the return leg in earnest.

Ow, Ow: my arm.

We’d visited Imagery, a sprawling site neighboring the Arrowood winery, a sibling winery to Benziger, some time back, but we must have hit the joint on an event day. That time, the place was packed to its well-appointed rafters; there was no chance of nosing, let alone bellying, up to the tasting bar. And if I remember correctly, I think I even got into it with a couple of walking dudes who refused to move from the middle of the road as we were trying to leave the parking lot. Good times.

But this time, the Saturday before Christmas, could not have been better, and all thanks to the woman behind the stick, our pourer Karen. She gave us her full attention, and we must have talked grape with her for an hour, all the while being treated to off-the-menu selections and bottle pours from under the table. Kathy looked around and noticed that almost every other host/hostess at the bar was sticking strictly to whatever was printed on the tasting card; Karen hooked us up, boy-eeeeeee.

Check out Kath’s snap of Imagery’s hearth at the end of the tasting room: Karen’s hospitality had us glowing like that proverbial Yule log.

And the extra presents under the Imagery tree concerned our purchase of a gorgeous (gustatorily and visually: as befits the name “Imagery,” every selection sports original artwork on the label) bottle of 2008 Lagrein crafted by winemaker Joe Benziger. Lagrein is a Northern Italian varietal grape, rarely seen in these parts, and sourced from French Camp Vineyards in California’s Paso Robles region (Jacuzzi, too, does a Lagrein, also sourced from Paso).

It seems that Karen forgot to charge us the “one” in “two-for-one.” And she figured that we were wine club members entitled to a significant discount. Or maybe she was just slyly spreading a little extra holiday cheer to a couple of wine lovers heading home.

Ho, ho, hope it’s the latter: our own little Miracle on Highway 12.

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