day eight

We started the day with another breakfast at Ramekins consisting of oranges, blueberries, yogurt, and granola with blueberry muffins. Once we had eaten breakfast, we headed down to the car to drive to Healdsburg.

We headed to Unti, a winery that specializes in Rhone varietals that Ryan’s boss had recommended. Everything we tried was drinkable—they even had a grenache rose which we didn’t hate. We were informed that they make only 7000 cases of wine per year, the most of any variety being 1600 cases of their zinfandel. This was by far the best winery that we had been to and we ended up buying a whole case of various wines.

We asked the guy guiding the tasting if there were any good restaurants nearby. He suggested Diavola in Geyersville, so we went to check it out. They had very good crunchy breadsticks that they served with chili oil.

We ordered a cheese flatbread served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for an appetizer. Emily ordered a brisket panini with horseradish aioli and tomato while Ryan had a tri-tip, chicken, and sausage skewer with toasted polenta. We finished the meal with a lemon cheesecake served with nectarines and apricots.

After lunch, we headed to the Healdsburg Plaza to walk around the stores. We stopped in a jewelry and gifts store where we ended up buying a neat centerpiece tray. While there, Emily discovered a really cool jewelry artist named Michael Michaud who makes molds out of various leaves and plants and makes jewelry out of them (Emily really liked the eucalyptus necklace). There was yet another dog boutique (Three Dog Bakery in Sonoma, Fideaux in St. Helena, Vineyard Dog in Napa, and now The DogHouse in Healdsburg).
Next we headed to Michel-Schlumberger to try a vertical tasting. The roads to get there were much more winding and through the hills than the rest—a lot like Ryan had expected the entire area to be like. There was even a nerve-wracking one lane bridge to cross.

At Michel-Schlumberger, we tasted their cabernets: 2001, 2000, and 1999. We had tasted two different years of the same wine at Arroyo, but this was much clearer for us to taste the differences. We did not distinguish many differences between the 2001 and the 2000, but the 1999 had definitely mellowed out. The first sip of the 2000 we tasted seemed to taste more fruity, but then in further analysis, we were no longer able to determine this.

We returned to Sonoma to relax and pack. While we didn’t get much relaxing done, Emily repacked every suitcase we brought to include all of the souvenirs we had picked up along the trip, amazing Ryan with her Clark-family abilities to pack. We decided to eat at a small Italian place where we could get a big plate of carbs without anything complex going on.

Wines for 2 June 2009:
Unti Grenache Rose
Unti Barbera
Unti Grenache
Unti Zinfandel
Unti Syrah
Unti Benchwood Syrah
Unti Grenache Deux
Unti Petit Frere
Michel-Schlumberger Cabernet 2001
Michel-Schlumberger Cabernet 2000
Michel-Schlumberger Cabernet 1999
Michel-Schlumberger