Visited: Sept, 2006
My good friend Marty 'Tudor' Pultz moved to Victoria, BC in 2002. We drove him there over 10 days or so in July of 2002. I visited him many times over the following years. In 2006 we plotted with his girlfriend at the time to surprise him in California for a wine road trip.
My good friend Marty Pultz had moved to Victoria in 2002. It was a bittersweet departure. On one side we'd had a great 10 years of fun and seeing him off was sad, but at the same time his future was clearly out West with his family and the great outdoors a lifelong passion of his.
Surprise!
Marty was also a tricky, tricky fellow. Twice he showed up in Toronto for the a visit unannounced. The first time he actually had called me to see what I was doing on some weekend a couple weeks in the future and I remember him making an excuse like he was trying to live vicariously through me. He then showed up at my office one day to my complete surprise.
The next time he got me colluding with my ex-girlfriend Erin. We were at the Eaton Centre in Toronto and he showed up around a corner as I was going into a store in the mall. Crazy times. I got punked twice!
So it was payback for Nigel and I, two of Marty's best friends in Toronto. We counterplotted (that is apparently a word) with his girlfriend at the time Kimanda. The plan was we show up with Marty's cousin as well at the hotel they were staying at in San Francisco. The best part was we came as a 'pizza delivery', arrived and got into a fake fight with Kimanda at the door. Marty being concerned that Kimanda was fighting with a delivery man came rushing to the door only to see Nigel and I. Suffice it to say it was worth a million. I wish I had the photo we took - but it's buried on a hard drive somewhere in a locker.
On to wine country we go.
Now that we spooked Marty with our random arrival it was off to wine country the next day. We went for I believe 3 days in total and spent day one in Sonoma and day two in Napa, with day three being a nice drive back through Redwood Forest!
Photos below: Stop at the Golden Gate Bridge, Viansa Winnery, Sword fighting at Kaz Winnery and finally 5 delicious glasses of Opus One.
Sonoma
We stopped at the Golden Gate bridge on the way for some classic photos. I still love the one where we were lined up. We spent day one in Sonoma visiting Roche, Viansa (where we ate lunch), Gloria Ferrer, Sebastiani, Kaz (which had cats and lightsabers to battle with - super fun), as well as Wilson which had amazing Zins and Padroncelli. We had planned to get to the Russian River Valley but ran out of time before we headed to our hotel and dinner. Marty and Kimanda stayed in a very fancy resort type spot, whereas Nigel, Alex and myself stayed at a hotel.
The drive from Sonoma to Napa through the foothills of The Mayacamas (I believe), is a beautiful drive. I did it again in 2014 on another trip I'll hopefully write about soon. We drove it at least once, but I seem to remember twice due to the placement of our hotel. We did drive it to get to Napa for our second day.
Photos of fun! Cat, lawn bowling, wine we drank, a big tree, super yummy Opus One and a vineyard!
Napa
The second day we took it a bit slower and went to only four (expensive and super expensive) wineries. Opus One was the highlight of the trip. A bottle of red at the time was $125 or so for even the less pricey vintages. Open One was founded by Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Robert Mondavi and is the best wine I've still had in my life. We each bought a glass to sit and enjoy then Kimanda generously bought a bottle for us for dinner. We enjoyed it so much we went (fake) bull riding after.
We also went to Robert Sinskey (lovely and expensive Pinot Noir), Stag's Leap which had Bordeaux blends, and Rutherford Hill which I remember being a tad on the boring side and had lots of Merlot which had been recently trashed in Sideways. In Rutherford's defense we had been going for two days straight at great wineries so we were probably winery'd out.
From there it was back to San Francisco via Redwood Forest where we drank some of our wine and ate some of our cheese we bought (or someone bought).
Then it was back to SF for a last sleep and Nigel and I headed back to Toronto. Great trip and glad we surprised Marty it hasn't been done since!
留言