Roederer Bubbles

 Our vacation in Mendocino was something of an anniversary trip. Our visit in 1995 was the year before our wedding, and we had such a great visit we incorporated some of our experiences in the wedding.  Mary’s wedding ring is from the Old Gold store in Mendocino, for example. 

Also, we ordered a couple of cases of sparkling wine from the Roederer Estates vineyard on Route 128, which we just happened to stop by at during that 1995 trip.

It was a fledgling internet back then, and shipping wine from the west coast was pretty challenging in those days, but we managed to make the connection and we used the Brut for our toasts.  The vintner threw in a magnum for us, which he personally signed. 

I sent a few emails to Roederer while we were planning this year’s trip, and included a photo of the signed bottle (also shown here).  We had opened the bottle with friends to celebrate buying our first house in Alexandria, but we kept the bottle as a memento of the wedding and our California vacations. The folks at the vineyard told me that Michel the winemaker had retired, so we had a rare keepsake in this bottle.

The Roederer website (linked at the end of the post) previews their tasting arrangement, but it also offers a picnic as one of the things you can do during a visit.  I thought this sounded like a great idea for a celebration and booked the picnic a few days before we left on the trip.

We were treated to a great selection of craft foods from the Anderson Valley wine region – sausages, goats and sheep milk cheeses, and fresh fruit (peaches were already in out there!).  We chose the Brut Rose as an accompaniment. 

We stayed for an hour or so, enjoying the scenery and the wine – and the beautiful weather in the Anderson Valley area.  Then it was back on the road to Mendocino, still about 90 minutes away at that point.

A link to the Roederer Vineyard is here:  http://www.roedererestate.com. It’s definitely worth the stop if you find yourself in their neck of the woods.