We FINALLY made our first trip to Livermore wine country this past Sunday.  It’s across the bay, inland, hot, dry and an entirely different kind of beautiful.  But the hills, they are a hilly.  We’ve never biked climbs like these before.  Miles of uphill, relentless gravity, baked in what feels like the Sun’s frying pan.  It’s at about halfway up the hill where we took this picture, and I’m pretty sure the night before was at the front of all of our minds – a few more hours of sleep, and 1-5 fewer cocktails the night before would’ve been helpful right about now.

Here’s the other side of the “hill”!  It was here that we noticed that we were about to go down the other side in a hurry and knew there’d be no option but to come back the way we came.  Then we thought, “Where are all the wineries?”  Oops, we just came about 1.5 miles uphill in the wrong direction.  Well, it was worth it for the challenge, anyway!

This picture’s at about 25mph on the way back down the hill.  You can kind of see the valley floor below.

I tried to take a picture of the waves of humidity rising from the road, but couldn’t capture it.  They’re there, though…

Alas, our first winery of the trip, Murrieta’s Well.  We first learned of this winery on JP’s birthday at a wine bar that had their white meritage blend by the glass.

Murrieta’s Well

 

 

The winery was built nearly 150 years ago, and is beautifully rustic inside.  And the whites are extraordinary.  The bottle of Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc blend in this picture has maybe the best nose on any white wine I’ve ever had the pleasure of sticking my nose into.  One deep sniff and I’m suddenly paralyzed in a cloud of melon, herbs and citrus.  Holy cow!  That’s a pleasant surprise!

 

 

She’s all mine…

 

The bunches are getting really full.  These little gems have a very bright future ahead of them.

 

They’re super sweet, but a little tough to pull off the vine, as you can see…

 

Once we made it back to the car, we drove to Wente Vineyards.  It’s a sister winery of Murrieta’s Well, but kind of the other way around.  This is definitely the most well known winery in the region, and they’ve created something spectacular here.  It’s a winery, high-end restaurant, and concert venue – think Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, James Taylor, and others.

 

There was a wedding going on here, and at Murrieta’s Well.  On a Sunday?!

 

It was a great trip across the bay, really helped shape our bearings of the area, and expanded our wine repertoires to boot.  Looking forward to next weekend to revisit Napa with our friends Ryan and Kelly!

 

Skaal (“Cheers” in Swedish)