ShanaRay.com

Greetings from Healdsburg!  Knowing that one of you will be moving to our beautiful ‘lil town soon, I wanted to first, send my congratulations to each of you for making it so far in this social media/wine competition.  It has been fun watching this all to take place and too see what the contest has done to bring wine to the fore-front of the social media world… We bloggers have been big advocates of this for a while now.

Secondly, I would like to let you know a little bit about what you are getting yourself into in Healdsburg, CA.

Yes, this is a job for Murphy Goode and you will be thrown into a world of wine, dice games, vineyards and Sonoma County appellations, but that is just during your work hours….

Unlike that boring valley to the East, Healdsburg (and Sonoma County in general) is actually pretty fun after 5PM.  During the summer there is always music on the square on  Tuesday’s (the entire town comes out to lounge in the town square, drink and socialize with friends) and if you wear your winery shirt, the Bear Republic only charges you $2 for a pint of their infamous Racer 5 or any of their other delicious beers.

…. Or you can always grab a beer with the rest of the winery workers (tasting room, winemakers, vineyard people and anyone else who may be around) at the Dry Creek General Store.

…..Or listen to music and drink some more wine at Michel-Schlumberger Estate every Friday and Bella on the weekends.

After the sun goes down, Barn Diva has dancing and drink specials and Ravenous has live music on the weekends and is home to the best back patio in town (and a damn good mojito).

Basically what I am trying to say is that we locals promise to show you around town.  If you all have a time when visiting here this month, I would love to schedule a tweet-up, that is, if you have a night to yourselves during your live interviews.

If not, I hope you all enjoy your stay here and come back to visit soon!

… And to the one winner…  Myself, and a few locals would like to offer ourselves to show you around!

Thanks and congratulations once again.

*shana.

(p.s. Another great thing about this town is being able to work from your laptop at one of the many wifi spots in town — My personal favorite is Snowbunny.  Here is a pic of the square that I just took!)

Barrel Tasting this past Sunday was supposed to be day # 2 of new adventures and discoveries…  Basically, an extension of the agenda from Saturday.

It started off normal enough.  I met up with Thea at a new winery in the Russian River Valley called Copain Wines (aka @Copain).

The Copain tasting room is located on top of a hill on Eastside Road, directly across from the recreation park.  It is the only winery that I know of that is on that stretch of the road, so people will most likely only visit through word of mouth or because they were simply driving past it.  I only heard about it because they recently joined Twitter.

This posting is my attempt to start the word of mouth on this place (actually I mean continue the WOM) and let people know that if they want to taste some great Anderson Valley pinots, a Russian River GSM blend and a place to have a picnic and enjoy THE BEST VIEW from a winery   -   Then they should make sure to stop on by the Copain tasting room.

When Thea finally got bored with me taking pictures of the view, we headed over to Mill Creek Winery.  I am not going to waste my time to write much about this place because it was neither good nor bad.  It was  nothing worth going back for IMO.

The next stop: Michel-Schlumberger (aka @M_Schlumberger) to visit Judd Wallenbrock, the President, General Manager and head blogger at their award winning blog – The Benchland Blog.  Judd and crew have seemed to perfect the art of barrel tasting weekend. Visitors are instantly greeted by Judd and given an explanation of where you should go and a brief history of the winery.  Then guests travel through the cellar to taste out of the barrels, then into the next room to try already bottled wines, then lastly into their main tasting room.  This is where my friend Joe(y) poured us some wines that go back to 1989.  Of course Thea and I had to purchase the last case of 2001 Dry Creek Valley Pinot Noir (yes, I said it… There is one winery that does make Dry Creek Pinot).  After trying some aged Pinots and Cabs, we made out way into the wine club members tasting room and ended up drinking more Pinot on a picnic bench while discussing wine, social media and Judd’s new discovery of TwitPic.

Then we were onto Mounts Family Winery (aka @MountsFamWinery).  It is off the same beaten road as Michel-Schlumberger, in the middle of a vineyard.  Blink on West Dry Creek road and you will miss it.  But this is a small family winery that you shouldn’t miss out on.  Lana greets her visitors with a smile that let’s you know she is committed to customer service. Their Malbec out of the barrel was very tasty as well.

Around 4:30, a half hour after the official ending time of the event, Thea and I decided that we were most certainly not done yet.  If you know anything about Thea and me, you know that to be the truth.  We headed over to harass Jim at Truett Hurst once again.   Here we tried some Petit Verdot and talked Jim’s ear off for an hour or so.

All together a perfect day, regardless of the fact that we were wine-napped by Judd and strayed WAY off our agenda….  Oh, wait… There is always next weekend.