After such a great start to the trip at Chateau Montlena we were excited to get to our next location. Following the recommendation we headed straight over to August Briggs winery located just off the Silverado Trail in Calistoga. August Briggs is a family owned winery that makes very limited amounts of all of their wines partially due to the fact they do not own any of their own vineyards. We were informed they sell out pretty fast with limited distribution because the wine club takes the majority of the bottles produced. Each wine had a very distinct taste, even a young barrel tasting. Apparently they are one of the few in the area out of 450 wineries that do free tastings. Jesse, who is part of the family business, was super informative and gave us some suggestions on some other places we should go located in the area, as well as once we got to Santa Rosa.
Once we left, we headed into downtown and strolled down Lincoln Ave to a deli that was connected to the Wine Stop. Enjoyed a nice lunch and headed in for some more shopping and tastings. Tom was helpful with history of the area and the wines available. There was a large selection and not just high ticket bottles. The focus was more on the small wineries that do not have tasting rooms and might not be as well known. I did pick up a bottle of 2009 The Climber Red, by the Clif Family winery, yeah like the Clif bars. I had read an article about it before, but had never seen it. I wanted to give it a try, so we grabbed a bottle. (Photo to the right is of the two bottles I had bought so far and I thought I would be done at just 2, I was wrong)
After enjoying the beautiful weather in Calistoga we hopped back in the battle wagon and headed down Petrified Forest road towards Santa Rosa. It was a pleasantly short drive with great views. Thanks again to Price Line's "name your own price" deal we checked into a room at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek and made the decision that based on how centrally located we were we would just walk around town and enjoy the weather.
On our way out we stopped at the concierge desk where Ramon was more then happy to tell us all the hot spots around town. With a little map of town he pointed us towards Stark's Steakhouse for happy hour, he even brought up the website to show us the prices. It was only a short 3 block walk so off we went. From the outside Strak's did not look like much, kind of a diner feel with neon lights and old plaster. Once inside its a different story, to the right was a fancy dinning room you would see in a traditional steakhouse. We were interested in what was to the left, a bar with a happy hour, and the best happy hour. With 15 items under $4, this is what we ordered; $2.50 Stark's Pale Ale, $1.50 Yam Fries and $3.50 Moroccan Chicken Meatballs. Ok so if you are not sold by the awesome happy hour, then maybe you would care about the extensive amount of fine spirits; they had a menu on the wall with a column of 20+ scotch, 20+ of whiskey, and another 20+of bourbon. Needless to say they had a full bar and lots of specialty cocktails.
While sitting at the bar we chatted it up with the couple next to us. The woman had a Russian River Brewery uniform on. Turns out this was a big weekend for the brewery and she had just finished her shift. We got some inside info and had been planning on heading to the brewery the next day. We left with plans to find another happy hour and soon found ourself in front of Russian River Brewery. Earlier in the day when we had driven by there was a line going down the street with at least 100 people. Now at about 6pm the wait was an hour long. (photo to the left is the photo I took while in line and no I did not get any permission) I was hungry and not in the mood to wait so we headed a street over to Third Street Aleworks where we grabbed some food and Noah had a beer while I had a ACE Perry cider (My favorite!). This was the first place I have seen it on tap, and was pretty excited. The food and brews were great, but it was extremely busy so we did not stay long. With our bellies full and the night still young, we were off to our next adventure.
Sorry for a bad cell phone photo, this was a photo we took for a geocache we did and I thought it was a cute statue I wanted to share. There are Peanut themed statues all over Santa Rosa.
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