Snapshot of a weekend: sippy cup, Dostoevsky, chocolate and pinot!

Drunk Mama here, reporting from beautiful Sebastopol, CA. We came up on Sunday afternoon, for our annual visit with my brother-in-law Dave, his gorgeous wife, Lisa, and their two boys, Daniel and Lorenzo (aged 11 and 10, respectively, and otherwise known as “the wrecking crew”). It’s well-known, ’round these parts, that I’m the wino in the family, and it’s something of a running joke that we come to wine country every year, yet I’m the only one actually interested in doing any tasting. That all changed last year, of course, when the entire WAF crew spent a weekend in Sonoma (thanks again to Lisa, who graciously put us up in her guest cottage). But this year, I’d resigned myself to remaining content with taking in the rolling brown hills, the breathtaking vistas and cloudless skies, and with admiring the grapes on the vine as we drove past.

Little did I know that Lisa — who is really the hero of this story — would come through for me in a big way. Last summer she’d mentioned that she had a friend who owned a biodynamic winery in Sebastopol, a small family operation that only did tours by appointment, and that she’d try to get us in for a visit. Sadly, the timing didn’t work out then. But one of the first things she did when we arrived this time around was call up her friend Heidi and get us in at the lovely and exclusive Littorai Wines.

I’m going to tell you all about their delicious wines in the Part 2 of this post. (Ultimate teaser: there is a bottle of pinot coming back in my suitcase for tasting purposes!) But for now — because we’re about to haul the kids out of the pool and get them back on the road down through S.F. and back to Palo Alto (Double-shot’s response to the Golden Gate Bridge: “why is it orange and not golden?”), I’m just going to leave you with a few pictures of our time here in Sonoma County. Continue reading »