Courtesy of Mark Johnson who recently toured Sonoma, Napa and Lake Tahoe with his wife Kathie for a food and wine vacation.
Here’s Day 3 for your reading enjoyment 
SUNDAY, JANUARY 31
We packed up early and hit the road to Tahoe, but of course we had to do a brief detour to Napa along the way. The Sonoma area fog gave way to a beautiful, blue sky morning in Napa Valley. We stopped first at the Mondavi’s new project called Folio www.foliowinemakersstudio.com . They were pouring several of their brands (Oberon, Spellbound, Medusa, Emblem) ranging in price form $20 -$70. They were just OK — at best. Not worth the stop. Next we went to Robert Biale www.robertbialevineyards.com. Now we’re talking! We had 4 great Zins, a big Syrah and a fantastic extended barrel age Petite Sirah. They do it right. A short hop away we stopped at Darioush www.darioush.com so we could nibble on their imported Persian pistachios while tasting. What a beautiful tasting room and an extremely profession tasting staff. We tried the 2007 Chardonnay (very good), the 2008 Viognier (tasty but too sweet for us), a 2006 Merlot (not bad), and the 2006 Cabernet (excellent). After a bit of schmoozing I got him to open the 2006 Cabernet Franc (very nice). So we bought some wine and pistachios to go. Great stuff, plus he waived the $25 tasting fee. We decided it was then time to finish on a high note and hit the long road to Tahoe.
Dinner tonight was at Kalani’s www.kalanis.com, a Pacific rim/Asian fusion restaurant. We have had some great meals here and some disappointing ones. Tonight fell flat. Other than a tasty appetizer of tempura crusted ahi bits with a teriyaki and eel sauce, all other items were uninspired, not even worth writing about. Thank God we brought a great wine, the 2006 Ramey “Ritchie” Chardonnay www.rameywine.com. Big, viscous, buttery and like the Benovia, enough acid to keep it all in balance.
Check out day 4 tomorrow!
Tags: biale, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, darioush, emblem, folio, folio winemakers studio, kalanis, medusa, merlot, Napa, oberon, petite sirah, ramey, robert biale, robert mondavi, sonoma, spellbound, syrah, tahoe, viognier, zinfandel