On Saturday and Sunday we visited about 10 wineries.  We've made this trip before so most of the wineries are long-time favorites but we always seem to find new favorites to add to the list whenever we visit.  Favorites that we hit yet again included Ch. St. Jean, St. Francis, BR Cohn, Davis Bynum, Hop Kiln, and Belvedere.  While both St. Francis and Ch. St. Jean are fairly large we continue to find great wines that keep us coming back.  Belvedere and St. Francis were the best wineries during this visit.  Our Belvedere choices were primarily from the Bradford Mountain label and include their Syrah, Zinfandel and Sangiovese.  At St. Francis we had a hard time limiting ourselves to only a few wines but ultimately we liked the Wild Oaks Syrah and the Petite Syrah the best.  We also visited Valley of the Moon and Rodney Strong wineries for the first time.  We particularly enjoyed the Rodney Strong Reserve Zinfandel and Reserve Pinot Noir. 

But Sonoma isn't only about wine its also about food.  On Saturday we were really tired from tasting and went for a very casual meal at Lasalette which specializes in Portuguese cuisine.  I had Mozambique Prawns which are served in an interesting tomato-peanut sauce with rice and plantations.  The sauce was an excellent blend of peanut and tomato so that neither was over powering.  The plantations were my favorite part of the dish; smothered in the sauce they melted in my mouth.  But the best part of the meal was the Fig Cake we had for dessert.  The title definitely does not do this amazing dessert justice.  The fig cake is about a 1/2 inch thick slice that is split in two and filled with almond-vanilla ice cream to make what appears as a triangular ice cream sandwich.  On its own this would be good but the real clincher was the Madeira custard sauce.  The custard perfectly complemented the fig cake.  I'd go back for that Fig Cake dessert anytime!

Sunday we visited "the girl and the fig".  Sondra Berstein has truly created an amazing restaurant.  I had the "Light as Air" special which consisted of spring vegetables (Fava beans, peas, baby carrots, pearl onions) in a pastry puff with a morel sauce.  It was divine!  Since I'm not a big meat eater I was a bit concerned I wouldn't find something suitable on the menu but this special was not only perfect for my tastes but perfect tasting as well.  The vegetables were all perfectly cooked, nothing hard and nothing mushy, and combined well with the sauce.  Husband had the Pork Chop which he quietly devoured.  At first I thought maybe he wasn't happy since he was so quiet, but then it was exactly the opposite, he loved it and simply wanted to eat it without interruption!  He said "it was the best pork chop he's ever had". 

On our last night we made our first ever visit to "Cafe La Haye".  This small restaurant packs a big punch.  The restaurant itself surprised me both with how small it is and with its tin roof.  We ate on a relatively cool evening yet it did get a bit warm in the restaurant - or at least I thought so although Husband felt it was fine.  Either way I'm not sure I want to see how hot it gets in the summer.  Temperature aside, the food was simply amazing.  I had the "Pan roasted pork tenderloin with bacon-apple cider sauce and house made whole grain mustard-fennel-apple slaw".  Now, as I've said before I'm not a big meat eater but I devoured this dish and really wouldn't have minded eating more of the meat!  The pork was extremely tender, moist and flavorful.  Even without the sauce it was excellent but the sauce elevated even more with a wonderful blend of sweet apple and salty bacon.  I can assure you none of the sauce went to waste...

We had some other meals but these were really the highlights.  We also drove over to Napa to try out a couple of wineries on the way home.  We found some great wine but I think after nearly a week in Sonoma we were - wined out (gasp!).  But that's ok it just leaves more for us to try on our next visit...

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