Pat Gets Tipsy with Francis Ford Coppola

At last, a sunny, warm day!   We met our friend, Kathleen, in Sonoma today.  Picked her up at her condo in Sebastapol, and took the back way through beautiful vineyards and countryside to do some wine tasting, then to have lunch at Rustic, the charming restaurant at the Coppola winery.
First stop was Wilson's, where we had been last year.  Excellent wines.  I do not have a good "palate", as they say, I cannot describe wines, or discern their "nose" (the smell), but when you are doing wine tastings in California, they help you.  The person who is pouring describes them for you, in glowing, exact terms.

I just know if I like the wine or not!   I did like the wines at Wilson, a lot, and we bought a bottle of Petit, Petit syrah.   We took a picture of Kathleen and me that is identical to one we took of the two of us in Italy a few years ago when we were wine tasting there!

Pat and Kathleen Italy 2007

                                          Pat and Kathleen California, drinking again 2011

We then went on to Mauritson winery and those wines were really good! Particularly their Rockpile label.  I was beginning to feel it, I can't do much tasting without getting a little tipsy, especially before lunch.  The day was getting better and better.
This winery had these very cute yellow labs, Soho and Chelsea.  They were so cute.

It was time for lunch, so we left there before finishing the better wines, and went on to Coppola's for a wonderful lunch at their restaurant Rustic.  We had Chicken Mattone, which was chicken that was cooked under a brick (Jason, you would love this) flattened, and sauteed.  Delicious!  Also had pasta puttanesca, marinated anchovies (I opted out of these) and a Caesar salad.   The three of us split it all.  Before eating, we were served a beignet like roll, hot from the oven.   Kathleen and I are both on Weight Watchers, so we didn't watch our weight together. Still, splitting it three ways was a great idea.

After lunch, we returned to the Mauritson Winery to try their Rockpile Pinot Noir, shiraz, -------.  Oh, they were good!  We splurged on the Bordeaux, called Buck Pasture.  Wonderful!  Paul, are you reading this?

We returned Kathleen to her condo, came home, and relaxed.  Watched a movie we had from Netflix, it's a Danish movie "After the Wedding". We realized we had seen it at the Traverse City Film Festival a few years ago, but had forgotten the plot, so watched it again.    Pat finally had a nice sleep.