Two or three years ago, and right around this time of year,  I surprised Sonja for Christmas with a trip to Sonoma for our anniversary in February. My parents helped pay for the tickets, and within less than two months, we were on our way to wine county, ready to relive our honeymoon. We stayed in far more modest accommodations on that trip, and took far less limousines (read: we took no limousines) to wineries, but we revisited some of our favorites from our honeymoon, and we also struck out to find some wonderful new places.

We’ve found during our travels that one of the best ways to find great places is to tap into the local wisdom by simply asking the question. One of our favorite practices at each winery is to ask the tasting room attendant where they would go after work if they wanted to sample some wine. This rarely leads us astray and, on this particular trip, took us to Gundlach Bundschu, G-B, Gun-Bun, or whatever you like to call it. Gundlach Bundschu is one of the oldest wineries in all of Sonoma County, and is still a family-owned enterprise after six generations. Impressive. So tonight, after an entire day of car shopping that yielded me a nicer automobile than I deserve (let’s just chalk it up to mid-life crises) and a higher payment than I was hoping for, yet a happy wife and enough space for the child we have as well as the child we are expecting, it was time to celebrate life with wine.  Not only had Titus’s grandparents watched him all day, but they had also made dinner. Wine was the least we could provide, so we grabbed this at Brix, the local wine bar we stopped at briefly on our first date, and struck out south in our shiny new (ish) car.

The 2011 Gundlach Bundschu Mountain Cuvee is medium to medium plus in body and boasts a diverse array of fruits from bouquet to palate.  Bright red apples, subtle raspberry, prunes and more abound upon the body. Spicy and herbaceous with a long dry finish and tannins that grow more dense as the wine opens up, I found the 2011 Mountain Cuvee to be an excellent wine for the price, a fine pairing with pot roast, and a nice stroll down memory lane. I recommend it.

Cheers!