April 20, 2008 Day started out chilly and warmed up some in the afternoon. Nice married couple from Colorado. They were very strong riders so we were able to fit in 5 wineries instead of the usual 4 and still finish on time.

Almost no traffic in West Dry Creek today. So we had a good time coming fast down the hills. The extra winery I added was Yokam Bridge Winery.

Tour Guide & Principal Oenoweenie

April 16, 2008 Warm and sunny. Temperature in the upper 70s

Both Jen and I worked this tour. We stayed around the city of Sonoma on tour today. The same group of 5 Canadian couples who did the private van tour on Monday, set off on bikes today. We rode around the historic area of the city of Sonoma around the public square where the Bear Flag revolt took place. Our first tasting was at Ravenswood. Later had lunch and finished up with a visit to Buena Vista and Gunlach Bundshu.

Tom, Tour Guide & Principal Oenoweenie

April 16th, 2008. Cool and breezy with the promise of a warm day o come. Met the guests, went over the waiver and rules of the road, and set off north. We tasted at Chateau Montelena, visited the barrel factory, then off to Bennett Lane, Envy and Summers. We took our lunch at Summers, then headed south for Clos Pegase and Cuvaison. The wind picked up a bit in the afternoon, but not so much as to spoil our good time.

Fred

Wednesday 16th Jenner kayak. 041608JKayak

I feel like there’s few places in the world where one can see such wild beauty!
The day started with glassy waters to gently glide ourselves into this magical world. A great blue heron greeted us followed by a flock of Canadian geese. When we came upon the island we paused for a graceful deer and were stopped frozen by a bobcat going for a morning stroll. I thought they were going to be our wildlife highlights but, no, there were more creatures to behold. We counted 6 new baby seals touching noses and fins with there mommies on shore. On the way back from our lovely lunch on the beach two giant salmon swam on both sides of our boats leading our way home. It just doesn’t get much better than this!

Mary Carmen

4/15/08

Today was a beautiful day! Seventy degrees and sunny. The valley is changing. The state flower, California Poppy, are blooming all along the road side. The vines are now full of foliage and the lupine wild flowers are out casting blue shades long the hill sides. Had a lovely tour today with a couple from Australia. We shared stories from all over the globe!! It was a day filled with wonderful wine, good conversation, and a great bike ride! We saw the Calistoga Gyser shoot off! Yeah!

Jen

We conducted our drawing for the free gift certificate for a bike tour. The winner is Angela. As soon as she e-mails us her mailing address we will send her the certificate. Congratulations, Angela.

Thanks to all the other people who entered the drawing Anyone else who posted a comment is still eligible to enter our next drawing. Keep watching the blog.

Jen and I just finished the 6-day classic tour of wine country with a couple from Chicago and another from Colorado. From a guide perspective, these multiday trips are a lot more difficult than our day trips. We start earlier, ride longer, and face many more logistical challenges. But it is all worth it when you have a good group of people.

Randy, the owner of Getaway, always says that guiding should be like taking out long lost friends for the day- and it definitely feels like that after 6 days. By the end you have cycled nearly 200 miles, shared many meals, and had some great experiences. Both Jen and I had a fantastic time, and I believe our guests did too.

Art and Christine were from Chicago. They told us they had grown up in the same neighborhood, a few blocks from each other, but never met until they were adults. “I had always heard her name,” said Art. “But no one had told me how good looking she was. I found that out myself when we happened to be sparring partners one day in karate class.”

On the fourth day of our trip we celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with champagne and delicious picnic lunch in the redwoods.

Our other guests, Tex and Marcie, were from Colorado- but they had been all over the world. For several years they lived in Thailand and had run marathons through Laos and Vietnam. Marcie also told us about riding through the Rockies, and Tex kept us entertained with his stories about working in the government.

For most of the trip our weather was perfect. Sometimes in the afternoons it would get windy, but May is generally a nice time to visit because it is not too hot and the wild flowers are in full bloom. As we were riding you couldn’t help but notice bright gold California Poppies sprouting up from every crack in the ground.

Along the way we stopped at several wineries, and Art, true to his word, tasted at every single one. Sinskey is a winery in Napa I recently visited for the first time. They have an excellent Cab , a good food pairing, and great place for lunch. We also stopped at Matanza’s Creek, Korbel, Bella, Preston, Everett Ridge, Hanna and Field Stone.

Six days seems like a lot of riding, but it really blew by incredibly fast. By the last day in the Alexander Valley it was hard to believe we were finished. If Tex and Marcie, or Art and Christine get chance to read this, we hope you made it back to reality okay. And if you’re ever back in the area, look us up. We’d be happy to do it again.

Devin.

Zin Fan Tour Saturday, April 19, 2008 Sunny and 60s
Our Dry Creek Zin Fan Tour was a celebration of two birthdays in our group of five friends. It was a quintessential spring morning in Sonoma County as we left Healdsburg for the country lanes of West Dry Creek. We faced strong headwinds as we rode to Bella and the group was ready to celebrate in the cave with a fine selection of Zinfandel.

The wind was at our backs and the sun shone on our faces as we pedaled to Quivira. We passed vineyards of gnarled Zinfandel which stretched twisted arms to wave their new green leaves. We enjoyed more Zinfandel as well as Sauvignon Blanc at Quivira.

Our delightful lunch on the patio ended with a rich chocolate fudge cake as a surprise birthday dessert. The serious cyclists in the group wanted more miles so we pedaled over Lytton Springs Road and into the Alexander Valley where we visited Sausal Winery just before they closed at 4pm. The group was treated to four Zinfandels produced from vines that were 50 to 100 years old. The Zin Fan Tour ended with a ride back to Healdsburg in the van and everyone agreed that it was a fantastic birthday celebration.

Come on and call us now to book a tour like this.

There will sometimes be a delay between the time you post your comment, and when it shows up in the blog. Unfortunately, there are webcrawlers that are bombarding us with spam comments, based on target words in our posts. We need to review all posts before they are uploaded to keep spam comments from overwhelming the site.

We ask for your understanding in this matter.

Tom, Tour Guide & Principal Oenoweenie

Drawing will be held May 15

That’s right, we are going to make it easy for you to come and join us on one of our regular bike tours. You could be tasting wine with us, either in Napa or Sonoma,.

All you have to do is attach a comment to one of our blog posts. What do you have to say? It’s up to you. You can comment on the post; tell us which tour you would prefer; even just ask a question about the region, wine, what the tours are like, etc.

Your post will automatically enter you into this month’s drawing for a gift certificate for 1 tour (a $125 value). The winner will be posted on the blog the day after the drawing. Just e-mail us your name and address and we will send you the gift certificate. It’s as simple as that.

Rules & Restrictions for Entering the Drawing

1. Comments must be posted before midnight May 14
2. Every adult over the age of 21 in your household is eligible to enter
3. Only one entry per person per month will be accepted
4. Gift Certificate is valid only for calendar year 2008
5. Gift Certificates is valid only in conjunction with scheduled tours
6. Previous winners, employees and members of their families, or anyone