Fruit of the vine!

With the assistance of a helpful lady at Santa Rosa's Visitor Centre we planned to start the day in Healdsburg, a small wine town not far from Santa Rosa.

 Arriving at around 10:00 am, the place hadn't 'got going', so we decided to meander around the Historic Plaza area. This bears a striking resemblance to the square in Old Santa Fe, particularly with several art galleries on show. However, what is strikingly different is the presence of a myriad of wine tasting rooms that must account for sixty per-cent of the available retail space available ..... and they open early! With some searching we found the Flying Goat Coffee Lounge (one of the few establishments not selling alcohol!)and stayed there awhile until things had livened-up a little. Healdsburg is a must for the wine aficionado, of whom there are many about .... but to be fair, whilst there were plenty of well-healed folk around, few, if any, were pretentious. By way of background, Healsburg was founded an Italian who prospered by making wine but come 'Prohibition', all hell broke loose and the staple industry switched from wine-making to producing prunes! The latter turned out a great cash crop and even after Prohibition was over, it was many years before wine making began again. At midday, we drove north on the 101 to Francis Coppola's vineyard and winery. Its an amazing place!!

The vineyard and olive grove stretch-on forever and the reception centre is wonderful. Set on top of a hill, the two storey building houses movie memorabilia from some of Coppola's finest films (e.g. Don Corleone's desk from the Godfather!) and guests can wander around for free ..... unless they want take part in some very reasonably priced wine tasting!

 In addition, there is a classy restaurant with a lovely open terrace, an al fresco bar and light eatery, and a pool that visitors can use for free! (Incidentally, Francis makes several very palatable reds and whites ..... and I'll bet the rose is OK too!)

Leaving the winery, we drove through mile upon mile of similar settings until we reached the Ferrari-Carano estate. This winery would trick the unwary into believing they were in Italy ..... (it certainly tricked my GPS and those of several other fellow-travellers into thinking it was located on West rather than simply 'Canyon' Road!) The house and fountains are stunning here, as is its overall setting and the fabulous formal gardens that surround it.

So, all in all, its been a pleasant voyage of discovery in and around Santa Rosa and its surrounding wine counties. Given today's very pleasant visit to Mr Coppala's place and in tribute to his hospitable approach and his artistry as a film maker, the following is a musical tribute from The Godfather!