Postcards from a Traveling Wine Bottle
Tuesday, July 7th, 2020
Dear Friends,
It’s so exciting. After three years waiting in the cellar, I finally have the chance to take a summer vacation!
I’m going to travel all over Sonoma County. First stop is… Oh there are so many places I want to see, it’s hard to decide… But the first stop has to be the Russian River. I know I was estate grown in the Russian River Valley AVA, so it will be a bit like getting back to my roots (even though my roots are technically in Hallberg Ranch).
I’d better get going! It’s a long way to go for a little 750mL bottle like me, but nothing is going to slow my roll.
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
P.S. Please say hello to my older siblings in the upcoming club shipment. They’ve waited even longer than I have to meet you! (They’re also very jealous of my vacation, but that’s what they get for not letting me hang out with them in the library section because I’m “too young.”)
Thursday, July 9th, 2020
Dear Friends,
The Russian River is amazing. It’s so big, no wonder the whole area is so lush and great for growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay!
Today I learned that this area has been a destination for swimming, paddling, dining, and relaxing for over 130 years. Trying to think about that much time made my cork want to pop… Luckily, floating down the cool river is a very relaxing experience on such a warm summer day, so the feeling quickly passed.
There’s so much to do up and down the river that I ran out of time and will have to come back some day, and I honestly can’t wait. Maybe you can visit with me! For now, I’m going to continue floating down the river until I get to the ocean. I hear Bodega Bay is lovely this time of year!
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
Saturday, July 11th, 2020
Dear Friends,
Hello again, this time from Salmon Creek Beach! The weather is wonderful today, and this is an excellent spot for surf fishing, beach combing, and picnicking. No campfires allowed here, or visits from horses or dogs, but someone told me that nearby beaches like Shell Beach, Portuguese Beach, and Schoolhouse Beach are good places to take pups for a walk. I’m not going there, just in case I get mistaken for a chew toy or funny-shaped stick to play fetch with!
The town here, Bodega Bay, has been around since 1809, when Russian settlers established it as a supply port for Fort Ross. That’s how the Russian River got its name—and here I was thinking it was because the water is always rushin’ along. While I was here I watched a movie that was set in this actual town, called The Birds! Nothing like that happened while I was visiting, although I did see some seagulls.
I’ll have to come back again in January or February to spot whales from the Bodega Head. I’ve heard whales are really big… even bigger than a magnum or a three liter bottle! Definitely going on the bucket list.
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
Wednesday, July 15th, 2020
Dear Friends,
Sorry it’s been a few days since my last postcard! It was harder getting back upriver than I thought, going against the current and all.
Along the way I saw a lot of farmland—not just vineyards, but all kinds of fruits, nuts, vegetables, livestock, and more! I made a few stops, even, and it turns out there are so many options for tours, farm stays, produce picking, and cooking classes. It’s called agri-tourism, and there are a lot of options to check out online if you’re interested.
Anyway, all this made me a bit homesick so I stopped by Hallberg Ranch. Right now the garden behind the winery is lush with corn, tomatillos, tomatoes, and squash. It’s beautiful; the vineyard workers take such good care of it, just like they do the vineyards.
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
Saturday, July 18th, 2020
Dear Friends,
Anyone who tells you that California doesn’t have really tall skyscrapers is wrong. Today I visited Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, a little over 14 miles from Emeritus Vineyards. (About five hours rolling, if you were wondering.)
California’s giant redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are nature’s skyscrapers. They can reach heights of 350 feet, taller than 30 stories! At Armstrong Woods, there’s a tree named Parson Jones that’s over 310 feet tall (longer than a football field). There’s also a tree named Colonel Armstrong that’s estimated to be over 1,400 years old—it probably has plenty of stories it could tell, too.
There was a beautiful hush over the grove that reminded me of fog-laden mornings at Hallberg Ranch, when everything feels soft and super focused, near and far at the same time. Perfect for a meditative stroll in nature.
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
Tuesday, July 21st, 2020
Dear Friends,
Today I visited Sonoma County’s most biologically diverse and richest area of wildlife habitat, the Laguna de Santa Rosa. It’s much sunnier here than in Armstrong Woods, and also there were so. Many. Birds. Over 200 species of them, from bald eagles to hummingbirds! (Although mostly what I saw were the kinds that look like they’re walking around on stilts.) Other animals that I didn’t see but am told are out there include rare and endangered salmon, steelhead, salamanders, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, minks, badgers, and river otters.
The amazing thing is, the Laguna trailhead on Highway 12 is just 3.5 miles from the Emeritus Winery. I’ve been that close to that many birds for my entire life! Mind. Blown.
It was a lovely hike. During the summer it’s relatively dry, but when the winter rains come it will flourish into a marshy landscape, draped every morning in Sebastopol fog. If you follow the trail far enough north, you can see Mount Saint Helena in the distance, which, if I ever manage to roll over the hill into Napa county, is on my bucket list too…
Just kidding! I’ll never run out of new things to see in Sonoma County.
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
P.S. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the fans in the Emeritus tasting room are styled to look like airplane propellers. And our wine clubs all have names like Co-Pilot and Wingman. So maybe I have a little bit of a thing about flying, and maybe that’s why I’m getting super into bird-watching at Kelly Pond in the Laguna. Who’s to say!
Friday, July 24th, 2020
Dear Friends,
Hikes are wonderful, but my shoulders have been getting pretty warm in the summer sun. Sometimes it’s great to explore the indoors instead, where there’s shade and sometimes even air conditioning.
Which brought me to the realization that Sonoma County is a favorite destination for antiquing. The Antique Society alone has over 100 dealers selling under one roof, and it’s just a 14 minute drive from Hallberg Ranch! It’s shopping trip meets scavenger hunt meets recycling at its finest, where every item has a story. And this is just one of many (many) hotspots for vintage finds in the area!
After a day of antiquing, I left with all the items my hands could carry—which unfortunately is none, because I don’t have hands. Or a pocket to keep a wallet in. But that just means more for you, right?
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
P.S. My favorites to ooh and aah over were vintage corkscrews and wine glasses, naturally.
Thursday, July 30th, 2020
Dear Friends,
I finally made it back to Bodega Bay for some Dungeness crab, and just in time because this is the last day of the season! Near all the popular crabbing spots—like the breakwater jetty off Doran Regional Park and the Marina Jeffy at the south end of Spud Point Marina—the crab pots are all stacked up and ready to go into storage.
In the meantime, though, there’s still crab on the menu today! I do wish some of my siblings could have joined me for the trek to any number of local restaurants with crab on the menu… Ruby Ruby and Hallberg Blanc would really make the crab appetizers sing, and Pinot Hill and Pinot Hill East always get along great with seafood entrees.
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
P.S. The next season starts in November 2020. Mark your calendars!
Sunday, August 2nd, 2020
Dear Friends,
In my earlier postcard about antiquing, I wrote about how it’s a kind of recycling. Usually “upcycling,” because people take something old and sometimes pretty rough, and spruce it up so it’s functional again.
But today, I saw another kind of recycling: odds and ends and random junk turned into works of art. There are these statues made by Patrick Amiot and painted by Brigitte Laurent scattered all around the town of Sebastopol, especially along Florence Avenue. They’re so cool and creative! Every piece is made from reclaimed, salvaged, and recycled materials. The teeth on that guy? They’re toy cars. His right eye is some kind of odometer or gage. His ears are hubcaps.
“When a hubcap has traveled on a truck for millions of miles, and has seen the prairies in the winter and the hot summer asphalt, when it’s done traveling with that truck and finds itself in the scrap yard and I find it, I kind of like to use that.” – Patrick Amiot
See? Every item has a story.
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
Wednesday, August 5th
Dear Friends,
Do you know how many cows there are in Sonoma County? A lot. Like, a lot a lot. Today I got to meet some! Fun facts about cows: their noses feel like a dog’s nose but tougher and wetter, and their tongues are raspy like a cat’s.
California’s North Bay Area has been on the dairy map since the 1860’s, aka the California Gold Rush. That’s when dairies in Point Reyes, Marin County, began supplying San Francisco with milk, cheese, etc. Over 150 years later, Sonoma County has cow and goat dairies aplenty and many of them offer a lot of really cool and educational farm tours. Agri-tourism, wahoo!
And, well, you know what they say about wine and cheese. I strongly recommend checking out the California Cheese Trail map, which I hope to use as my itinerary for my next vacation.
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
P.S. The cows on the postcard might not be dairy cows… Don’t quote me on that, I know a lot more about wine than I do about livestock.
Tuesday, August 11th, 2020
Dear Friends,
With my vacation coming to an end, a massage before heading home sounded like a perfect way to wrap things up. Lucky for me, you can’t throw a hot stone around here without coming across a great spa!
This one is Osmosis Day Spa Sanctuary. Their specialty is Zen vibes and a Cedar Enzyme bath. Are you picturing a relaxing soak in a tub of warm water? Nope! It’s actually an immersion in fragrant ground cedar, great for improving circulation and relieving joint and muscle pain. Kind of like burying yourself in the sand at the beach, but with healthy enzymes and soothing background music.
Like I said before, there are so many spa options throughout Sonoma County! Willow Stream Spa at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn is known for its natural thermal springs. Bodega Bay Lodge offers a warm shell massage with Tiger Clam seashells. Applewood Inn and Spa can give you biodynamic facials. There’s practically no limit to the creative spa treatments you can find around here, because in Wine Country, relaxation is a way of life.
And now, thoroughly relaxed and rejuvenated, it’s time for me to return home. I thoroughly enjoyed both my Sonoma County adventure and writing each of these postcards—I hope you liked them too!
Love,
The Traveling Emeritus Bottle, 2017 vintage
