A Visit to Livermore Valley Wine Country

October 2nd was a special day in my household – my 4th anniversary!

While Adam and I haven’t made our anniversary a huge deal thus far, we definitely like to celebrate the occasion and spend time together. I planned on making my spaghetti squash casserole for dinner and having a low-key, relaxing night together.

I happened to be coming back from Seattle in the afternoon, and wound up hitting crazy traffic on my way back from the airport due to a horrendous accident. Running late, I wound up nixing the spaghetti squash idea and making a quicker dish – spinach & ricotta stuffed shells. I also decided to make an oreo ice cream cake for dessert, because for some oddball reason, I was craving oreo cookies (I hadn’t had an oreo in probably 10 years!). Since I was short on time, I needed to prep the cake and then stick it in the freezer to chill for a few hours as soon as I got home. The ice cream was melting and the fudge wouldn’t spread easily, so the cake looks like a hot mess, but oh my gosh, it was sinfully delicious!

We drank Mark West Pinor Noir. It’s the wine we were drinking when he proposed, so I like to pick a bottle of it up for special occasions like this. It’s a yummy and cheap wine!

I found it funny that we both got each other cute animal cards. We both <3 animals!

To further celebrate our anniversary, we decided to head to Livermore Valley yesterday for an afternoon of wine tasting. The wine region is located about an hour from our place in South Bay, and this was the first time we’ve visited the area. Livermore has a cool wine history, as Spanish missionaries were said to have planted the first wine grapes in the 1760s. The first commercial vines were planted in the 1840s.

Livermore Valley is known for its cabernet sauvignon. Yesterday my hubby and I both liked cabs and a number of other red varietals from the wineries we tasted at.

The first place we visited was McGrail Vineyards. My first impressions were that the winery was really pretty, and the woman serving us was really friendly and helpful. I really enjoyed their 2010 Cabernet Reserve, which spends over 30 months in a combination of French, Hungarian and American oak.

Next we visited Murietta’s Well, a winery that focuses a lot on blending a bunch of different varietals. It’s owned by Wente Vineyards, which is the country’s oldest, continuously operated family-owned winery (founded 130 years ago!). After that, we checked out Garre, an Italian winery  that offers bocce ball and samples of olive oil as you try their wines.

After working up an appetite wine tasting, we next went to the Underdog Wine Bar to grab a bite to eat. The restaurant is part of Concannon Vineyard and has a lovely outside dining area perfect for a gorgeous day like yesterday.

We sat on the patio and enjoyed the scenery, as I munched on a cheese plate and drank a glass of riesling from a nearby winery. 

On our way out of town, we checked out one more winery, then headed home for the night. With bellies full of wine, we relaxed on the couch with my pup, watched TV, and did nothing for the night, and it was a great anniversary celebration!

I absolutely love visiting wineries during the harvest season, when all of the grapes are plump and purple, just waiting to be crushed and fermented into glorious wine. Wine tasting is one of my favorite weekend activities!  

What’s on your list of favorite weekend pastimes?