Our only winery visit this day, was to the Francis Ford Coppola winery.  As can be expected the winery is opulent, and there is a lot of memorabilia from some of his most memorable films on different levels within the winery.   A large area holding of memorabilia from the Godfather, as well as the car and other items from the movie Tucker: The Man and His Dreams is held within.  There are also some smaller displays for Dracula, Apocalypse Now and a scale model ship from Marie Antoinette.

Two swimming pools are on the grounds, along with cabines (changing rooms).  “Francis Ford Coppola wanted to create a place for families to come and enjoy all the best things in life together. For years, he had seen children playing around the fountain at Inglenook, pleading with their parents to allow them to jump in. Francis always sympathized with the children, so he thought, Gee, the kids will want to go swimming, so let’s have swimming pools. “

Bocce ball courts are available for those who enjoy the sport.

The wine choices are extensive, and many collectors bottles are available that you can only buy at the winery.  Prices are from reasonable to incredible.  I did buy a Directors Cut 2014 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel that was reasonably priced and very good.  It received 97 Pts, Double Gold, Best of Class-SF Intl Wine Comp and 91 Points, Gold – 2017 Critics Challenge  “Every bottle of Director’s Cut pays homage to the history of filmmaking with its wraparound label designed after a Zoetrope strip, one of the earliest moving picture devices. Each Director’s Cut label is a replica of a strip from Francis’s personal Zoetrope collection.”

When we left Coppola’s winery we were famished and headed for Healdsburg to look around and get something to eat.  We chose to eat at Journeyman Meat Co. owned by Peter Seghesio. There rules for the way their meats are raised:

“Our source farms must:

Employ humane and sustainable animal farming techniques

Raise antibiotic-free animals

Provide all natural, vegetarian diets

Allow animals to roam freely, never using industrial confinement operations

Raise heritage breed hogs and Black Angus cattle

Ensure that each animal lives a happy life-with only one bad day. ”

Todd found a quote from Pete Seghesio about Gene Cuneo (John, Paula’s (Janet’s sister) husbands father) that makes me wish I had had the opportunity to meet the man.

“He was one of the great pioneers of our industry” said Pete Seghesio, whose Healdsburg family winery has purchased grapes from Mr. Cuneo over the last 80 years. “He did so much for Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County and growers. “With Gene you had living history” said Seghesio, who recalled how Mr. Cuneo would often visit his tasting room and entertain visitors. “He was a wonderful story teller, a wise, wise person.”

Ah, about the food there…indescribable.  I really wish we had someplace like it in WA (if you know of one let me know!).   We ordered a salumi board, that had 6 varieties of their wonderful, house made salami.  Accompanying the salumi was pickled vegetable and fresh cheese.   Janet and I also split a hamburger, that was ground with bacon, had onion, lettuce and tomato and was served on a fresh baked bun. All their cooked foods are done in a wood fired oven. It was accompanied by roasted fingerling potatoes and cauliflower.  We drank one of the finest Pinot Noir wines I have ever tasted with it.

Back to the coaches, and our pups, took them out for some exercise then lazed around for the rest of the evening.