Thursday September 30, 2010
Venue Vixens Beginnings
Our adventures started about 3 years ago with our first Venue Vixen investigative site inspection of River Highland Ranch in Nevada County. It’s an incredible venue with a really perfect barn. No horse nor cow has ever stepped inside this beautiful property!
Next, the incomparable Beth Sogaard Catering designed a limo trip to view three gorgeous Amador County winery properties. They included Young’s Vineyards, Terra d’Oro Winery, and Avio Vineyards. Beth Sogaard created a picnic lunch for us – it was FABulous!
Then, on an incredibly warm February day, we were invited to enjoy an overnight stay and tour of their most unique resort, Solage. This upper Napa Valley property is to die for… and we had the best time! Can you say soothing shoulder and neck massage and luxurious pedicure ~ heaven! Plus dinner prepared by the executive chef who previously worked at The French Laundry. If we only had more time we would have been on the very cool bicycles they offer their guests to wander the Silverado Trail… although, Catrina was quite pregnant with her second baby at the time, so maybe not a good idea.
And El Dorado County has many cool venues. We enjoyed the company of Visiting Vixen, Michaela Rogers, on this trip. We loaded up the “Cat Mobile” and drove to Eden Vale B&B, Coloma County Inn and Emmanuel Church. We spent the night at Bella Vista B&B where we shared wonderful appetizers and plenty of wine. Then hours in the hot tub where the discussion really started about the Vixens. Kathleen at Bella Vista makes the best breakfast and is the perfect innkeeper!
Lake County is a quiet, little known area where the wine region is certainly spreading. We were invited by the owner of a new venue, Villa LaBrenta, to check out what they have to offer. We offered our sage advice on all the dos and don’ts to running a new facility, making suggestions, and complimenting all the hard work they had gone through to create a lovely venue. Enjoying a new bottling is always a perk for the Vixens, and paired well with the goodies we brought for our evening “happy hour.” Naturally, we stayed up too late, but enjoyed new wing which will one day be part of their overnight accommodations.
The next day we were excited to check out Ceago Vinegarten, near Nice, California. There is so much to say about this outstanding venue. Mediterranean ambiance at its finest, and owned by one of the best known wine makers in California – Jim Fetzer.
On a Sunday afternoon in July, we went back to El Dorado County to check out three properties. Silverthorn Meadows has the most perfect rose borders, lawn, pond, and forested tree setting. ParaVi Vineyards in Camino is a relaxed, terraced lawn venue with a rockin’ private vintage bar, as well as a wonderful intimate barrel room. And finally on to Rome Valley Vineyards in Garden Valley, which is literally situated “on top of the world” looking out over vineyards, forest, hillside, mountain ranges and if you’re lucky, a stunning sunset.
Between stops, we found a sweet picnic table along a pond and in true Vixen style, set up a beautiful tablecloth, Sangria in glasses, fresh home-grown tomato Caprese’ salad (yummy, Lora), and crostini with a homemade fig compote and blue cheese (honestly, Laurie!). We really know how to do our research!
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HEY you guys!!! Great JOB!!! xoxo