Cloverdale, CA...Our First Wine Cave!!

Okay, truth be told Cloverdale was not even close to our top 5; however, every place has its own beauty, sometimes you have to look for it. Cloverdale was no exception. We arrived at Cloverdale’s Russian River RV Park on October 24. Cloverdale is a very small, kind of sleepy downtown known for eclectic shops, galleries and restaurants located in Sonoma County, California. I’m sure in mid summer Cloverdale probably comes to life. That’s one of the cons of travelling on the off season…you don’t get the same energy in a lot of areas that you would in the summer season.

Cloverdale does have a nice short hiking trails throughout the Porterfield Creek Reserve, which we checked out. Being October, the leaves changing colours and walking to the ground was quite beautiful. Merlot really enjoyed it!

We did take a drive to Santa Rosa, which is a really cool town. We definitely could spend some time in Santa Rosa!

The highlight of our stay at Cloverdale was absolutely the wine tasting at our first ever underground winery where our host, Andy” was the perfect host! In addition to our wine tasting menu, Andy added a couple of his favorites to the menu. Andy was so knowledgeable and clearly loved his job and his wine, and wanted to share his joy with everyone who attended Fritz Underground Winery.

The grounds of the winery were truly breathtaking!! The fields of grapevines, the flowers, sitting areas, hummingbirds, beautiful trees and shrubs throughout. This was our views from the terrace!!

In the late 1970s Fritz winemaking facility was built into the side of a picturesque hill atop the northernmost region of the famed Dry Creek Valley. Arthur Fritz designed the facility with incredible foresight! Fritz Winery operates with a modern sensibility for efficiency and awareness by utilizing the unique attributes of their subterranean design. The naturally cool temperatures and ideal for winemaking and cellaring and are maintained without any use of carbon-heavy devices common to most modern wine production. The three-tiered structure is able to significantly cut down on energy usage by capitalizing on the always plentiful presence of gravity to move the juice from the crush pad down to the tanks and barrels!

Andy was kind enough to take us on a walk-through of the facilities and the underground cave, explaining the Fritz wine-making process throughout. Of course we couldn’t help but purchase a couple of our favorites before heading back to our campsite!

Andy was also great to provide us recommendations for Napa Valley, which is our next destination! Thanks so much, Andy!! You were such a pleasure spending the afternoon with you!

Overall, Cloverdale was a nice stopover on our way to Napa, Baby!! To check out all the pictures from our stay in Cloverdale, click on the link!