I forgot my camera to document this, but on Saturday, we headed up to Sonoma to pick up some wine. We’re not fancy-pants wine connoisseurs but last summer, I was in Sonoma with my some of my family and we stumbled across this vineyard through a series of serendipitous events. There was just one of sons there when we stopped by, but he treated us like we were old friends and kept the wine flowing and at the end of the tasting, we signed up as members and made off with some old barrels that he offered us. Ever since, I’ve sort of wondererd whether we were just tipsy and smitten with the whole scene, but we returned this Saturday and the wine – and vibe – was phenomenal. They don’t have an official tasting room, the family just strung up some lights in their barreling room, set bottles of wine out on top of barrels, and kept bringing out platters of barbequed shrimp, rosemary-pork kebabs and pans of fresh brownies.

Afterwards, we found a spot of shade and laid out some old tablecloths and picnic fixings: pesto potato salad (taters from the garden and fresh petso, along with peas and tiny little balls of fresh mozerealla), peanut noodle salad, olives, salami, cheeses, cherries and flakey, buttery palmiers (bakery-bought because there’s no way in hell I could make them that good).

Yes, I forgot my camera but it felt something like this: