Cascadia Beer Odyssey: Anderson valley to the California Coast

Northern California’s geography is stunning. Today we drove through Anderson Valley wine country with huge vineyards spanning into the hills, we tunneled through the Redwood Forest and we found ourselves at the end of the day with truly magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean from spectacular coastlines. Our destinations were relatively close by so we had the most leisurely day of the odyssey and didn’t feel rushed to a destination.

Our first stop of the day was for lunch at the Bear Republic Brewery in Healdsburg. We had one of the best meals of the week so far with freshly caught battered Pacific Cod and just to show some respect to our bodies we had salads too. The beer met expectations with our favorites being their Cascadian dark ale, German Hef and Racer 5 of course. We loved sitting in the beer garden. While enjoying the California sun we received a message from John Maier reminding us that we were just a half mile away from Seghesio winery.

It didn’t take much prodding by Heath and I to convince the other two that we should stop at a couple wineries as long as we are in California wine country. Seghesio is best known for their enormous Zinfandel. We loved the tasting and the big almost black in color Old Vine Zin was incredible. Outside the winery on the property Seghesio has a very lush herb garden and outdoor kitchen with wood fired oven. We of course had to sample some pizza while we were there.

From Seghesio we found our way to Bella wine caves. Heath had driver of the day duties and knew where Bella was from a trip a couple months ago. The views were beautiful and the wine was great. We sat inside the caves for a wonderful tasting of 6 truly magnificent wines.

From Bella we headed to Anderson Valley where we met friend and Brewmaster Fal Allen. Fal spent much of his brewing career in our neck of the woods at Pike Brewing Company in Seattle. This is his second stint at Anderson Valley with a gig at a brewery in Singapore in between. It was great to see Fal and get a brewery tour and catch up a bit. It seems he has a fun job in great surroundings. Before we left Fal gave us a great tip for a bar just south of Elk California off the Pacific Coast Highway. So we headed west through the redwoods and found ourselves at the Beacon Bar. The vista from this perch was beyond words. Bobby is the name of the owner and he has stories to tell. The bar is in the basement of his house which sits on thousands of acres he owns with views of the ocean.

Our day ended in Fort Bragg at North Coast brewery.

Next stop Arcata.