California in pictures: Sonoma and San Francisco

The second leg of our California tour took us to Sonoma, where we began with an exploration into the wines of the region at a masterclass given by Elaine Chukan Brown, who brought the subject to life with her energy and passion.

During her masterclass we got to try some of the top drops being made in Sonoma today, including a traditional method sparkling Zinfandel rosé made by Morgan Twain-Peterson MW, and a powerful but elegant Zin made by his dad, Joel Peterson, under the Once & Future label. Also wowing the crowd was a 2014 Ramey Syrah from Rodgers Creek Vineyard, which offered notes of sage, mint, dried flowers and leather.

Fired up about the region, we braved a crossing of the Russian River, which recently flooded, and headed to the charming MacMurray Estate, which is now owned by Gallo but was once the home of silver screen star Fred MacMurray.

When Fred bought the estate in the 1940s, he planted a pair of redwood trees, which and are now so tall they dwarf the barn beneath. Having been run as a cattle ranch since the 1850s, Fred upheld the tradition, raising prize-winning cows on the estate and encouraging his twin daughters to horse ride.

Big man, bigger tree. At 6 foot 3, Majestic’s Robert South was the tallest of our group, but looks tiny next to the mighty redwood.

MacMurray’s daughter Kate keeps the legend of her family ranch alive in her role as brand ambassador for MacMurray Estate, which produces a range of Russian River Valley Pinots, along with a Chardonnay and a Pinot Gris.

Fred MacMurray appeared in over 100 films and television series during his fruitful career, which spanned nearly half a century. Among his most famous films are Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, and The Apartment, where he starred alongside Jack Lemon.

During an abundant lunch at the ranch, which ended with syrupy pecan cookies, Justine McGovern and Damien Jackman of the California Wine Institute put names into a hat for our cook-off in Healdsburg later that evening.

We were split into five groups and paired with a local winemaker who had chosen one of their drops specifically to be matched with one of five secret ingredients, which were revealed when we arrived at the cookery school. Matched with Sonoma’s Buena Vista Winery, our ingredient was hen of the woods mushrooms, which we had to create a dish around to pair with the estate’s barrel fermented Chardonnay.

Dubbing ourselves the ‘Buena Vista Social Club’, we braved the idea of making a creamy mushroom risotto laced with wild garlic and loaded with Parmesan-like local cheese Estero Gold to pair with the creamy flavours in the Chard.

Layered with hen of the woods mushrooms, flecked with parsley, daubed with mushroom purée and finished with MasterChef-inspired Estero Gold tuilles, we were pretty happy with the result.

Sadly we weren’t victorious – that honour went to the Twomey Cellars team for their ‘Twomey To You’ dish (in a nod to the Chuckle Brothers). Steered by former chef turned food and wine writer Francis Percival (second left) the dish made a hero of Asian-style seared tuna with an umami-rich miso glaze and an abundance of fresh seasonal veg including fennel, which gave a lovely lick of aniseed.

Helping us with our dishes were winemakers from Laurel Glen, Buena Vista Winery, Twomey Cellars, Seghesio Family Vineyards and Dry Creek.

The penultimate day of our trip took us to Jackson Family Wines’ La Crema Estate, where we were treated to a tutored tasting of the wines by ebullient wine educator Pedro Rusk, who hinted that Jackson is keen to add to its already impressive portfolio with an estate in Tasmania.

For our last hurrah, we headed to Tartine Manufactory – a trendy bakery by day, small plates restaurant by night, in San Francisco’s colourful Mission district. Joining us for the dinner were some of the friendly faces we’d met earlier in the trip, including Mairead Quinn of Gallo (front left) and Jonas Hillgergren of Delicato Family Wines (front right). Among the dishes we enjoyed were five-spiced duck with peanut butter miso hoisin, pear and pickled fennel; and steak tartare with sunchoke crisps and cured egg yolk.

As wine labels go, we were rather taken with this one from Hirsch. The Pinot Noir inside was mighty fine too…

And finally… with a few free hours before our flight home, db’s Lucy Shaw couldn’t resist an obligatory photo by the Golden Gate Bridge.