I can now say that I am totally in love with all things Napa. We had the most amazing time there! We also enjoyed a short stay in San Francisco but to really see that city, we will have to go back for longer. Now..back to Napa. Mmmmm....we left the August
hell heat of Texas and were welcomed with perfect temperatures of sunny 80 degree days and crisp, cool 60 degree evenings. It did not take us long to figure out why so many people want to retire to California. By the end of the first evening (and after a day of sipping unbelievable wines), Jamie and I had our retirement years planned out. Here are some highlights from our trip.
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| a stop at Vista Point on our way from San Francisco to the valley |
We woke up early on the first morning and hopped in our oh-so-cool convertible Mustang and headed up the 101 towards the Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco is such a beautiful place and we both want to go back and really see the city one day. But...like I said...ON TO NAPA!
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On our first day we stopped at Domaine Carneros on our way in and are real suckers because I mean WHO joins a wine club on their first stop?! That's us (we had some great recommendations though for that place..thanks Hailey and Molly!) Then we headed to Robert Mondavi for an educational tour that showed us how the winemaking process works from start to finish...way cool! We then grabbed a quick lunch and enjoyed it in the awesome weather. Next we stopped at both Peju and Sequoia Grove (again from recommendations from friends). We loved both of these places...very laid back and chill. We checked into our amazing lodge and then headed to a yummy dinner at Mustard's. Very successful first day!
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| Our fun DD Steve and our cool ride |
The next day we got a DD to drive us around for the day in our rental. His name was Steve and he was a jokester so he and James got along really well. He started the day off taking us to Plumpjack/Cade which is a smaller, off-the-beaten-path winery which turned out to be one of our top two! Yay Steve! They served us a Cabernet that was by far the best tasting
thing wine I have ever put in my mouth. Thank goodness this was our first stop or I wouldn't have been able to turn down that purchase ($275...wow!) Then we took a very cool tour at Del Dotto in St. Helena. We really enjoyed this tour because you taste right out of the barrels and it is really neat to see how the same wine tastes so completely different out of the French/American/hybrid barrels. I am a French barrel lover while Jamie preferred the American. :)
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| The Del Dotto wine cave |
After Del Dotto (which the locals call Del Blotto b/c you literally get like 12 tastings) we grabbed some sandwiches at the St Helena market and Steve drove us to another out of the way winery up in the hills named Burgess. It was beautiful up there! Back to the room for a rest then a yummy pizza dinner at Redd Wood. Another fun-filled successful day!
The next morning (and our last..boohoo) we wanted to do something a little different so we rented some bikes and took off on their shortest (10 mile) loop. We took off and made a few stops along the way at a couple tasting rooms (Napa Valley Wine Co. and Silver Oak). We enjoyed both of them of course and then set off to return our bikes. When we got back to Yountville, we returned the bikes and then had some lunch at Michael Chiarello's Napa Style eatery. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrity chef since they told us he was working there that day but we never did. After lunch we got back in the Mustang and hit up our last winery...St. Supery. Finished the evening with a yummy dinner at Bistro Jeanty and then hit the hay for our 7am departure back to the city.
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Needless to say..we cannot wait to go back! It was such a nice and relaxing vacation and lots of good memories were made! If anyone is heading to Napa Valley...I would recommend any and all of the places we visited!
