I just adore wine. This is something that any of my readers should know.
Last year for our anniversary, my husband and I went on a road trip through California. It was SO much fun. We stopped in Las Vegas, Disneyland, PCH, San Luis Obispo, Monterrey, San Francisco, and Napa Valley. It was so great. I'll try to give you more details on our other stops, but for today I'm going to give you info on our stop in Napa Valley.
Anyone who loves wine should go to Napa. If you love wine and you haven't been to Napa, what are you waiting for? We spent two days in Napa tasting wine and taking in the sights. The views are INCREDIBLE.
We had the opportunity to visit several vineyards. Our first stop was the Robert Mondavi vineyard and winery. We received a private tour of the estate and the wine cellars. It was breathtaking. Doug was our tourguide. He is an oenologist (wine scientist). It was a great tour and tasting.
Here are the gorgeous wine barrels in the cellar.
We got to taste 3 different wines made there. A Chardonnay and two different Cabernet Sauvignon.
One of the Cab wines we got to taste was a private selection that we were privileged to taste as it was a wine that was close to $300 a bottle. It was delicious and the most expensive wine I have ever tasted. It was delicious though I also feel that the $35 bottle was just as good. A perfect example of why you shouldn't let the dollar amount on the bottle fool you into thinking that it is better.
After Robert Mondavi we toured a few other wineries and had a chance to taste and try out several different wines.
For dinner that night we went to Ristorante Allegria. I highly recommend this restaurant. We were able to bring in our own bottle of wine to the restaurant which was awesome because we only paid $15 for the bottle at the grocery store that most restaurants were charging $50 to purchase off their wine list. The corkage was FREE which was great so we saved SO much money. The food was delicious and the service was great. Our waitress was attentive and didn't mind that we had a really slow dinner. They even gave us dessert (delicious tiramisu) as an anniversary gift. I would absolutely dine there again.
The next day was our second wedding anniversary. We took a wine tasting seminar at Franciscan Estate. It was a Sensory tasting where we would taste wine and smell these vials of scents. It helped you learn how to pick out tastes and scents in the wines that we tasted. It ended up being another "private tour" because there weren't many people around in Napa that week. The Franciscan wines are amazing. I loved them so much and bought several bottles. It is a beautiful vineyard. (No pictures because there was so much fog that morning, you couldn't see it).
Again, we visited several other wineries in the valley and had an enjoyable afternoon.
Dinner that night was Oenotri. We didn't really enjoy this restaurant. It felt extremely stuffy and the service left a lot to be desired. The portions were small for the price and I felt that the food was bland. I was disappointed because everyone around town raved about the restaurant and I felt that it fell pretty flat.
One thing that is interesting. As much as I love wine, at the end of a day of tasting you can definitely tell when you have had enough.
We loved our visit to Napa Valley.
If you want to plan a trip to Napa, let me know how I can help you out! As a travel agent I would happy to help you plan your perfect escape to Napa. It makes a great trip for a long weekend.
