If you can remember way back to my road trip, I raved about a long run I took in Portland, OR. There is something wonderful about being in a brand new place and being able to explore it by foot. I mean, how many people get to experience running along the vineyards of Napa (vineyards are otherwise known to me as "baby wines"). I finished an 8.7 mile run in about 1 hour, 20 minutes (about a 9:10 minute mile). The only bad part is that I was so struck by the beautiful scenery, I kind of forgot to do the speed training that coach prescribed for the day... oops!
On to the fun part: WINE. I know that a lot of my friends and family out there are far more interested in the vino part of this trip than the running part.. soo here goes. We visited ... well... too many wineries haha. My theory was that we had never been there before and I wanted to scope out a lot of wineries. Maybe next time, we'll slow it down.
Our first stop was Chimney Rock Winery and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. These were on the very picturesque Napa road "Silverado Trail". I think our first thought was... "geez this area is expensive"... but it was expected!
My highlight of the day was visiting and picnicking at Clos du Vol. There are not many wineries that allow you to picnic on site because of licensing issues in Napa County.. not their fault. Clos du Vol was suggested to us by another winery as a beautiful place to enjoy a picnic lunch. This winery provided stunning scenery and a small, cozy feel. We actually had the winemaker pouring for us at one point because he simply wanted to show us something "cool" about his Cabernet. I'm pretty sure my eyes actually started glazing over he was sharing so much information with us. He was fantastic, I was just going into a sugar coma and needed some lunch haha.
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| Clos du Vol Winery |
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| Clos du Vol Winery |
On Saturday, after my long run and John's bike ride straight up a mountain, we managed to make quite a dent in my Napa bucket list. We started by visiting some places suggested by our hotel (plus they give you 2-4-1 tasting coups to use.. so why not) on Silverado Trail again. We started with Black Stallion Winery, which was beautiful, but clearly growing too quickly for their small tasting bar. Next, we drove down the road to Van der Heyden Vineyards and Winery. This one is a tiny (teeny tiny) family winery whose tasting room was literally in a garage (I think). This was an awesome experience for being in Napa.
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| Van der Heyden Vineyards and Winery |
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| Rutherford Hill Winery From there, with full bellies and car trunk, we headed to the famed Beringer Vineyards. We decided to go on a tour here of their wine caves (which they don't actually use anymore, the wine is made across the street). We got the typical feeling from the huge commercial winery, but the cave tour was pretty cool. We skipped the full tasting (since we had some wine on the tour). I mean, who hasn't had Beringer wine? We decided to get another one in and end the day with some sparkling wine! We headed to Mumm Napa and were literally the last customers let in. Here, they did a sit down tasting. We were seated in from of their giant open windows overlooking the vineyards. Sparkling wine was a welcome change from the rest of the day. John and our waiter "bonded" over engineering talk and we even got a plate of nuts and fruit out of it!  Mumm Napa  Mumm Napa On our last day in Napa, we decided to head south to the Carneros region and then over to Sonoma. The winery we started with was definitely the highlight of our day. We started with Cuvasion Estate Winery (mostly because we had a card for complimentary tastings). This just may have been our pick of the weekend. The views were stunning!!! The walls were just windows that could open up wide to make you feel like your'e outside. The people there were all so friendly, too, which is lovely to find in such an infamous wine region.  Cuvaison Estate Winery Next we went to Domaine Carneros, another place for beautiful scenery and sparkling wine.  Domaine Carneros Finally, we headed up through Sonoma to Arrowood Vineyards and Chateau St. Jean. Chateau St. Jean is a very well known winery, but still felt small, welcoming, and like a place that you wanted to spend an entire afternoon. They have picturesque picnic areas, Adirondack chairs, and even Bocce Ball courts... woohooo.  Chateau St. Jean We finished out the weekend with a trip to Russian River Brewing Co. for John. After all, he did do all the driving... thanks babe! We were able to visit so many different wineries this time in Napa and it was a wonderful and tasty experience. Next time, maybe we'll take it a little slower.. but how can you.. there are so many places to see and so many wines to taste!  haha.. FINALLY... TRIVIA (maybe the winner will get a free bottle of wine, because this isn't one that you can google): I gave a small hint, that should give you somewhere to start, but how many bottles of wine did we actually come home with? |
2 comments:
Hey Kel...great blog!! Look's like you had fun! I'm gonna guess that you brought home 15 bottles of wine. haha...mom told me you got a case!!!!!
how every many are in a case! 12? 16? also, i hope you picked up that "caution wino crossing" sign because it's hilarious. i think it would work great in your apartment!
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