Napa Valley Wine Tasting

We spent a 3-day weekend in Napa Valley, our first time wine tasting. Aside from it being slightly cold, April is a lovely time to go as the hills, vineyards, and cultivated gardens are all lush and green from all the spring rain. Our first stop was V. Sattui, a great place to picnic. V. Sattui has a monopoly on the sales of food such as sandwiches and cheese--the winery was grandfathered-in after the Napa county decided to prohibit the sales of food on winery grounds.



Our next stop was Peju, a rather private winery with a quaint koi pond on the premises. The spring tulips were freshly in bloom right outside the tasting room.


Our sommelier was an old man who goes by Alan "The Yodelmeister." Not only does he yodel (which we did not hear), he also raps (which we did) when presenting the wines we tasted.



Next stop, Robert Mondavi, a popular tourist attraction known for good tours of the vineyards for beginner wine tasters. We did not taste here but toured the grounds on our own.


We also visited Chandon (home of the bubblies!) without tasting. Chandon has an impressive wine-bottle wall and has a more modern, chic ambiance to it.


Last stop for our Thursday: Silverado, a less-known and more private estate with tasting tables overlooking the beautiful valley.


I confess that by this time we were a lit-tle tipsy--everything tasted the same here, so we decided it was time to check into our hotel in the small city of Santa Rosa and call it a night.


The next morning, we had breakfast at Chloe's, a hole-in-the-wall, French-owned bakery/breakfast cafe. All the pastries and breakfast items were yummy! I had a chocolate croissant (pain du chocolat) and an apricot tart, and Tung had a breakfast baguette with eggs, bell peppers, sauteed onions, and cheese. The food was so good that we bought some sandwiches for a picnic at lunch.


We then went to Sterling Vineyards, where an aerial tram took us up to the tasting grounds.


This was a self-guided tour, and we walked around the "modern castle," getting our wine glasses refilled at designated stations while we enjoyed the magnificent view and learned about winemaking in the process.


We decided to stop by Old Faithful Geyser Park to see the natural geyser shoot off every 15 minutes as we ate our sandwiches from Chloe's.

A fun part of the park was the sizeable petting zoo, where I enjoyed petting and feeding the llama, goats (including the Tennessee fainting kind) . . .


. . . and Jacob three-horned sheep, who just had her spring lamb not too long ago.


Next major tour, Castello di Amorosa, the sister-winery of V. Sattui, built by Dario Sattui, the grandson. To me, the castle was an impressive piece of architecture with ironwork and stones imported directly from Europe.


It was fun to see the towers, courtyard, royal dining hall, and, of course, the dungeon, complete with all ye torture devices!


The Castello has a summertime Renaissance Fair for wine members only. Boy, I'd like to crash that party. Due to not yet being able to get permission from the county to host overnight guests, the only live-in residents of the castle are the small flock of barnyard animals and two cats--a blondie named Lancelot and a gray tabby named Guinevere (the English geek in me thought that was a cute and clever naming scheme).


After stocking up our wine purchases at the castle, we walked around the Town of Calistoga, regretting leaving our bathing suits at home and not being able to take advantage of the mineral-water baths that the region is known for.


For dinner, we decided on a whim to drop by a hole-in-the-wall barbecue house called Buster's Southern BBQ with a narrow ordering aisle reminiscent of Wienerschnitzel.


We were blown away by the quality of our BBQ dinner, served on modest paper plates. I tried the habanero hot BBQ sauce, and they weren't kidding when they warned me it was HOT! Tung had the tri-tip, and I had the half-chicken dinner. We loved it so much that we dropped by for lunch on the next day.


On Saturday, our last day of vacation, we visited the Petrified Forest to see trees that had been naturally petrified by volcanic eruption.


We guided ourselves through the short loop tour and then dropped by Prager Port, whose interesting interior decor includes dollar bills left behind and tagged by previous guests. Ports are too sweet for Tung's and my taste, but we did get a dessert wine out of it.


Next, we dropped by Sutter Home, home of the white zinfandel, and walked around the gorgeous garden.



And then it's homeward bound, but not before another stop to V. Sattui to stock up some more! This place gets ridiculous crowded on the weekends--the difference between our trip on the quieter Thursday morning was painfully obvious. But we did make it out with a bottle of 12-year-old Port and a Cabernet Sauvignon as a gift to Tung's family.


And finally, the stash, to commemorate our first wine tasting trip. For sure, we'll be back!