After Drinking So Much Wine We Needed a Napa...Badda, Boom! Rim Shot!

Yes, this part of our California journey took us to Napa Valley for a three day stint.

If you have any interest in wine you’ll really dig this. If you have no interest in wine but love beautiful scenery, scroll through, and just check-out our pics. You'll be glad you did!

Wine flies when your having fun...and Napa was a splendid display of beauty and fun. As you would imagine, there were vineyards everywhere. Everywhere! We toured fifteen vineyards during our stay. No, we didn’t drink at them all. As a matter of fact we only did one tasting a day. We did blow our two drink maximum and had a glass of wine each in another vineyard after our tastings. Heck, it's Napa! The rest of our vineyard visits were more for the landscaping, Brad’s familiarity of the winery, and vineyard proximity to our daytime tour.

On day one, we had three bang-bang visits to Domaine Carneros, Cuavaison, Artesa Vineyard and Winery. Domaine Carneros was on our list because it was listed as one of the ten most beautiful vineyards in Napa. It was beautiful! They said they had an opening for a tasting in about three hours. We passed, but learned a valuable lesson that we needed to make reservations in advance. It was still worth the visit. Please see below…

Across the street was Cuvaison. We stopped, just because it was convenient. It was lovely! We had a glass of wine on their patio overlooking the vineyard. The wine was flavorful and the atmosphere wonderful.

Our Server recommended we go to Artesa Vineyard and Winery. She pointed up in the hills from our patio table and said it was beautiful, so we went. Our GPS said fifteen minutes away…so away we go. The surrounding fountains of Artesa were splendid and even though they didn’t seat us (no reservation and the place was 3/4 empty), the spectacular fountains, tasting room and the view were worth the visit. They were so poorly staffed we helped ourself to a glass of the champagne they had in the lobby. Ha! We wish we took a picture of the tasting room entrance. It just popped out of the mountain like a wild flower. Our bad!

We then, briefly stopped at three more vineyards Quintessa, Pine Ridge and Grgich Hills Estate. The Pine Ridge hostess said tastings were $80/person and if you buy $200 in wine we waive the tasting fee. No drinking thanks, just looking! Get out of here with your $200/table minimum. Grgich Hills was near the Rutherford Grill so we stopped for dinner. The service was excellent and the comfort food, comforting.

The next day, our headlining vineyard was Chateau Montelena so we built the vineyard tour around that stop. It was in the Calistoga area of Napa so all of vineyards that day will be in that area. We started with a tasting at Romeo Vineyard. Ah yes, we made a reservation. It was an intimate courtyard setting with an informative, attentive, and personable service team. We dug talking with them all. We sat in a quiet side portion of the tasting space that was filled with beautiful flowers, trellises and archway vines.

We went to Chateau Montelena and Castello di Amoroso next and they were spectacular sights. You didn’t need to drink their wines to get a buzz off of their beautiful settings. No drinking…high off of the sites. The grounds at both vineyards were breathtaking. Castella di Amoroso had a menagerie of rams, goats, donkeys, and Llamas for gosh sakes.

We cheated this day and on our last vineyard visit we did a second tasting at Louis M. Martini tasting room. We had a 75 year old German sommelier who was very informative and knowledgeable and since he was the manager he was also very busy. The tasting room was magnificent and the grounds were very well landscaped while laid out for socializing and partying. There was a wedding party going on. Check-out Brad's red teeth in the next to last picture. you have to look close. They should have given him a toothbrush.

We had one more day in Napa so we selected the Headlesburg area of Napa earmarking the Francis Ford Coppola Vineyard as our headliner. We started with a tasting at the boutique J Vineyard. We buddied up at the bar for our tasting with a Mother and daughter from California who were fun and interesting. The daughter was Croatian getting ready to study winemaking in France and the Mother was this hippie California chick shrinking Kathy and I as we tasted. She was cool! It was fun! We walked the property after the tasting and then moved on to Simi and Jordan Vineyards. Don't look too close. Brad's reseeding hairline could blind you. Ouch!

The next to last picture above of the framed letter was from Julio Gallo to Mr. Jordan telling him how he enjoyed his wine everyday while he and his family were on a cruise.

Our next two stops were Ferrari-Carano and Francis Ford Coppola Vineyards. We didn’t do any drinking in either but they were both splendid. We found out later the owner of the Ferrari-Carano Vineyard was the owner of a couple casinos. When walking the tasting room, we got the connection. It was big and bold! The gardens before you get to the building were splendid too. Check out the cork tree! Who would have known?

The bottom half of the building was the Ferrari-Carano wine cellar. Temperature cooled, impressive, hearty and classy to say the least. The last picture above was a circular wine cellar that must have had 1000 bottles of wine, filled from ceiling to floor. If you look closely you'll get it but the picture doesn't really do it justice. Off to Coppola............

This vineyard was huge and their tasting room would be best be described as a museum. Throughout the two-story building were displays of Francis Ford Coppola's film accomplishments. Scripts and handwritten notes from The Godfather including Vito Corleone's desk. Memorabilia from Apocolypse Now and Coppola's Oscar trophies were just a few of the hundred's of prized possessions throughout the space. Yes, and people drinking wine too and of course a HUGE gift shop. The accompanying hotel space and pool were closed but impressive nevertheless.

We hope you enjoyed the Napa blog. We enjoyed sharing it with you. Kathy and Brad