Napa Adventure: I want to ride my bicycle...

Sunday Wes and I got up extra early to go pick up our bikes from Napa Valley Bike Rental.

After driving the both of us around for the previous two days and dealing with me being

"white girl wasted" by 3 o'clock in the afternoon we decided it was time for us to both have fun!

(We started the morning by biking the 7 miles out to ZD Winery.

This was just one of the beautiful views on our ride out.)

(The gate and tasting room at ZD.

The winery was started by to aerospace engineers, their initials being Z and D.

But Wes and I picked our visit here because it's the reverse of my sorority letters... hahaha.)

(The beautiful blooming azalea's and my sweaty hair.  

Let me tell you, there's nothing glamorous about biking all over the place and 

then walking into a winery with helmet hair.)

(Our bikes!  Thank God for those little packs on the front.  It's where we kept our water all day!)

(Wes and I on our "eco-tour".  We spent the first couple hours of the morning walking through

their vineyards and checking everything out.  We followed that up with a wonderful

cheese and bread platter out on their back porch.)

(View from our cheese tasting spot.)

After ZD, Wes and I were on to the next one.  Check out the pics below for a look at the view on our ride.

(Wes and I then stopped at Frog's Leap Winery.

It was the prettiest place we saw on our entire trip

Hands down. Breath taking.  These pictures don't even begin to do the place justice.)

(The beautiful citrus gardens.)

(The wine barn.  We took our tasting on the second floor and looked over the balcony in pure bliss.)

(Arbor covered in wisteria.)

(View from the second story of the barn.)

(Wes and I by the fountain.

Good wine, excellent grounds, and one of our top picks for the vacation.)

Other highlights of the day included:

-Lunch at Rutherford Grill

-Meeting a young couple who lives in Atlanta and told Wes and I we're looking in the right neighborhoods

-Wes totally wiping out on the side of the highway and ripping two large holes in his shirt

(he wouldn't let me take any pictures... imagine that.)

-4 more wineries, and 20 more miles biked

-Having the sorest ass in the history of my life.

(As Wes and I biked back into Napa we passed The French Laundry.

Although we didn't get a reservation for this visit, it's definitely on my list

for our next Napa trip.  I guess I better start saving now...)

Until next time...

Napa Adventure: Day Three... Wine, Wine, Wine

After too much food the night before Wes and I managed to wake up hungry the next day.

Enter Bouchon Bakery.

(Bouchon boast location in New York, Los Angeles, and Yountville, CA.

In a town with only 3k people living there, this place gets crowded and stays that way.)

(Although Bouchon was good, I'm not sure it lived up to all the hype.  

That didn't stop Wes and I from eating there the next day, and stopping by twice for an afternoon snack... Hahaha.)

(We started the morning bright and early with a 10am wine tour at Grgich Hills.

The wine maker here, who celebrated his 90th birthday the week we were there,

was part of Stags Leap when they created the wine that won the Paris Tasting in 1976.

It was a great tour with awesome cheese pairings and we really learned a lot.

We also got to try some traditional Croatian wine while we were there!)

(Wes and I then headed down the road and stopped at something familiar, for the first time since we got to Napa, Menage a Trois!

Now me and my girlfriends drank this all the time in college and thought we were super high class,

but I clearly hadn't seen high class until I went to Napa.

Fun Fact: It is the #1 best selling red wine in the country, so all those fellow lovers, drink up!) 

(At the recommendation of another couple that was on our tour at Grgich Hills, Wes and I then ventured to Silver Oak Wineries.  

It was on a beautiful estate, and the wine was very tasty.)

(Panoramic view of the Silver Oak tasting room and grounds.  The white tower on the right of the photo is present in all of their vineyards across California so that everyone knows grapes being grown there, go into Silver Oak wine.)

(After all the wine, Wes and I were hungry... again.

We headed up to the a small town just North of Yountville and enjoyed some delicious Mexican food

from the local Azteca Mercado. Wes and I enjoyed a lazy stroll around the town and stumbled upon this little bit of street art.  

We immediately thought of my mom and sent her a snap.)

(Wes and I then drove South and stopped by Alpha+Omega wineries. 

It's a very popular stop on Hwy. 29 with a fun atmosphere.  Wes and I weren't too impressed with their wine, 

but we did learn a thing or to about the difference between Oak Aged and Steel Aged Chardonnay.) 

(We finished off the day with a tour at Robert Mondavi Winery.

He's famous in the wine world and is classy enough to wear a suit made out of corks.)

(Beautiful grounds along the tour.)

(The largest oak fermentation barrels we saw on our entire trip.

P.S. this picture was taken from the second story of the building...)

(Their beautiful cellar room.  Fun Fact:They stain the center stripe of all of their barrels with the "pressed wine" left over after the main pour.  

It makes for an impressive room and allowed them to be a little sloppy when topping of their barrels during aging.) 

(Wes and I among the barrels.  They literally went as far as the eye could see!)

(The beautiful peonies outside.  Those flowers smell soo amazing!

You can that by this point in the trip Wes and I's teeth are starting to take a toll from all the red wine.

Needless to say, we've both started whitening our teeth since returning.)

That night Wes and I took it easy at a local tavern for a classic steak.  It was a much needed break from the foo-foo food we'd had the night before.

Stay tuned for the biking adventure we had on our fourth day.  Until next time...

Napa Adventure: First Day of Wine Tours

After some much needed sleep in the most comfortable bed ever Wes and I woke up early on Friday to enjoy "the best hotel breakfast in Yountville"

(The Vintage Inn had a wonderful brunch and omelet station complete with bread pudding, cowboy casserole, make-your-own-mimosa's, and tons of fresh fruit.  

I give it an A+

We enjoyed our breakfast out on the patio by the pool with the beautiful views below.)

(Yountville inspring time = beautiful flowering eutopia)

(We spent the rest of the morning being lazy and strolling around Yountville checking everything out.)

(Naturally I had to stop and have a photo shoot at least once...)

(There was a lot of interesting art around Yountville as well. 

This is the stone mushroom garden outside of the local post office...)

(The sticker on the side of the post box on one of the side streets.)

(Wes checks out a vintage Banana Republic hat.)

(For lunch we headed to Hurley's.  

Super yummy food and an excellent patio.)

(After lunch we headed out for our first winery tour at Chimney Rock!)

(Wes and I started at the wrong winery.  Only because this was our favorite place!)

(So Wes and I made a last minute reservation for a tour here and we ended up being the only people that had scheduled for that time.  

(FYI Friday is one of the best days to do wine tastings since most people are at work!) 

So we got the complete VIP treatment on the tour.)

(In the faux barrel room that Chimney Rock uses for events.  This is terrible lighting, but it's the only picture I have of the two of us here.)

(Chimney Rock is in the famed "Stags Leap" district of Napa Valley.

A winery from the same district won the 1976 blind tastings in Paris and officially pushed California red wine into the global win scene.)

(Wes and I visited two other wineries that afternoon; Darioush and Baldacci Wineries.

What I found very interesting is how much the heritage and cultural preferences of the winery owner influenced the design, look, feel, and taste of the winery grounds, tasting room, and wine.

Darioush is owned by a Persian, so everything was breathtakingly over the top.

Baldacci is owned by a French family (related to the author) and looks much like a small country house with a side wine cellar.)

(After the three tours Wes and I rushed home and changed in the nick of time to grab a bottle of wine and a cheese platter and Domaine Chandon.)

(Watching the sunset over these grounds truly felt like a dream.

Domaine is known primarily for their sparkling wine, but since Wes and I aren't huge fan of 

the bubbly unless it's New Years Eve or in a mimosa, we opted for some very nice Pinot Noir.)

(Wes and I on the grounds before dinner.)

(Dinner at Etoile. What an experience.

This was by far the most composed meal of our trip and also prompted Wes

and I to cancel several other reservations in favor or more relaxed meals.

Although the food was good, it wasn't particularly either of our styles.)

;

(As you can see the presentations were absolutely beautiful.  This was actually a 5 course meal

(I forgot to take some pictures my bad.)

And by the time they brought the dessert out I just wanted to go to bed!

We were seated just after 6:00pm and started our walk home a little after 9:30pm

that is a long meal.)

After that much food there is nothing left to do but go to bed.

Until next time...