Day Two

It's official ...we're moving to Napa Valley.

Just kidding (don't worry, Mom)

But seriously, this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  Probably second only to Africa.  And a close second at that.  The land is so fertile and the country side is just breathtaking.  Stuart and I drove past a vineyard that was for sale today and gave a quick thought to dropping our jobs/school and buying it!

Anyway, today has flown by, and we wound up doing everything we wanted to do/see/taste today!  Here's a quick overview:


10AM - Robert Mondavi Vineyards for a tour and education on wine making.  Mondavi is famous around the country for his affordable wines that are actually good.  In Napa Valley he's famous for bringing back the wine-making business after Prohibition was repealed.  While we were here we "followed the path" of the grape from the vine to the bottle and learned all the science behind wine making.  It was so fascinating and definitely helped us appreciate wine better.  We then tasted a couple varietals and learned the proper way to taste wine (mark that off the culinary life list!!)

The vines have just been pruned this time of year, but theyre still beautiful!

St Francis, the patron saint of missionaries, who were the first wine makers in Napa =)

Cabernet Sauvignon vines

You may recognize this picture from bottles at your local grocery store

Mondavi was also the site of our first wine country faux pas.

When we got there we took a few minutes to stroll and saw these on the ground.

Stuart proclaimed, "Look!  Grapes!"

Then we both looked up and realized ... it was an olive tree.  Oops.

Anyway, it was really neat touring around and seeing the wine making process in detail.  We learned so much!

The "Teaching Vineyard"

Stuart's favorite room: The French Oak holding tanks.  After the wine is fermented here it heads off to ...

Smaller Oak barrels to be aged.  Each barrel holds 300 bottles of wine!

CS = barrel maker.  MT = Medium Toast of the inside of the barrel which enhances the flavoring/aging process

Part of our wine tasting was pairing wine with food.  This was a delish mini lamb burger which nicely complimented the rich Cabernet!

1130AM - We headed to downtown Napa where we walked around a bit, and then met my friend Birdy and her husband Jamie for lunch!!  I hadn't seen her since we were in Tanzania a couple summers ago, so it was such a blessing to get to visit again!  We all chatted over some delish tapas at a place called Zuzu's, then walked a bit to get some ice cream.

**Side note - Stuart and I have put our Lenten dessert fast "on hold" for this week.  There are too many delicious things here to not try them!

Birdy and me on the banks of the Napa River

230PM - Stuart and I hopped in our Corolla and drove back up the valley to Frog's Leap Winery.  This is a vineyard/farm that only uses organic growing methods for their products.  We definitely learned a lot here about how complex that can make the grape growing process.  This was probably our favorite event of the day!  They produce a great product, and the tour guide was most hilarious.

We got to wear sweet sun hats on the tour

View from the barn where they age the wines

A bit more rustic vineyard, brought to you by sustainable farming!

500PM - We drove to downtown St Helena to do some window shopping.  We discovered this amazing store called Olivier, which makes their own olive oil, dipping sauces, pasta sauces, tampanades, etc etc.  The best part is that they have all of them up for sampling!  We grazed about the store while chatting with the owner and just had a great time getting free snacks.  We're definitely going to have to order a couple of things from them after we get back!

810PM - definitely the latest dinner we've ever had!  We dined tonight at a restaurant called Redd.  It's one of the "finer dining" establishments in Napa.  The meal was delish!  I had sunchoke soup to start and duck breast with blood orange jus.  Stuart had a chicken thigh with gnocchi to start and a stuffed quail for his entree.  Our only mistake was that because of all our snacking during the day, we werent at our maximum hungriness for dinner.  However, we powered through and made it through the meal just the same!

Day #3 coming soon ...