Vacation 2008 part one

So about my vacation...

We began the trip on friday at a little after noon. Most of the day was getting our stuff together and then driving the 6hrs north. along the way we stopped at a place called Harris Ranch and had some late lunch.

The first stop on the vacation was a city near Sacramento where Sarah's parents live. We spent Saturday and Sunday morning with the parents going out to eat and shopping at craft fairs and a convenient street fair. I bought a clock/barometer/temperature gauge/relative humidity thingy.

Next was Napa Valley. We blew into town at about 4pm on sunday. We checked into our hotel south of Napa and headed on up to winery row to squeeze in some tastings. We hit Robert Mondavi and Peju Provence befor 6:00pm by which time all the tasting rooms were closed.

Let me pause here to explain what wine tasting in Napa Valley is like. Highway 29 runs right down the middle of Napa Valley, and the more famous wineries have vineyards and tasting rooms along this strip. As you drive north from napa city, the buildings are replaced by far reaching rows of grape vines. Every quarter to half mile there is a winery/tasting room. The winerys are as individual as the wines themselves. Most are fairly large buildings surrounded by rows of vines. The vines themselves are closely cropped and tightly maintained. The most common form (and again they vary by vineyard) is a 2 foot trunk that splits to to arms which have many spurs that go up about 3 feet further and have green leaves. We arrived after harvest but before the vines really started to lose their leaves, so most vines had little or no grapes, and most had green or yellow leaves. You drive past these vines and park your car. Then you enter the tasting room through what are usually large wooden doors, step up to the bar and taste some wine.

The second day we made it out to 5 wineries which is about the practical limit if you plan on staying under the legal limit. We went to Beaulieu Vineyards, Grgich Hills, Franciscan, Louis M. Martini and a smaller winery called Milat Vineyards. We had to take a break after Louis M. Martini. We took a walk to a nearby A&W and got some late lunch before continuing on. The wine tasting was fun. It was interesting geting a chance to try 3+ wines and talk a little about the vineyard or the founder or whatever. We took a tour at the Franciscan where we saw the fermentation tanks, french oak ageing barrels and tasted a few of the remaining grapes on a couple of different kinds of vines.

The third day in Napa Valley was only a half day, because we were headed out to San Fransisco. We managed a couple of tastings anyway. First we went to Robert Mondavi again to buy a Pino Noir that Sarah really liked. We took the tour there, which was exellent. First we got a little history on the Mondavi family and the vineyard, then we walked out to the vineyard and talked about the grape growing process and the vines themselves. Next we walked through the building where they ferment the wine, age, and bottle it. Last, there was a tasting of four Mondavi wines mostly purchased grapes from the carneros region in south napa valley. Then we drove over to the Charles Krug which was owned by Peter Mondavi, Robert's brother. After that we headed on out of the valley.

Thats all for now. I will write more later.