Napa Valley and Sonoma...so many wineries...so little time!

Our stop for five days in Napa was far too short! I liked the campground, nice big grassy areas, no rules about where dogs could visit and coaches nicely spaced! Mom and Dad loved visiting the wineries, for their beautiful grounds and buildings as much as the wines...Mom will tell you all about it!

One of our first stops was Jamieson Ranch Winery in Napa. The wines were very good and if their wine club had allowed us to hold wine, we might have joined. We did buy a few bottles of our favorites. The exciting draw for us were the miniature therapy horses who were so special. The wine proprietor gives back to the community by taking these horses to hospitals, nursing homes and Veterans hospitals and having special needs children come visit the winery.

 

Another winery we enjoyed was a Domaine Caneros where we tried some nice champagnes! It's nice to be able to try tastes from some bottles that are too expensive for us to buy! The grounds were stunning....

We went to the Andretti Winery because we had a 2 for 1 tasting coupon but we were pleasantly surprised. Yes, owned by the famed race car driver, Mario, the wines were fabulous but expensive. They only produce about 23,000 cases a year. We opted to not purchase but the person who helped us was so knowledgeable, we learned a lot about the different wine regions in Northern California. As far as the tasting cost, when we were here 25 years ago almost all the smaller wineries were free and even the big ones were only $5...now almost every winery charges $25 per person to taste, a bit steep so choosing carefully became important!

We joined the Trefethen Wine Club 25 years ago, a dirt road took us up to the tasting barn back then. About five years later they were not allowed to ship to Virginia, a Virginia call, as VA was promoting their own wines, so we lost our membership. We looked forward to our return. In 2014 Trefenthen was almost wiped out with an earthquake...they are still rebuilding the original tasting room and they lost so many of their vines and wines. We were fortunate to do our tasting in the restored family house and happy they are back in full production mode with 65,000 cases a year and no longer an old barn for tasting and a long asphalt drive lined by trees. We were also happy to know they can once again ship to VA so we are back in our wine club! Our wine pourer came from AK so we had much to talk about as she let us try many, many wines😊!

We went to the Castle Winery, Castello di Amerosa, on a whim to see the castle...quite a Napa landmark. We had no idea this was a serious winemaker who really knows his business. We loved every wine we tasted, white and red varietals! The Castle was cool too...

The tasting was as much fun as the tour. Our wine pourer didn't worry about how many pours and we got to try many varietals with side by side comparisons of regular and reserve. This Italian fellow loved his job and he was a good salesman as we bought a case!

Probably our most disappointing vineyard was Berringer. Since we drink it regularly at home we thought it would interesting. The wines they serve are not those of the million barrels they sell nationwide. None were impressive and the wine pourer seemed to not really want to be there. We bought nothing!

While we visited several wineries, we did get out and about too! We went down to Muir Woods National Monument to tour the beautiful 1000 year old Redwood Sequoia Trees, protected since 1908 when Muir Woods opened. It was peaceful and serene and another beautiful area we are so lucky to have in the U.S.

We also headed down to Sausalito for a wonderful Dungeness Crab lunch at the Spinnaker with a view through a light fog of San Franscisco, Oakland and their respective bridges. While there, we visited old friends from Learning As Leadership. Unexpectedly, they asked me to speak to the seminar group about my experiences...great memories of some hard work our NASA Langley Senior Leadership Team did to transform our Center a number of years ago.

Our last day in Napa we went up the Sonoma Valley, such a beautiful drive!

We stopped at one of our favorite wineries, Sonoma Cutrer. 

It was neat because they had a croquet tournament, no white clothes, we couldn't play!!

We enjoyed the wines so much we joined their club...that's three now, time to leave wine country!! We did make one more stop, Ledson, built by a builder for his personal 16,000 sq ft home but so many folks stopped during building to see if it was a winery that he turned it into one!

We didn't taste here, but a beautiful stop! Tomorrow we head to Crescent City, CA, on the coast where it's 64 deg!