Tuesday, July 10, 2012

California Adventure - Napa/Sonoma Chapter

(disclaimer:  largely photo-based post ahead....)

Back again for another post on our California adventure!  I first shared stories and photos from our first day in San Francisco, and from there we were headed off to Sonoma for our first day of vineyard-hopping.  As I mentioned in an earlier post here Tony is a certified sommelier and one of those most impressive and knowledgeable wine experts I've ever met (and I'm Italian, I've been around a lot of vino in my 26 years), so he managed to plan out our sequence of wineries and tasting rooms perfectly by the kind of wine that was offered/specialized/featured at each one.  We started at La Crema in their tasting room and sampled about 10 wines total, among them being Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (my favorite red!), and then left to explore the adorable town of Healdsburg.  Our next steps in Sonoma included Seghesio, where we sampled the "Venom" wine from a snake-shaped decanter (!!), then Simi (one of my absolute favorite wines), and ended the day with dinner and delicious wine at Coppola Winery (yes, Francis Ford Coppola's winery!).  After dinner we checked into our room at Hotel Yountville and settled in for a good night's sleep before our looooong day in Napa the next day.  Our day in Napa consisted of four wineries, our favorite being Viader Vineyards (I'd be lying if I said our suitcases weren't a few lbs. over at the airport from some bottles of Viader's finest.....), and then FINALLY some relaxing time by the pool.



man loves his vino.



truth.

our gorgeous room in napa, complete with canopy bed, fireplace and our own, private terrace with a fountain!

casting notes from "The Godfather" at Coppola.

Castello di Amarosa


gorgeous cypress trees everywhere!

come oooooon, secret passageway.....



absolute heaven.

weeeeeee!  where to next?!


cheese-ball love : )


my "just go over there and introduce yourself to the owner so i can go pet that dog on the lawn" face.

a little sparkling to end our day,


meditation pool at our hotel in napa, lined with cypress trees and fire-lit stones

good-bye BEAUTIFUL napa!  Off to Hollywood  : )


Stay tuned for the next California post soon!  I promise it won't take as long as this one did to share  : )  Have a wonderful week, lovers!

2 comments:

  1. never feel like you have to apologize for a largely photo-based post; loved it! am thinking i'm on the same side as marge now. ha. your room with the canopy/patio looks AMAZing. and now i want to drink lots of wine.

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  2. LOVE your blog! LOVE your life. yet, still uber jealous of this trip... at least i know who to contact when i actually make a trip out there, and need tips = (wink wink) tony :)

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