Taking on New Adventures

My really good friend, Amy, moved to San Francisco a little over a year after I moved to New Orleans. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to visit her. Until now.

She called me over the summer and invited me to her rental home in Napa for the weekend, and Chuck and I immediately said yes. The dates of the trip came on the tail end of a beer festival trip to Vegas we had hoped to do. Then about a month before the trip, we found out about a work trip for Chuck to Hawaii.

It all worked out. We started our trip with a night in LA, then did 6 days in Hawaii, a week in Vegas and finally flew to San Francisco to start our weeken0d wine adventure with Amy and her husband, Gary.

After spending the afternoon at their house and evening at a great restaurant called Old Skool Cafe. The restaurant’s goal is to help kids learn skills they need for employment both in and out of the hospitality industry. It’s a great program, total speakeasy supper club style, and the kids we met were fantastic. The next day, we hit the road to Napa and started our adventure.

The house they rented is amazing. It’s a Tuscan-style villa that backs up to a vineyard and has the most amazing views. We did a little grocery shopping, and got ready for our dinner at Brix, just outside of Yountville. Dinner was amazing and we had some outstanding wines there. We made our way back to the house, popped open more wine and relaxed in the hot tub. It was so fun catching up and drinking some wines we don’t normally get in New Orleans.

Saturday morning started off with a quick hike not far from our home. The hike was a bit harder for me and Chuck since it involved a little hill, which is not normal where we live. But the views were really cool and we loved being outside in the crisp air. On the way, there was a bit of drama with a hot air balloon so that definitely was an interesting start to the day.

We got ready and drove the hour and a half to Sonoma to grab lunch and wine at Russian River Vineyards. We sat outside overlooking the vineyards and were joined by Gary’s mom and their friend, Vivek. There were some awesome Pinot Noirs on our list and we tried a few other varietals along with our lunch. We said goodbye to Gary’s mom and made our way to the next (and final) winery of the day.

We made our way to St. Helena for a stop at Stonestreet. What a beautiful spot. When we walked in, we found out we had the private tasting room and jumped into the tasting. There was not a wine I disliked but there were a couple that were amazing. Chuck and I promptly joined the wine club and bought a bottle to bring home with us now. We look forward to our first haul next year.

We headed back to the house and finished the night with dinner there and more wine and hot tub time. The Saturday ended with a lot of laughs and some great food that the guys grilled for us.

On Sunday, we had plans for two more vineyards a bit closer to the home. So after a chill morning, we got ready and headed to the first stop, Domaine Carneros, for some bubbly flights and a pinot noir flight for Chuck. The chateau was beautiful and we were able to sit outside and soak in the sun and the beautiful views.

After that, we made our way to Del Dotto Winery and Caves. What a fun place to go. I learned a lot about barreling wines here and we tasted quite a few directly from the barrels. It was very interesting tasting the difference in the oaks and how they changed the complexion of the wines. The tour, which was really fun as well as informative, ended with another glass of wine and some pizza. This was a great way to end our tasting.

We finished out our Napa trip with another night in the hot tub, some of Amy’s famous Ooey Gooey cheese dip and more wine.

Prior to this trip, I had only been to one vineyard in Sonoma and one in Napa. I really didn’t have much of a sense of how things would be here, or what the experience would be like. I highly recommend having someone who knows the area plan out your trip. I cannot wait to go back and try even more great wines at some different vineyards.