Napa

Wine country! The only place I knew for sure I wanted to go to was Robert Mondavi and I didn't make there today.  I arrived in Napa at around 11am and apparently that's too late for these alcoholics because all the tours start at 10.  So I decided to head to the Castello di Amorosa 'The Castle of Love' because the one of the greatest tours around.  This place was gorgeous and a full on castle with a torture chamber, dungeons, and a moat!  Again, it's another place where I got a handful of questions as to why I was there alone.  I guess most people don't go wine tasting in Napa Valley alone, but I don't really have a choice in the matter do I?

After the castle I headed to Sterling Vineyards, which I found out later was the not the one with Opus One.  They had a gondola that took you up to the winery and beautiful views of Napa Valley.  Compared to the castle tour it was a huge monstrosity and the tour was self-guided so...you figure that one that.  I did have one of the employees Clint take a photo of me with a huge glass of wine and tell me that he managed another winery up the road called Romeo's and I should go there and mention his name.  It was only a mile away so I did and I walk into this little place and there was only a bartender, Nate and one couple Janine and Rick there.  I never learned so much about wine!  Rick is studying to be a sommelier, which I happen to find fascinating, and he talked to me all about.  First of all, I don't think my nose can even detect some the smells you are suppose to be noticing!  I was explaining to him that today was really the first time someone has explain to me the wine making process in detail, unlike the beer process which I feel you hear at every brewery.  I really lucked out having them there because they were wine club members and friends of Nate so I tried a bunch of the reserves and definitely more than the 5 tastings.

After talking to people in Napa a bit more they suggest it is better to go to small boutique wineries than to big names like Robert Mondavi and Beringer because you want to try wine you can't get anywhere else.  For example Castello di Amorosa is not sold anywhere.  It is only for sale at the castle, a barrel was on sale for $11,688!  A barrel contains about 300 bottles of wine and is only good for two years before it goes bad.  So pretty much you have to have a bottle a day, costing about $40/day.

As Janine and Rick were leaving another couple came in from Denver.  They were on vacation and left their one year daughter, Aubrey home.  They were doing a bit of traveling too, visiting Portland and SF, so the three of us decided to go to dinner together and continue chatting.  Turns out Amanda left her job at Target because she was trying to become a store manager and she felt like they were playing games with her.  I appreciated the fact that they were taking this trip.  You could tell they missed their daughter terribly, but you often don't see young parents taking any time for themselves.  Tomorrow I am going to head to Muir Woods which are kind of like the Redwoods but closer!

Song of the day "Birdland" Weather Report.  Over the weekend Team Ween all jammed into an Uber dancing to this song and having a great time with the driver.  It was lots of fun and so is this song, have a listen!

Sorry for the late post....I fell asleep at 9pm writing this blog...must have been all the red wine....arooo woooooo!!

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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/cteijelo/playlist/1uNEjK1mra1y0s3gAkTEZ4