The girlfriends' trip to Napa

Joy and I work together and went to Napa together and still like each other, so woohoo for us.  We decided to do most of our trip by the seat of our pants and it turned out a great way to plan (or NOT plan) our time.  I will list all our stops in Napa for wine and food so you can go check them out too!

Day 1- DEN-SFO; the day was playing tourist in San Francisco.  Joy had never been, I had but it had been YEARS.  We arrive, grab bags, grab rental car and head to In-n-Out burger for Joy’s first time!  Got the typical yum response.  We went to check in to our hotel (Westin SFO).  Quickly settled and we walked to the BART station and head downtown.  How to buy BART tickets is a whole blog post on its own, so if you are a visitor, just go ask someone for help right away.  I think I’m fairly well-travelled and can figure out public transport all over the world, just not in the Bay area.  We wander around downtown, Chinatown, take the cable car to the wharf and Pier 39, see the seals, eat some crepes.  We met up with a former co-worker (ish) of mine, Salma and had goofy fun.  Acted like kids.

(Joy with random German stranger posing in Chinatown)

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Day 2- Drive to Napa.  Our plan was to get an early-ish start, try to avoid traffic but to go over the Golden Gate Bridge.  That took us a little out of our way, but not much.  Pretty drive, easy drive.  We arrive in Napa at our hotel (Westin Verasa) and check in.  While I am checking in, Joy is chatting with the concierge.  There was a wine-tasting tour leaving in 15 minutes and we were on it.  Yup, seat of our pants alright!  The tour was simple.  We were on a little bus, had our driver and 12 new friends and we went vineyard to vineyard all day long.  Our driver Seth from Platypus tours was an awesome guide.  Friendly, informative, etc.  We stopped at several great places, I will details those in a list below.  We got a great room upgrade (full kitchen, 2 full bathrooms, deck overlooking the pool, etc.).

(Rainbow tunnels on drive to Napa)

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Day 3- No wine train.  We had hoped to spend this day on the wine train, going from winery to winery.  This is where our spontaneity plan didn’t work in our favor…or so we thought.  There was no room for us on the train until long after we left town.  I tweeted my despair, the wine train replied with ideas and we set off to go stomp some grapes at Grgich Hills Estates.  It was cheesy and it was fun.  We took the tasting tour, learned about the wines, tasted them, learned the history of Napa wine and how Grgich Hills won against the French and started a whole Napa wine movement.  At the end of our tour, Mr. Grgich showed up!  He was a kind and sweet man and it was great to meet a living legend.  Definitely made it ok that we missed the wine train.  We headed back to Napa, took a random turn and drove over a mountain and back.  Saw some great scenery, redwoods.

(Redwoods)

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Day 4- Pool day.  We slept in, relaxed by the pool.  We walked to the market and ate some yummy food, then went back to the pool.  Walked to dinner.  It was a nice last full day of our trip.

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Day 5.  This was travel day and we really had nothing planned except a long winding way from Napa to SFO.  We set off in a general direction we needed, turned here, turned here and wound up in Cupertino.  We did the requisite stop at One Infinite Loop (I made a catty comment on Apple software and infinite loops).  We had a quick stop for lunch at In-n-Out.

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Here’s our list of food and wine and my opinion of each of them.

Black Stallion Winery- We learned here about the grapes and the soils; Seth gave us a great lesson about the growing seasons and such.  The wines here were yummy and it was the second stop on the tour, we started to loosen up and learn more about each other.  There were rows and rows of grapes next to the terrace where we had our tasting.  You could up right up and eat them, noting the differences and putting together the tastes of the grapes to the wines.

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Dominari Winery- Who knew wine could smell like bacon?  Not me.  Well, and I still just have to take their word for it, since I am not the one in a bazillion that could smell the bacon-scented wine.  If I had, then apparently I would have quit my job and become a professional smeller.  The owner of the winery delivered our tasting and gave great stories about the history of her family’s winery.

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Grgich Hills Estates- Driving by the estate it LOOKS like what you’d expect a Napa winery to look.  Some old, some new.  You walk in past the huge wooden doors and are immediately almost overwhelmed by the smell of wine.  Lots and lost of wine.  There are barrels and barrels of wine, rack after rack.  The store/tasting area opened right up the racks of barrels.  This was probably my favorite tasting.  The tour guide knew her stuff, she had been at many of the Napa wineries.  We got great Napa history, great Grgich Hills history.  At the end of this tour we met the legendary Mr. Grgich, took some pictures, chatted about wine.  It was one of my favorite parts of our trip.

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Razi Winery- First stop on our Platypus tour.  I am a wine kinda girl, but this was my first actual tasting.  I had read the books and thought I knew what to expect.  This was not what I got.  I expected the big ole spitting barrel in the middle of the room of some dark cellar.  It was a brightly lit room, very welcoming.  We got a brief explanation of the wines as we were tasting them.  Had this not been my first, I might have gotten more out of it, but I would certainly go back.

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Signorello Estates- First thing you notice here is the view, it is stunning.  The wines had stories, and Bob our server (is that the word for the person that gives you the wine at the tastings?) was nice, welcoming.  you could tell he enjoyed his work.  He also snuck Joy a taste of a rather expensive wine.  The sip she got could have bought more than a couple of Happy Meals.

(at Signorello, whole place looked just as wonderful)

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(with our trusty tour guide Seth at our last stop)

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Azzurro Pizzeria- Our first Napa dinner.  Yummy pizza, but rather limited menu.  You go for pizza, you get pizza.  Good pizza. High end of affordable prices.  Good wine.

Ca’Momi Enoteca- we walked here on our pool day for lunch.  Was good food and good service.  High end of ok lunch prices, but we had wine with lunch, so that makes the total higher of course.

Cole’s Chop House- yummy, but rather typical expensive steak house.  Very Morton’s-esque, same price range.  Great service.  And here we met the waiter from Cuvee, where we went the next night.

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Cuvee- This was a quick walk from our hotel.  We met a waiter from here the night before and he wanted to bring us free food and drinks.  Then a local lady walked (ok, staggered) to our table, sat for an hour or more chatting and buying us expensive glasses of wine.  She invited us out somewhere, we declined and offered to call her a taxi.

Tra Vigne- yum yum yum yum.  We had lunch here on our way to Grgich Hills and our lunch was appetizers.  From the huge hunk of warm mozzarella to my fried risotto balls, yum from beginning to end.  Great service, high end of middle price range.  (almost drooling right now just remembering the yum here)

(mmmm, risotto balls)

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I call this picture the saddest in all of Napa…a drop of wasted wine.

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