A trip to Napa, with a long drive home.

For the most part these post have been in order. Somewhere in between I had done a work road trip to Northern California and when I was done with my work I took some time to myself. Here's a little of what I did........


I drank and ate what else do you think I did? You do know how is writing this stuff right.

OK, so my little adventure started on a Friday, I think it was June but I cant really remember, all though I could find out if I really cared. So any way. What else am I going to do when I'm done with work and and I'm an Hour from Napa. Time to wine taste!!!!!!!

My first stop of course always is Domaine Chandon, I really like this place. The tasting room has an amazing view looking out on the garden and out to the valley and mountains. Of course I was flying solo so my wine tasting Indian name was "tastes alone", no offense. Normally the service is great but this day i must have looked like a leper cause it took forever for service, but I was thirsty so I would wait, the sparkling wine is good, and their still wine is nice as well. It was just an off day so I said screw it did my tastings and booked it over to Girard.

Girard has a tasting room in Yountville which I would love to live in. The tasting room is medium size but the wine is great. I really enjoy their Old Vine Zinfindel (lots of black fruit on the nose)and Petite Syrah (nice and dark looks like ink, heavy on the tongue super mellow) which goes great with dark chocolate. One of my favorites is one they call Mixed Blacks, it got its name from the vineyard where it grows. That is because it is a century old vineyard with mixed varietals. Some of the tasting notes are dark plum with soft tannins and warm spices on the palate.

From here I headed over to Silverado trail where I discovered Silverado Vineyards High atop a hill looking down on the valley. The first time I had come here I was at the tasting bar and the wine maker came up with a bottle from the cellar that had their first Sangiovese Rose and they gave me some to try. That really makes an impression on me and will keep me coming back just because of that. On this day I took my wine out to the patio with me and just enjoyed the view.

Next stop was a reserve tasting at Stags Leap wine Cellars, not to be mistaken as Stags leap winery, two different places. So I decided to splurge and I paid for the Estate tasting and it was amazing, big delicious cabs that made my mouth water and want a nice med rare steak. I also lucked out this day because the assistant wine maker was pouring for me so I was able to ask him all about the wine and get answers from someone who is hands on. Needless to say after this is was lunch time, so I headed back over to Yountville.

I had lunch at Hurleys, which had a great patio area and of course wines from the area, but lunch called for an Ice tea and a burger I know boring but it was so good. Nice think patty with thick bacon and blue cheese, yummmy. I ended the afternoon at Mumm another one of my favorite places, their sparkling wine is very good and they view from the patio is so nice.

Now I had intended to stay the night in napa but couldn't find a good hotel rate so I just got on the freeway and started driving south. Now I keep saying oh the next town will have cheaper room no the next one. Well this lasted till I had to go to the bathroom and I ended up in Paso Robles. Now Ive never been wine tasting in Paso and wish I would have stayed but I miss understood what my boss had needed for me to do so I had decided that the next morning I would drive through Santa Barbra area and wine taste there on my way home .

The Santa Barbara area has some great wineries in its region. I love the Estate Chardonnay from Riverbench, and the Grenach from Beckman. After Sideways had come out it unfortunately changed the whole area. Prices went up and people became juice boxes, Hollywood will do that to you I guess. I had lunch at a place called Roblars, I'm not a real big fan of their wine but the restaurant they have has great food. I again went with a burger but no ordinary burger.

This Burger was ground pork and apple burger with romaine lettuce, caramelized onions smoked mozzarella with apples sauteed in brandy. I drank this with Their 2007 Sauvigon Blanc, it was dry but not sweet, low acid and overall just kinda mediocre. The water was nice though, it was infused with cucumber. So after lunch I started the long drive back to San Diego, oh the joys of LA traffic.

It was a fun trip, nice to get out and just go . Oh and I looked it up, this was from May, damn I'm lazy

Id love to hear about some of your wine tasting adventures!

Until next time.............Eat Drink and be Rudy.