In April we took a trip to the Napa Valley in Northern California. We stayed with Greg's cousin Tersilla and her husband Clay at their Napa vineyard "Inherit the Sheep" and they were both absolutely wonderful hosts.
The first winery we visited was Chateau Montelena, one of the oldest Napa wineries and one that helped put the Napa wine region on the world map when their Chardonnay beat the French in a tasting in 1976.
Thanks to Tersilla and Clay we were privileged to have a personal tour of the facility where we got to see the fermenting room (on far left), taste wine straight from the barrels, and enjoy a private tasting including wine from their "library collection" of aged wines. We then enjoyed a picnic lunch (with more wine of course!) on the beautiful grounds of the winery (on left).
Our next stop was the Regusci winery, another of the oldest wineries in the valley, know as "ghost wineries". There was a beautiful view out over the valley, and of course more wine to drink!
The next day we visited some more wineries for more tastings, including Baldacci and Cardinale. Since Cardinale is owned by the company that Clay works for we were able to taste some of their best wines and tour the grounds of the winery.
Cardinale is located on top of a small hill in the center of the valley it affords amazing views over the valley. The views look even better with a glass of wine!
On our last day we visited the Mondavi winery. The owner, Robert Mondavi, was instrumental in helping to establish and promote the Napa wine region. It is a beautfiul winery and in addition to the usual winery attraction it houses an extensive display of art.
We took a tour of the Mondavi winery and saw the vines up close (with the little bunches of grapes just sprouting), the barrel room, the bottling factory, and then we got to taste several wines.
After our weekend in Napa we stopped in San Francisco on our way back to Pasadena to see our friends Jeff, Katie, and Ging-Li. Although it was a brief visit we all had fun catching up.
