Day 35 - Let’s Not Wine About It

The day I was looking forward to most this trip had arrived.. ah yes, fabulous wine tasting in Napa and Sonoma Valley! I forget the name of the first winery but it was a beautiful property and we tried some tasty whites! I especially liked a dessert red but decided not to buy it.

The tour guide taught us the correct way to do a tasting which is to hold the glass at the stem, because if you hold the glass it will warm up and change the flavor of the wine. I also learned that rose and red are made virtually the same, but to make it a rose you take the grape peel off after a few days and for a red you leave it on much longer.

As we walked around, we saw exotic looking birds in cages and cool fountains around the property. We even got a second round of tastings inside! Our next winery, Andretti, reminded me of when I was in Tuscany with the buildings and trees!

Our tour guide of this winery, John, was super knowledgable and funny! He taught us the correct way to taste wine. Also holding it at the stem, you swirl it around to get the aromas to release, hover your hand over the glass to then smell the wine and get a good wiff. After that you swish a little of the wine in your mouth to cleanse your palette and then you can take your first sip. I’m going to try that the next time I taste wine at a fancy restaurant 😉🍷.

We walked around the grape vines which were super pretty!

Next stop was lunch in a little town called Yountville. Jordan found a tasty mexican style restaurant where we got to sit outside! The final winery of the day was at a winery called Madona estate. The tasting started in a room with all the wine barrels then we went into the tasting room where we tried lots of different wines including a tasty rose and a dessert wine that I ended up buying.

As we started making our way back to SF, we saw some smoke in the distance so the driver decided to go a different route. We were shocked to find out the next day how devastating the forest fire hit in that area. It is so sad to learn how common they are in California.

Once we returned back to SF we took a few pictures at Deloris Park again and then went to Jordan’s apartment to get a few sunset views on his rooftop and to get my leftover Pad Thai 😝🍝