We ate breakfast in the room (bread and fruit from the farmer's market in San Francisco)because we had to be at a meeting that morning to get some info on the resort. In exchange, we got a package for either two for one tastings or free tastings at various wineries. Fortunately for us, they overbooked the presentation, so we got the package of free wine tastings and got to leave early! We started south again, going to Madonna Estates, one of the oldest wineries in the area, family run, and organic. We picked up quite a few bottles from there, and really enjoyed the reserve wine tasting. They had a piniot grigio variety, not a very abundant grape for the area, but one of my mom's favorites, so we got a bottle for her.
We went back to V. Sattui Winery and ate lunch outside. A few years ago, Rachel Ray featured this place on her show. There was a cute Hollywood actress and her spiffed up boyfriend there grabbing a bite to eat also. We split a sandwich and a few different salads and did another wine tasting. Their wine is a little more reasonably priced than other places we have been. Leaving there, we went to their sister winery, owned by the same man, which was a castle.
We toured the castle and enjoyed it more than I thought we would. The wine tasting there was very, very good. Mark got the reserve wine tasting, and sampled some very, very expensive wine. They even broke out some chocolates (one kind had sea salt in it- wow!) for us to see how chocolate and wine are pared and change the flavor of the wine. I was very impressed with this tasting. The setting was great! We spent quite a while there, and picked out a case to have shipped to us.
We also stopped by Peju winery which had some great sculptures on the grounds. The wine there was very good and a little pricier, but I really liked their cabernet sauvignon. We slipped in to St. Supery for a quick tasting and walked away with two whites - very fresh and not too sweet. After a full day of wine tasting, we headed out of Napa Valley to Sonoma to meet some college friends for dinner. What a treat! We went to college with Keoke (although we knew him as George. He was one of our Campus Crusade buddies) and he went on staff with Crusade after college. He has recently gone back to college as his life is taking a different path, and it was great to catch up and discuss our life's journeys after all these years. We had met his wife Chris several years back and it was great to get to know her a little better. She is as cool as I remember, and great to hang out with. They wanted us to try a restaurant called The Girl and The Fig. It was a very good restaurant, very California-ish. The food was delish! A memorable night, as it is always hearwarming to be in the presence of old friends.
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