I love Napa...

Napa….Lisa and I had a GREAT time! OMG – I drank more wine in 4 days than I probably have all year. It was so much fun. The group we were with was small – maybe 20 people! This included peeps who brought guests. I was VERY lucky! Lisa did not know anyone outside the wine people that were setting it up with their company. Everyone else that was not a guest of someone was in the same position as Lisa in that this was an incentive trip. Funny though – there were TWO people from her company but they worked out of Austin, TX. She’d never met them before.

Anyway, we got in on Thursday morning (9/25) , got our rental car, and went straight to a sparking house (Domaine Carnaros) for a glass of champagne, two actually.

Then we had an appointment for a tasting and tour at Nickel & Nickel. Very cool place; good wine.

Then a bite to eat followed by another tour and small tasting at Dominus. I did not like their wine but their building was very cool. We met a friend of Lisa’s for dinner that night at an Italian place. More wine. Friday morning we had breakfast then a spa treatment (courtesy of the sponsoring winery!). Then we had two more appointments Lisa had set up: first at Darioush (amazing winery – the building was spectacular (palatial-like) and the wine pretty darned good, too); no tour here. Then we inhaled lunch and went to the second tasting and mini-tour at Joseph Phelps. More good wine AND an amazing set up. That night we had a short happy hour with the group (first meeting with them) then we were bussed off to dinner at a winery (Franciscan) where we were greeted with glasses of wine. Franciscan has their own chef and staff. Very cool. The dinner was ‘murder mystery’ style and they had hired actors to put on a show while we were at dinner. The menu was hilarious – it incorporated the murder mystery theme and we ate ‘mystery meat' and later had to 'ID the cheese’. So funny. More good wine. Plus they sent us off with a plastic cup of wine if we wanted. I was ‘wined out’ by then though. Oh, the winemaker (a woman!) from Franciscan/Mount Veeder had dinner with us. I got a very good wine education. Saturday morning started with a bus trip up to Mount Veeder Vineyard – Mount Veeder Winery was the host of the whole weekend. Once up to the vineyard we hiked up through the vineyard to a picnic table area with a beautiful view.

There we were given, guess what? More wine. After lunch we hiked back down and headed out. Lisa and I had driven the car because we needed to make stops at two more winerys – Opus One so she could get Steve his favorite wine and back to Nickel & Nickel because she’d decided she wanted some of their wine. Then back to the hotel where we sat by the pool while we waited for Lisa’s turn to go up in the helicopter for a tour of the Mount Veeder Vineyard and surrounding area. I went for a run. It was HOT out! Then we met back at the hotel and went back to the pool where we had mimosas with the champagne we had purchased at Domaine Carnaros on Thursday. Then it was time to get ready for dinner. Another quick happy hour then on to the bus for a ride to a house owned by one of the Mount Veeder related companies where the chef and staff from the night before took care of us. We were greeted with wine and served another amazing meal and…more wine. They had a 10 year vertical of one particular cabernet. It was SO cool. I did not get through all 10 years but did manage to try 6 of them. LOL Sunday (9/28) we were up early to get ready to head out. Our flight left at about 10AM. I was home by 7PM that night. Whew! What a whirlwind. I felt SO spoiled. It was just amazing!! I got a very good wine education – between Lisa and the other people we met; just fascinating actually. I brought home almost a case of wine. That will last for a few…months!?!?