We started out today at 7:30am. A little later start than we were hoping for, but hey it's day one, give us a break. We got on I-5N pretty fast and drove through the San Fernando Valley. Ok, so we didn't take the coastal route, but we got to Napa in time for a vineyard tour! Along the road, we were both appalled to see more than one cattle farm chock full of cows knee deep in their own excrement. Yes folks, our nations food supply is fucked. I (Jesse) saw our very first cowboy hat drive by along what seemed to be a fruit orchard. There are a ton around these parts! Peaches, mandarins, walnuts, olives, almonds, strawberries, lemons and of course sweet white corn...photos later. I (Jesse again) noticed that Maura likes the open road. She claims to be all about the rules of driving. NOT SO. Once she saw that great open wide expanse in front of her, there was no stopping her (and champ 2!) Actually, there could be stopping her. That would be the aircraft enforced radar that we noticed only after driving 10-15 miles over the speed limit for an hour or so. YIKES.
Rule #1 for the trip that we learned just today is that eating lunch is better than eating carrots and water. Yes, ok, we want to look hot when we get home, but not at the expense of good lunches. I (Jesse) was getting very very very concerned about time. We called ZD Winery, a place that does Eco Tours, but they were booked. Instead, Dustin, at ZD, suggested Frog's Leap Winery. This is up past Yountville and before St. Helena. We turned onto Rutherford Road off of CA-29 just in time and hit paradise. We approached the gorgeous main house and joined our tour. The main house is the first in California to get LEED certification. This makes it an Eco-Friendly building. It was even insulated with old scraps of denim and worn jeans!
John, the owner, has been organically farming wine and produce for over 20 years (before it was cool). Shannon, our tour guide, showed us how the natural precipitation of the area made it possible to farm without irrigation. Apparently, the roots go down close to 15 feet where as other irrigated farms have vines only going down about 3 feet. This affects the taste and the quality of the grapes. Mondavi and Beringer, more popular and larger, vineyards in the area spill more wine than Frog's Leap produces in a year! Frog's Leap produces about 60,000 cases of wine. All their grapes are picked by hand and their staff consists of 45 workers including hospitality and administration! The ultimate production crew. The Sauvignon Blanc was first in the tasting and the BEST. Maura even liked it a little. Fortunately for Jesse, Maura passed over some of her left over vino. Needless to say Maura drove us out of there!
We arrived at our B&B around 5 and got a quick tour complete with a chocolate chip cookie. We are spending the night in Paris. Let me explain. So, our suite is called A Night in Paris. We are sleeping on a canapy bed also known as a cloud and it's HUGE. We went to dinner on Shannon's recommendation at UVA, an italian restaurant off of main street. It was excellent! We are exhausted from our first day of madness, but happy, excited and full (NOW).
No comments:
Post a Comment