“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine
I have a long long list of places I want to visit - New Zealand, Jerusalem, Madrid, Canada, Ireland, Morocco, Crete, Vietnam...the list goes on and on and on. Zac and I made the decision this year to travel to a few of these places. First up --> Napa Valley!
A few reasons why Napa:
1. The weather
2. The scenery
3. The wine - Duh!
I have always had a love affair with wine. From production to consumption it truly is an art form celebrated since the days of Socrates, Zeus & Apollo.
When Zac and I travel we don't typically go with a set agenda, we have a few things in mind we might want to see or do - but for the most part - we just set out on a journey.
The two things I knew we had to do while in Napa:
1. Wine tasting by bike
2. Wine tasting in a cave
We took a TON of pictures...and there will be video coming soon...be afraid.
Drinking Wine in a 100 Year Old Cave:
Del Dotto Winery
The wines of Del Dotto are barreled in the 2nd oldest cave in California. It is absolutely insane how different a wine can taste depending on the barrel it is fermented in. We tasted Cabernets made from the same grape...from the same part of the same vineyard....but one was barreled in a 200 year old American oak barrel and the other was barreled in a 400 year French oak barrel. It tasted like a completely different wine. After the wine sits in these barrels for a few years they are all bottled and labeled by hand.
Drinking & Riding: 10 Mile Vineyard Wine TourZac & I rented a couple of bikes in Yountville, just outside of Napa. Equipped with a map and a camera we set off through the valleys of Napa to taste some wine. It was absolutely gorgeous! The ride became progressively slower the more wine we tasted.....
The Mondavi Vineyard
1st stop on the bike tour and also one of my favorite California Cabernets
The Hike:We woke up on our last day in Napa and went for a hike in the hills. After we made it to the top we decided to run to the bottom - SO FUN!
We tasted so many different varieties of wine & I learned so much more about wine in our short time in Napa. BUT knowledge of the vine can only be shared...and appreciated....over a glass of vino.
2 comments:
We just went and I'm pretty sure it's one of my favorite vacations yet! Great, great pictures! I need to hear about the bike tour. It sounds fun, but I was nervous about my driving capabilities after a few wineries. :)
@ Lea - So fun! The bike tour was pretty cool. But it did take some focus haha ;)
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