. . . I've been told that I write novels for email messages. Perhaps this is the way to go. I'll try to make each entry, or Gemstone, a "precious" one. On mediocre days, all I might be able to produce is a "semi-precious" entry. In any case, an entry might be a "neat" Gemstone--something that is uniquely mine.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Wine Tasting Day

They've won many awards at this
winery over the years.

We spent yesterday at a winery in St. Helena that has been our favorite for 20 years. When living and attending school at UC Davis we would take weekend trips to Napa and always stopped at V. Sattui Winery (Vittorio Sattui). They have such a beautiful location with a picnic area and beautiful flowers everywhere as well as a deli and wine tasting bar. The only things that have changed in 20 years is the wine has gotten even better tasting and what used to be free wine tasting now has a cost ($5 for 5 wines on a standard “menu” or $10 for 6 wines from their select menu). They still do not sell their wines outside of their winery.

A building at the winery. I love the vines
growing up the building.
Of course we had to taste from their select menu, which meant that between the two of us, we tasted 12 wines total with sharing each taste. In actuality, we tasted 14 wines because our tasting "bartender" told us we "just had to try this one too" for two extra wines.

I especially liked the Early Harvest Dry Riesling, Off-dry White Riesling, Gamay Rouge, Pinot Noir, Merlot, 35th Anniversary Zinfandel, Vittorio’s Vinyard Cabernet, and the dessert wines Muscat and Muscato (Frizzante, meaning that it was kind of like champagne with its fizz). We ended up buying a half a dozen bottles that we’re sure we’ll drink before we have to go back to New Mexico next week.

I believe these are Hydrangeas.
Water-loving flowers like these don't
grow in NM!
We were able to do a little cheese tasting too and got to sample some dipping sauces. The Garlic-Parmesan sauce was especially good with sourdough bread chunks. We bought a bottle to go with the bottle of wine we’ll take to our family reunion event at my cousin’s Saturday night: a wine and appetizer “social” gathering.

So now for the next few days we’ll be visiting with family up on the north coast of California and go to the beach as often as we can (weather permitting). It’ll be a fantastic time for sure.

Lots of beautiful rose bushes on the property at V. Sattui

2 comments:

Dallasmom said...

Oh, I love V. Sattui! My favorite winery!
And yes, those are hydrangeas. I love them but can't seem to get them to thrive here in Dallas. In California, Michigan and Connecticut I have seen them grow huge and beautiful, but here in Texas, mine are still skimpy little sticks because they freeze in the winter, then bake in the sun and shrivel up every summer. It's amazing they're even still alive, actually.

Neat Rox said...

My mom has many beautiful hydrangeas at her house in Eureka. Many colors and very large. Here in the high desert, I don't dare attempt to grow such plants.