Blogs from Napa Valley, California, United States, North America - page 3

R: Our next plan was to head to Yosemite national park - but it wasn't to be, the national weather service reported a winter storm coming in with several feet of snow forecast overnight the night we were planning to stay, so we decided to make a tactical detour and stay near the coast. From Fresno we headed to Napa - we were going to come here anyway, but decided to extend our stay. Napa is wine country, so we headed for the wine welcome centre to discover more. From there you can buy a pass which you can use for a tasting in 12 winery shops in downtown Napa, which ranged from a single taster, up to 6 different pours - and the size of these depended on the generosity of the bar tender. So ... read more

As the famous British philosopher, Francis Bacon, once said, "Age appears to be best in 4 things: old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read." While Napa Valley may not be the oldest wine producing region in the world, it has rapidly ascended to the reputation of being the best. Gone are the days when you needed to jetset across the pond to Tuscany or Bourdeau for some quality vino, because a mere hour drive from nearby San Francisco lands you in the ripe soils of the Valley. Modern day Napa may enjoy a heavy dose of tourists flocking to the area for some hard grape juice, but the region hadn't always relished in the limelight as it does today. Pioneer and settler, George Yount, is ... read more

With a week spent in Las Vegas, it was definitely time to move on away from all the bright lights, poolside bars and ringing casinos and get back to nature... but with a twist. Westward, you climb out of the valley through the Rainbow Mountains where, would you believe it, I actually got some flurries of snow... I couldn't believe it either!! The temperature dropped from 86F (27C) down to 42F (5C) in the space of 20 miles before rising again to nearly 90F (29C) as I came down the other side. Now if I thought it was dry and barren in Vegas then this was Mars! Sand and rock, as far as the eye could see, meant that I had entered Death Valley National Park. Death Valley is like nothing I've ever seen.... to most ... read more

On Tuesday and Wednesday we explored wine country with our friend Eleanor- thanks to whom we found some very interesting wineries. Suisun Valley(pronounced Susan) had some interesting wineries with very friendly and informative staff- a few we visited were Wooden Valley Winery, Ledgewood Winery and GV Cellars noted for their Zinfandels, Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. Wednesday was our splurge day as we had booked on the Napa Valley Wine Train dressed up as it was in the former days of luxury train travel. The trip included travel through the Napa Valley passing by some of the larger well-known wineries such as Robert Mondavi, Stag's Leap and Beringer as well as a wonderful gourmet lunch. The service on board was impeccable and the views really lovely in the afternoon autumn sunlight. We continued on to three more ... read more

Before we began our Napa Valley exploration, we met up with our friends Amy and Ken Mayer. We spent some time with their kids, then we went to a lovely restaurant in downtown Walnut Creek for brunch. There are several things that can be said about Napa Valley overall. Of course it is very beautiful and scenic. There are over 450 wineries there, many of the wineries lease parts of some of the other wineries' grapes (they can claim the products as their own as long as they control the growing, and processing of the grapes, even if they are not grown on their own property), and the wines are very expensive. Also, the valley is actually a collection of a handful of towns, like St. Helena, Oakville, Calistoga, and others including the city of Napa ... read more