Blogs from Napa Valley, California, United States, North America - page 5

It is a surreal and beautiful experience to meet up with friends from home whilst you’re travelling overseas. We have been lucky enough to share our journeys and experiences with many of our dear Australian friends. We gatecrashed Rohan and Jodie's holiday on the last week of their honeymoon in Phuket. We had a trashy and good ol’ catch up with Libana and Mel in Amsterdam. We travelled for an amazing 3 weeks with Jamie and Richard to Cardiff, London and Barcelona. We shared many London experiences with Aaron’s mum Anne and his nan, and also a beautiful weekend in Paris. We caught up with Ross over a trashy night out in London and also a quiet night, both unsurprisingly involving gin. We met Anne-Marie at her half-way point around the world in London and shared ... read more

lake Tahoe was beautiful. we spent our time there sunbathing and doing a bit of snorkeling in what looks like Caribbean esq water... it's not it's bloody freezing! We drove from here to the wine region around the Napa Valley. you could well be mistaken for being in the south of France, with the endless rolling hills and Vineyards. We stopped at a small vineyard about 20 mins outside the valley itself called Beaver Creek (with a name like that how couldn't we?) & went inside for a tasting session. The owners were a couple of Czech guys called Josef and Radin, who showed us around the place on a nice personal tour. these guys are pretty eccentric, with huge cowboy hats and quick wit. Josef was a Barca fan, and although he respected us United ... read more

Hello from Wine Country! We spent a very rainy weekend in Napa Valley, but thats ok as we learned they were 10 inches behind on the rain they need for the season. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn - Marriot in American Canyon, very recommendable. On Friday we started off with a free tasting at Bouchain Winery. They were very proud of their location as they get the ocean breezes keeping their grapes warm and cool depending on the season. This is very important for the acids, tannins and sugars to develop producing great pinot noirs and cabernet ('cab is king' here). We also visited Black Stallion winery, very impressive but more for the tour bus group as it is a huge brand new facility. One of our favorite places was a small winery called Hagafen ... read more

It was a clear warm day, so I decided to make the short drive from Berkeley up to Napa, which took maybe an hour. It was a bit closer than I thought it would be. I drove through Napa and St Helena and then up to Calistoga, then made my way back South, sampling wine on the route South. The Magnificat at Franciscan and the Cabernet Savignon at Grgich Hills were both quite good. I stopped into Buster's Southern BBQ to get me some lunch. Wow was that good if you like barbeque. There was a bit of a line to wait in, but well worth the wait. Come to think of it, every person in that line was a biker (motorcycle) except for me, but they all looked like they had white collar jobs Monday ... read more

Myself and three others from St. Julien Hotel and Spa were awarded an all inclusive wine tasting extravaganza in Napa Valley, CA, where we were treated like kings and queens - truly "wined and dined." The first night there we stayed in the Montevine mansion and had a fabulous meal where I discovered Moscato wine and berries. It was love at first taste! During the course of the trip we tasted well over 100 different wines (some straight out of their aging oak barrels), went on endless beautiful fall walks around the vineyards, ate the most delicious meals prepared by Jeff Star each, course accompanied by it's perfectly paired wine, met the most wonderful people with the most carefree lives, and best of all, experienced the entire process step-by-step of wine making, from the grape picking ... read more