The best part of their visit, for me, was the short trip to Napa. They rented a car, and we drove up, stopping at Safeway for cheap bread and cheese. It was an alternately sunny/rainy day, which simply added to the feeling of crispness that the Napa Valley has. The last time I'd been up there was in the middle of the summer (two summers ago), so I was expecting more green, but it was still lovely. All the vineyards plant tons and tons of flowers to liven up the place, and I was pleasantly surprised to be able to answer identification quesitons on most of them. Pansies and camelias were easy, but when I managed to name the cyclamen (confirming later that I was right), I knew I'd learned something with this whole garden thing.
Anyway...we began at the Robert Mondavi vineyards. Very lovely arch (the building looks just like the picture on the label), very snooty staff. Their tasting room was small and unmarked, and they charged you full price for a full glass of wine. There was a sign on the sliding glass door, "Enjoy your wine on the patio", which we did (even though it was chilly), so we could bitch about the service/prices. There was an odd, brief hailstorm*.
The next stop was more satisfying. The Peju Winery was small, with a friendly wine steward who looked like Sean Connery and took to us immediately (Shel is a very chatty person). I should mention that Shel and Rob are in culinary school up in Portland, and they're all educated about wines now. This place offered wine tasting for a flat fee (but we had a coupon, so it was free). I bought their best-seller, Carnival, which was a lovely light Chardonnay. We were interupted by an obnoxious, loud couple from Michigan.
The Franciscan Cellars offered two different tastings - one regular ($3) and one from the "reserves" ($7). Shel got the fancy-schmancy one, Rob and I got regulars, and we all shared. One of the reserves, Cuvee Sauvage Chardonnay '96, had a honey-butter taste to it. It was so yummy. I don't think I've ever had a wine so delicate, so fine. I came very close to buying a $30 bottle of it, but finally talked myself out of it. Oh well.
The last stop was my favorite from the last time I did the wine tour thing (2 years ago with Holly, Michael and Norton the horrible), V. Sattui. They have lots of trellises (which in the summer are covered in different kinds of grapes, so you can see them up close), a cheese room that leads into a HUGE tasting room, and a dark, romantic wine cellar that's dark and cool and smells intoxicatingly like honey and fruit. V. Sattui also offers a free tasting of many different wines (I think there were 9 on the list), and you get tipsy standing at the bar and sipping all of them. We picked a good place to stand, right next to an ordinary-looking man and his girlfriend. He had on a long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans and had short brown hair...ordinary. She was in all black, with those clear braces and dramatic makeup to match her shiny black hair. They were very nice, and we chatted with them on and off before Gregg (I peeked at his business card on the counter) started pulling weight. Suddenly, the reserve wines were being opened and poured for our perusal. The wine steward who had been paying almost total attention to Gregg, was chatting with us and suggesting other expensive wines we might like. Gregg picked up my bottle of Gamay Rouge and put it with his to be signed by the....vintier? The wine maker. We stayed awhile after they closed, and I ended up buying a bottle of dessert wine called Regina.
As we were leaving, we ran into Gregg's girlfriend carrying a small box to their car...no, not a car, a pristine stretch limo. She invited us to peek inside at the boxes and crates of wine that they'd bought that day. Wow. She gave us a brochure for the B&B they were staying in ("We'll discuss it and keep it in mind, thanks") and encouraged us to come by. Gregg came out then and offered to let us come with him "for a price". They were up from LA, and obviously on a big spending spree, and I didn't see why we'd have to pay them anything.... Anyway, we said, no, we had to skeedaddle (no, we didn't use that word) and left. Nice people, though.
As we were leaving, the biggest rainbow I'd ever seen appeared in the Eastern sky, coloring the mountains behind it. I swear we could see the pots of gold on either end, but then again, I was a bit drunk.