Another good couple of days under the Californian sun of the Napa and Sonoma region…
We eased into it with a tour of the Mumm Napa winery before the noon hour. I have no problem drinking champagne in the morning! Mumm, originally from the Champagne region in France, decided to expand their horizon and picked the particular spot of Los Carneros in the Sonoma region to grow grapes and emulate the sparkling wine made in France.
The tour was very instructive, and we learnt a lot about what it takes to make a – sparkling – wine. The neat part is that the harvest is taking place right now, and we get to see it happen! I’m not a big fan of champagne, but I enjoyed the tour and the tasting!! The tour concluded with us going through 2 photo galleries, one by a photographer you may have heard of: Ansel Adams… The other by Robert Buelteman. Large prints of his work are very impressive!!
The other interesting part of the tour was the fact that the musician Santana has a special Mumm Napa bottle. He sponsors this specially crafted edition of their sparkling wine. Little did we know!
After this tasting, we went to Beaulieu Vineyard, for some nice red wine tasting. We then returned to our favorite place for lunch: V. Sattui Winery. Another big feast with the newcomers in the family.
In the afternoon, we paid a visit to Grgich Hills Estate. This winery is very special in the Napa area, because this is the first winery that beat the French wines in a blind tasting, back in 1976…Whatever!! It was probably fixed… Anyways, their wine sucks… They even sell berets, just to rub in the fact they beat the French…
The only redeeming factor they had that day is the ‘grape stomping’ event, where you get to stand in a half-barrel full of grapes, and stomp the grapes like they used to do in the old days. You then get to step onto a white tee-shirt, to keep a souvenir of the event. We were 5 minutes too late to do it ourselves… Probably a coincidence…
In the evening, we all got together at an Italian restaurant in downtown Petaluma, called Graziano’s. A very nice restaurant, with very nice service, food, and artwork on the walls (by photographers I didn’t get the name of… oups.). The interesting part of our dinner actually was the after-dinner, where some of us got to enjoy a couple of shots of vodka in the sub-zero – or so – room they have at the entrance of the restaurant. This specially designed room, kept at a temperature of 28 degrees Fahrenheit, hosts a very large number of worldwide vodkas you can taste. Before entering the room, you get to put on a faux-fur coat, to keep you warm while enjoying your beverage… Cool!!!
Today was a slower day, with a late start. The two of us decided to check out the town of Sonoma. A very cute place, with nice shops and wine-tasting facilities. Art galleries too, including one that I must talk about: a gallery of the photographer Lisa Kristine. Some amazing large prints, a lot of them related to slavery. The following photograph, beautifully presented in a 5 to 6-foot frame, caught my attention and almost brought tears to my eyes, both for the technically perfect photograph, and the message it conveyed. (the picture below falls short of conveying the impact the monumental print did!)
In the afternoon, we had a VIP-tasting at Chateau Saint-Jean, north of Sonoma. Some very nice wines, in a beautiful setting. we ended up ‘picking up’ a case of the Cabernet Sauvigon 5 Cepages 2006, a very smooth and lovely Bordeaux-blend. I met a fellow countryman, Philippe Thibault, Hospitality Operations Manager at Chateau Saint-Jean. We still had to pay for the wine tastings…
In the evening, we met with the extended family, for our last dinner in the Sonoma/Napa region. The end of an exceptional week! We are already talking about our next year visit to the area…
Later.
G.
