THE KUPPERSMITH FAMILY: Napa

After our trip to San Francisco, we headed to Napa. We were looking forward to relaxing and enjoying some wine. There was also a drastic change in weather. In San Francisco, the weather was overcast and in the 50s and 60s except for one sunny day of almost 70 degrees. In Napa, it was sunny and in the lower 80s the whole time.

We rented a house in the higher elevation of the Napa area about 5 miles from downtown Napa. It had amazing views and was such a great place to stay! Once we unloaded our bags, we headed into downtown Napa to get some groceries and check things out. That night, we went to dinner at a restaurant called Bouchon, in Yountville. It was delicious.

The next day, we went wine tasting with a group of 3 other couples in a limo. This was a great way to start our trip and get familiar with the area. We also enjoyed talking with the other couples, who were our age and a little younger. One couple was from Wisconsin and the other 2 couples were from Denmark. Our driver, Dee, was also very nice and fun to talk to. That day we took things slow and went to Silverado winery, Rutherford Hill, Lava Vine (a very small, quaint place), and Goosecross. Since we had lunch at Lava Vine and talked with the winemaker a lot, we got to go into where they were harvesting the grapes and take a taste of the wine just as it was getting started. We also got him to break out a reserve, which was a nice surprise. At Goosecross, we were treated very well too since they knew our driver and another couple had been there before. It was fun to look at the wine making process up close, especially since we were in Napa during harvest for everyone.

Day 2, we rented a limo just the two of us. The house we rented had a limo service and we thought it would be fun to take advantage of it for one day. This day we went to Frank Family Vineyards, Phelps, Cayman, Raymond, Silver Oak, and Turnbull. All were very different from each other. Frank Family Vineyards is owned by a Disney executive so they had a lot of pictures and memorabilia around. Phelps was good but the pricing didn't really match the quality for some of the wines. Cayman had a lot of variety and was family farmed and owned. Raymond was the most unique place. The tasting room we went to was full of stainless steel tanks and tables but also had crystal chandeliers and interesting mannequins that reminded me of a Vegas club. We really liked the wine there. Silver Oak we have had before and knew we liked but we ended up meeting a man named Dennis and his wife and priest there. They were buying CASES of Silver Oak, which meant he was spending thousands of dollars. They were from Illinois and we ended up talking with them and getting to go into the private cellar of the owner of Silver Oak and got to taste some old reserve wines that Dennis requested. It was a lot of fun. From there, Dennis insisted we go to Turnbull. He said it was like Silver Oak and we would love it. We took a short ride over in the limo with Dennis's wife and when we got there, Dennis knew everyone and got us the good tastings right away. In fact, some of the girls doing the tastings behind the bar hadn't ever tried the wines we got to taste. After several tastings and even aerating one bottle of wine in blender, we took a tour of the facility, got to go on top of the tanks, tasted from barrels and just had a great time! We even took part in the priest saying a blessing for the 2012 crop on top of the tanks...oh that made us laugh. Dennis bought more cases of wine but we just left wine club members:) This was funny since Blake had already signed us up for two other wine clubs (Silverado and Raymond) We really liked those wines but upon returning home, these memberships along with our purchases...30 bottles...earned us a new, much larger, wine fridge.

Day 3 was much more relaxed. We decided to drive ourselves that day and go on some tours and take it slow. We went to Duckhorn, Schraumsburg, and Del Dotto. Duckhorn was recommended to us by the winemaker and owner of Frogtown, our favorite winery here in Georgia. We were not really fans of this place compared to all the other great wines we had tried. Schraumsburg does sparkling/champagne style wine and is a standard part of many White House dinners. The best part of this place was that it was a cave tour. There is over a mile long cave that was carved out many many years ago and all of the wine is aged right in the cave. It was fascinating to hear the process of turning each bottle 1/6 of a turn at a time and then how the sediment was removed and the final cap was put on. It makes you appreciate paying a little more for a good bottle. After lunch that day, we enjoyed Del Dotto. This was a unique cave tour because all tastings were done out of barrels since the winery is known for using a barrel only one time, making each wine a limited edition. I enjoyed hearing about all the ways they can change the barrel to change the taste of the wine.

Overall, we tried to buy at least one bottle of wine from each place to remember it by. We came home with a lot of "special occasion" bottles of wine but hopefully we will drink them "just because" sometimes too:) We really enjoyed learning about the whole wine making process and seeing the differences in wineries and wine making from place to place. We can't wait to go back and try out a few more places we didn't quite get to this time around

While we love fun restaurants and dinners, after drinking wine all day, most days we ended up at Gotts Roadside restaurant (a burger place) or picking something up at Oxford market. I loved the bakery that was attached to these buildings. We went there a couple days for breakfast. The final night, we went to a bbq place and ended up meeting a couple who was from Australia and he was riding his motorcycle from Alaska down the coast. Wow! His girlfriend had just joined him for the California part of his trip. He told us about riding through negative temperatures, laying down his bike, his bike breaking and having to get a new one, and lots more adventures. We sure do not have any desire to do this but it was interesting to talk to someone who had taken many tours all over the world on his motorcycle.

The final day, we went to breakfast, got our boxes for packing our wine, shopped a little, and headed back to San Francisco to catch our flight the next morning. We ended the trip watching the Cardinals play the Giants and enjoying a BEER! We were needing a break from all the wine by that point:)

The trip was absolutely everything we expected and more. From the scenery to the food to the fun times we had, I would say it was worth every penny!

Here are just a few of our pictures.