Day 1: Napa Valley

Our first full day in Napa was beautiful. It was sunny all day, it wasn't particularly warm, but warm enough. We topped out at 55 degrees but in the sun it felt pretty nice.
We started the day with a big breakfast at our hotel restaurant. Then it was off to William Hill. This is a medium sized winery by Napa's standards, about 100,000 cases/year. We have always enjoyed their wines, dating back to 2005 so we wanted to stop and check it out. They had a very nice vineyard and it had some great photo ops. We also enjoyed the wines in the tasting. We decided to join their wine club while we were there so we will be getting some William Hill over the next year.

Next stop Disneyland, I mean Rubicon. Rubicon Estates is the MECCA of Napa Valley. We have been members at Rubicon since our first stop there in November 2009. We enjoy their wines immensely. As members, you get free tastings whenever you are in Napa. The tastings are $50 for non-members and take about 45 minutes. We try the new wines (3 of which have already been delivered to us) and 2 which are limited distribution and will never be sold outside California. They assign a taster to about 3 couples and he goes back and forth about the history of the wine and it is very enjoyable and educational. After the tasting, we took the tour of the vineyard and learned about the site from the very beginning.
A guy by the name of Gustave Neibaum founded Inglenook (now Rubicon) in 1880. This guy was 35 years old and had was a multi-millionaire from some Alaskan Fur Trading. Think about that, 35 years old and worth millions of dollars, that's pretty impressive in 2010, how about in 1880. Warren Buffet might even be a little jealous. Anyway, this guy Gustave bought the site which is now Rubicon. He began winemaking and then it passed down to his Grand Nephew Josh Daniel and then in 1975 Francis Ford Coppola purchased the estate. Coppola owned the property for 20 years until he was able to buy Inglenook in 1995. That is when Rubicon was formed and now it is their flagship wine. It is a French Bordeaux style Cabernet. It sits for 22 months in French Oak (80% of those barrels are new at $1600 a piece) and then goes to the bottle. We will receive our 2007 Rubicon this coming March. We have 2005 and 2006 at home. These wines can last easily 20-years at the right temperature and get better with age and worth more. It was an amazing experience and we'll get some pictures posted of the beautiful Rubicon Estate.
After Rubicon we moved up toward St. Helena, another town north of Napa. We stopped at Franciscan, another good winery. We also tasted Mt. Veeder there, so 2 different wines are poured at this site. We have had both before, but it was interesting to learn about them a little more in depth.
After our 3 tasting of the day, we were done drinking wine. We headed to Go Fish for lunch, a great seafood place in St. Helena. We had some sushi and just recovered from 3 tastings and drank lots of water. We are very careful while tasting not to drink too much, water in between, dump out wines that we don't like. It's not a drinking contest, you won't insult the winery by dumping out wine. Drink what you like, and only what you like.
After lunch we made our way back to Napa (about 20 miles south of St. Helena) and took a little afternoon nap. Dinner was just across the street at Oenotri, a great Italian restaurant. We went to bed early after a long day of wine tasting. Day 1 was great, hoping for the rest to live up to the 1st day.

 

Jason by the CASK barrels

Rubicon

Behind the Rubicon Estate

 

The newly barreled 2010 Rubicon--harvested this fall

 

The Rubicon Estate

 

Jason at William Hill

 

The William Hill Estate

 

Fransiscan--(jason on cell phone---it's velcroed to his hand)

 Mustard is grown in between the vines

 

My favorite picture of the mustard!

Napa Valley 2010

Nicole and I snuck away from home for a few days. This is a slow week at Nicole's office so we took the opportunity to get away. I am working a little while we are here, but my team at the office is wonderful about helping me with my clients when I am gone. Mark is big on our group getting away and recharging. I have seen this change in him over our last 11 years together. It's still hard to completely leave it, but it's easier than it ever has been.

We arrived in San Francisco yesterday at about 2:00 p.m. We rented a car and headed north over the Golden Gate Bridge. Our first stop was the first town over the bridge called Sausalito. We really enjoyed this little town. The shops were great and there were many choices for waterfront dining and the views back to San Francisco were beautiful. The backdrop of all the views are the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay, Alcatraz and of course the city of San Francisco. Not nearly the traffic and people either. We had a late lunch and took some pictures and then made our way to Napa.

We checked in last night to our hotel which is downtown Napa. Check it out. http://www.aviahotels.com/hotels/napa/

We drove around town last night trying to get familiar and saw about 6 or 7 great restaurants. The town reminded me of Vail just a little without the snow. Looking forward to seeing it in the daytime.

We are off to taste some wine today... William Hill first, then Rubicon. 2 is probably enough for the day.

Christmas 2010

We went to Springfield to be with Nicoles family for Christmas. Nicole and I did some cooking and drank some good wine. Nicole made her won tons and we also stuffed mushrooms with the same filling (cream cheese and sausage). I made some Asian chicken wings as well. For wine we tried a 2004 Trefethen Estate Cabernet. While certainly not their best Cabernet it was very good.
We had the whole family together. George and Michelle, Nicole and I, Ryan and Emily and their daughter Hattie (and expecting baby in June), Ashley and her son Zander along with her boyfriend Danny, and Allison. Then we had Grandpa and Grandma Tauer, and Grandma Coners along with uncle Paul and his daughter Libby. We also had a visit from Santa Claus who had gifts for all the well-behaved children. It is a lot of fun to watch the reactions on their faces when Santa arrives. Even Hattie did well with Santa, she was afraid you could tell, but she was also very fascinated by him and even gave him a hug at the end.
On Saturday we are just "hanging" with Nicole's family, most of the sisters are onto their significant others families, so it will be George, Michelle, Nicole, Ally and I.
On Sunday, on our way back to Hudson we will stop at my Grandpa Jack and Grandma Connie's home for a visit with my mom's side of the family. Oyster Stew is the tradition for the Will Christmas.
Here are a few pictures of the Tauer family Christmas.

Looking forward to the weekend!

If you read the previous blog post, you know that Jason was in CA with the guys and I went to Chicago. After work last week Thursday, my friend Lindsey and her two kids(Ella and Kingston) and I drove to Chicago. We stayed with the Winslades who also have a home in Troy Burne. Our plan was to head back to Hudson on Sunday. Well, with all the snow, we decided Sunday morning that it would probably be best to wait until Monday to head back. Stretches of Hwy 94 were closed down and driving was not suggested. We were able to do a lot of fun things while in Chicago. Friday we just went shopping on Michigan Ave, visited the Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo and went out to dinner with "the girls." Our friend Gina invited one of her friends, Laurie to join. We tried a newer sushi place downtown and ended up having a little sushi, but the best sweet potatoe fries ever (we had 2 orders!) and this donut filled with molten chocolate. On Saturday, we went to a Christmas Tea at the Palmer House Hotel. It was very fancy and fun. It was the four adult women and 4 little girls. The girls had lots of energy and excitement. Since we stayed another night, we were able to join the Winslades at the Joffery Ballet of The Nutcracker on Sunday afternoon. This was my first ballet and I thought it was wonderful. The dancers have amazing talent and the music was great. After the show, we went to an authentic Italian restaurant in the Winslades neighborhood. It was very good, but very filling. On Monday morning we headed back after the rush hour traffic died down.

I unfortunately wasn't feeling too well earlier in the week before we left. I felt fine on the trip and then when I got home on Monday, my ear started hurting. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, it felt like I was on a plane because of the pressure in my ear. I went to Urgent Care on Wednesday night because I was in a lot of pain. Turns out that I had an ear infection. The medication has helped with the pain, but I still cannot hear 100%. It is getting better though. This was my first trip to Urgent care, ever. I was not too impressed with the doctor. I was actually the only patient there and he was out the door so fast I didn't even get to ask him a question. I tracked him down though, but again very short with his answers.

We are looking forward to this weekend--tonight and tomorrow especially (read below). I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Nicole

Hello Again

I looked at the blog today and realized that we haven't written since the day before Thanksgiving. Here is a quick update.
We got into a car accident on Nov 24th (last day we wrote on the blog actually). We were driving home (I was driving) to Springfield and the roads were a little snowy and a car ahead of us lost control and slid sideways southbound on Hwy 169. I hit the brakes but couldn't stop in time and slammed into their passenger side. Luckily everyone was ok, I had a bloody nose from the airbag hitting me in the face and the passenger in their car was also bleeding from the nose. Damage to both cars was extensive and our car has been in the shop ever since. I get updates once/week on its progress, but they still won't give me an estimate on when they will be completed. They tell me parts take a long time to get, but I think with all the storms and accidents they are busy, maybe a little of both.
Anyway, enough about that, we are both happy to be healthy and glad no one was hurt.
After Thanksgiving we had 3 seminars, one at Jackpot Junction, one in Owatonna, and one in Clear Lake, IA. George and Michelle were nice enough to sit through the one we had at Jackpot. In my 11 years with Northstar this is the first time they have heard me speak, I hope they weren't too bored, but thanks for coming.
After the round of seminars we both took a little vacation, separately. I went to Palm Springs, CA for 5 days with a group of golf buddies. We have a friend who owns a house there on a golf course so we lived the good life for 5 days. Each day was the same, we got up, played 18 holes (one day we played 36 holes), came home and sat in the hot-tub or laid by the pool, had drinks, and then took a nap and then went out for a nice dinner. Pretty tough life. We had a great time with the all the boys! I wasn't feeling the best, I think I ran myself down a little with all the road time with the seminars. I was Dayquilled up during the day and Nyquilled up at night. I was the DD for all the boys so they could "let er' rip", which I think they appreciated. I still enjoyed the golf and just the warm weather. It was 80 degrees and sunny everyday, just fabulous.
We played the following courses for my golf friends who read the blog, for my relatives and friends who don't care about golf skip to the next paragraph.
Day 1: Silver Rock (18 holes) and Rancho La Quinta (private club) that I was able to play with one of the assistant pros from Troy Burne as he is working there over the winter. Played my best golf the first day. Shot 83, 79 and the 79 was from the tips so the hardest the course had to offer. I was quite pleased.
Day 2: We played the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West (one of the legs of the Bob Hope Classic). I'm not even going to make an excuse for how bad I played. I shot a 93. I haven't looked back in the computer at the club to see how long it has been since I shot a round in the 90's, but I know it has been years. The course was tough and I was simply off. I have had off stretches before but usually can get my game back in shape to keep the round reasonable. Not this day, I just never found it. It was UGLY!
Day 3: We played The Stadium Course at PGA West, ranked one of the 50 Toughest Courses in the World! If you are a true golfer,  you want to take on the biggest and the toughest courses so we were "amped" up to play this track. This course has brought even some of the best PGA pros to their knees in tournaments. We were told we could not break 90 from the tips, but when we arrived we found out we could not even play the tips without a PGA card, which none of us have. So we played one up from the tips and I shot 87. I played very well on the front with a 40 (double at the last hole) and shot 47 on the back. It wasn't as hard as my mind was prepared for, in fact, I believe Whistling Straits (Kohler, WI) is harder. I feel if I played this course again, I could break 80, from the blue tees, not the tips. I would love a crack at the tips, so maybe I can steal Brent's PGA tour card and play them.
Day 4: We played a course called Desert Willow, it was an over-priced dump, I would much rather play Springfield.

While the boys went to Palm Springs we sent the girls to Chicago for the weekend to stay with our friends Chris and Gina Winslade. They have a home at Troy Burne, but live in Chicago 9 months/year. They took great care of Nicole while she was there. I'll let her put some updates about her trip.

We have a great weekend planned. Tomorrow I am going to take a half day of work and go with my brother Andrew to look at some new condos. Andrew is at an exciting time of his life, and we are very proud of him. He graduated from the University of Minnesota this past Sunday with a degree in Computer Science. We are celebrating tomorrow night with a family dinner at The Loring Kitchen and Bar. This celebration was scheduled for last Saturday night and because of the storm we rescheduled it for tomorrow. This is fortunate for Nicole and I as we were out of town last week, so we are excited to be able to attend. Andy has accepted a full-time position with Thrivent Financial where he has worked for the past year as an intern. Kudos Bro, we love you!

Saturday night we are celebrating my immediate family Christmas. My sister Shelly is hosting at her house in Apple Valley. We look forward to a great evening of family, great food, and some good wine.

Until next time...