Our last day in Napa was Sunday. We started the morning out with a skype with Emily and Hattie. We always love catching up with her and she is talking more and more. We had a reserved tasting at Stags' Leap Winery at 10am. We were joined by two other couples that were visiting the area. It was an amazing place. You can see the house behind us. We were able to try 5 great wines and take a tour of the property in the rain. Stags' Leap Winery is "hidden" away and there are no real signs to get to it. They are only allowed 80 visitors a week. Below is the drive lined with Walnut trees. The picture by the fireplace is inside the house/winery. Everything in the home is restored to its original, so lots of history and antiques.
We also made a stop at Charles Krug winery which is owned by Peter Mondavi and his two sons, Marc and Peter, Jr. Peter Sr is 96 years old and goes to work every day for 6-7 hours. We saw pictures of him and he looks great. We enjoyed learning about the history of this vineyard because Peter Srs parents grew up in Virginia, Minnesota. That is right, on the Iron Range. They owned a grocery store and saloon in Virginia before getting into the grape business. Peter Sr and his brother Robert Mondavi lived in Virginia, MN until he was about 10 years old. It is truly amazing that 2 pioneers of the Napa Valley wine industry were born on the Iron Range!
Below are the barrels from Merryvale. This tour was way more than we expected it to be. We are members of this wine club and I guess they like to "take care of" their members. Jason and I were here for more than 3 hours tasting wines and getting tours of the place. Great wines and Ron the tour guy was great.
We had to stop at this amazing place---Beringer Estates. This place had beautiful grounds and the home was spectacular. Again we tasted some great wines from their Estate collection. Unfortunately ones that we will never see in Minnesota.
It was sad to leave Napa, but great to be back home and get back to reality at 5AM this morning. That is only 3AM Napa time! Although we tasted some great wines, we really enjoyed the stories and history of each of these places. I just love learning about the families that started these places and the success stories as well as failures. We are already looking forward to our next trip back because there are so many amazing places that we have yet to visit and our favorites to visit again. Not to mention all the wonderful restaurants. Hope everyone is having a great week.
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