Winetasting and Friendship

Friday morning 5:30a.m.  That's pretty early and still dark out but we have an adventure planned and it requires that we get up early, shower, eat, dress, make sure everything is packed, cats are fed and out the door we go.

Friday was the morning we headed out for an annual Napa wine tasting with our good friends Bryan and Ann and Mike and Emily and joining us this year, Tom and Anne.  This is officially the sixth year for this trip but this was mine and Gordon's fifth since we were in Hawaii during one of the other sojourns.

As we headed up 29 deep into the heart of Napa there were colorful hot air balloons launching.

We stopped in St. Helena at Model Bakery which is a totally organic, positively delicious bakery - a MUST STOP on your way through the wine country.  Because we had forgotten it was Veteran's day there was NO traffic and we were getting up to Calistoga for our appointed 9:30a.m. rendezvous a little early.  So we decided to stop in Model Bakery for a cup of coffee and we split a piece of banana bread with pecan topping.  The addition of a bread-like product in our stomachs we would soon learn was to be to our benefit!

We have stayed at the Stevenson Manor, our appointed meet-up, twice before so we decided to check-in early and wait for our friends.  While sitting in the lobby I notice a very shiny and looooog black limo pull up and I joked to Gordon that our car was here!  An elegant driver in a long wool buttoned up coat got out and came in the lobby.  He was handsome and had longish slicked back hair.  He looked a bit like a high-fashioned vampire.  You couldn't help but notice him.  I looked out at the limo again and noticed a red and white cooler on the ground by the trunk and our friends Bryan and Ann carting items over toward the limo.  Oh-oh......we're in trouble. There was to be no designated driver this day, except for the faux vampire, Steven!  Bryan has hired a limo for the second year in a row and we are in for an exceptional day.

Mike and Emily arrive and the six of us load up our treats in the trunk and our bodies in the limo....let the fun commence!  Immediately Bryan opens a bottle of Schramsberg bubbly and the party begins on the way to our first stop, The Peter Michael Winery.  That would be Sir Peter! I don't know how to describe the setting and people and wines of Peter Michael other than to say  SCRUMPTIOUS!  Peter Michael Winery is a members only winery.  You have to belong to the club to taste or purchase any wine, and there is a waiting list for a very limited number of people.  Gordon and I have been on the list for years!  Bryan and Ann and Mike and Emily are members and it is our distinct pleasure and honor to be invited to enjoy these fine wines.  Most bottles start at $80 a bottle for whites and a bare minimum of $90 a bottle for their reds and upwards from there.  Check out this private tasting room:

Ann and Emily prepare for the tasting.

As do Mike and Gordon enjoying the warmth of the fireplace.

Looking toward the window wall with Morgan, our tasting representative, preparing the wines.  That's a cut-off picture of Sir Peter standing at the top end of his magnificent vineyard.

A "simple" elegant tasting....but wait.....

......the addition of food.....

......and more food....

.....and more food!

A cozy spot for lounging.

The line up!  3 whites, one provided courtesy of the Furlongs and 3 reds, another provided by the Furlongs and we also sample a Sauvignon Blanc AND toward the end of the tasting, Morgan opened a very fine Pinot Noir as well.

A happy birthday girl.  Doesn't she look lovely?

Oh-oh. It's pack  up and off to the limo.  We're all a little toasted!

See what I mean?  Mike and Emily.

Ann and Bryan with our next tasting in their laps.....2 bottles of Flowers.  Oh dear!

That's Tom next to Ann and his wife on the right, Ann.  So we have 2 Ann's with us today.

Perhaps we don't need to visit the next 3 wineries!

Awwww

This poor leather pillow became a Frisbee for Emily!

Shall we sing?

So after Peter Michael and the, what, 8 bottles the 8 of us drank there, we land at Merryvale in St. Helena.  We ALWAYS have our pictures taken in front of the fountain and this trip is no different.  Fortunately the weather held long enough for a few shots:

A tangle of legs.....

......and a winey group!

Giggly girls

Good friends.

All they need is a cigar eh?  The guy on the right (for the life of me I can't remember his name) is our wine guy who pours with a VERY HEAVY HAND.

This is how we all felt!

Girlfriends!

Our tasting zone.

Back out side Bryan surprises us with pizza, limo style!

YUM. YUM and much needed  sustenance.

Back inside the limo now and guess what?  Bryan is pouring more wine!

We drove back up the valley and prepared for a tasting at St. Clement, a lovely old house just off 29 with some spectacular views.

Mike and Gordon head up to the tasting room.

The group meanders through the garden setting.

And we land in the beautiful, private tasting room. 

At this point they could be pouring us boxed wine and we wouldn't know any different!  We are now loud, obnoxious and overly stimulated.  The pizza in our tummies is working overtime to try to absorb the excess alcohol and we all approach dropping into an alcohol coma.  Why?  Because it's there right?

Hahahahahahaha, we're so happy!

So cute!

Now not because we need to but because any trip to Napa must include a stop at Rombauer. Most of us didn't remember that we even went there this morning.  In fact Emily was emphatic we didn't, but I have proof in these few pictures.  Rombauer is a beautiful winery with lovely wines.  AND a real plus, their gardens are beautiful and decorated this time of year.

Isn't it lovely?

 Here's two nice fellas I took a picture of......

And I apparently got my picture taken with them too.......tho I have no recollection of doing it!  Oh dear! Note the hand placement and they've got their arms around me.  Oh dear!  Who took the picture?

"Really, I can explain!"  Sophia has shown herself!

It was all down hill from there.  Mike, Emily and I got ushered out to the limo and sent to our hotel rooms.  I immediately passed out and slept (if that's what you call it) for an hour and a half or so.  Anyway, we all (except for Tom, who had a bad headache, and Ann) ended up at Brannans in Calistoga for a fabulous dinner.   Gordon and I arrived last having staggered from the hotel down the main drag into the Calistoga downtown.  NO ONE drives from our group, we walk in to town.  When we arrived at the table where Mike and Emily and Bryan and Ann were awaiting us, we noticed two magnums of Merryvale red on the table.  OH NO!  I was done so I sucked down water, ate some bread and literally one oyster .....somehow Gordon ordered oysters for us but there were only 2 on the plate!....and Gordon ordered us both fish and chips for dinner.  I wish I had taken a picture of the plate cause you wouldn't believe it, it was literally a whole cod, head, tail and fins, battered and fried on top of a bed of shoestring french fries.  OMG!  Delicious!

After dinner the six of us managed to make it back to the hotel, only one magnum was drunk and the other went back to Bryan and Ann's room.  Gordon and I said our good night's and stumbled off to bed by 9:00p.m!  A long wonderful day!  And a fitful night's sleep with a belly full of wine and fried food but oh well, it was a great day.

This morning we got up, got showered, dressed and packed.  Met Ann and Bryan for a continental breakfast and a stroll downtown Calistoga where we caught up with Mike and Emily and did a little shopping.  A hat and 2 shirts for Bryan and a beautiful shawl for Ann.  Then we headed into St. Helena for more shopping - love Olivier where we purchased olive oil and balsamic vinegar - a chocolate shop and a little Christmas store.  We met up with Tom and Ann and all headed over to a wine broker to taste fantastic Egelhoff Wines - one-of-a-kind wines not available to the general public.  How lucky are Gordon and I to know these people who are so in-the-know about wines?  Incredible.  Anyway we tasted a Riesling to die for and a Napa Cab from '06 and '07  and a Tawney Port that was delicious.  THEN we went to  Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen for a fantastic lunch on the patio. 

We all split up from there and headed back to our separate lives with wonderful memories of yet another incredible adventure with our wine tasting buddies in beautiful Napa.  The weekend was just wonderful.  Napa is visually stunning rain or shine and the wines produced there are amazing. 

But nothing beats the friendship of these wonderful, kind and generous people.  Gordon and I are truly blessed with our bounty of friends in California.

Thank you Bryan and Ann for another incredible wine journey.  Happy birthday to both of you....we love you so much.