The Napa Lowdown

By the way...I was just looking at my profile to see if I had more than 5 viewers and realized that my "industry" is listed as "fashion". Now...it IS true that I listed it as such; however, I feel the need for a small disclaimer...or just a few. Ok, so 1) Yes, I suppose where I work would be considered a facet of the "fashion" industry", but when it comes down to it, it's just shoes; 2) I don't think that I'm shallow enought to consider myself a true member of the "fashion" industry, although some of the people that have met me may claim that I am totally incorrect in my thinking; 3) Of course I love clothes and shopping, but that is only a teeny tiny part of who I am and I don't really appreciate people making judgements on me based on my spending habits, I suppose in my mind, that would be like judging a person based on whether or not they have watched the Star Wars Trilogy in one sitting...oh wait.

Ok, so on to the real reason for all this blither. We were lucky to once again visit Napa this past weekend and it was another memorable experience to say the least. Let's see, there was Stags' leap (not Stag's Leap Cellars, mind you, the Vineyard...that's right, with the apostraphe AFTER the "S" as Geoff mentioned many times on our trip). There was another Mustard's rendezvous...and there was much pain on the last day. Nevertheless, it was a good time and I just wanted to recap with my favorite and less well known wineries visited, just in case anyone planning on visiting anytime soon was interested. So without further ado...

Provenance-Small and cozy tasting room, friendly pour staff...deeeelishhh Cabernet and their port is super smoky and has a super clean and clear finish. I think what I enjoyed most was how cozy it was, especially after we ran in and out of the rain, plus it was the first place I was able to enjoy the sound of Sean slurping the wine up...mmm sounded just like a kid blowing bubbles into his mouth.

HaGafen-Very tiny, but tasty wines. That and the fact that there was a SUPER AWESOME AND NOT ANNOYING IN ANY KIND OF WAY girl there that Geoff took the liberty of coming up to each one of us and saying how much he wanted to punch her in the face. Other than that, they had a cat and it was almost like being in Los Olivos...very intimate.

Fleury-SUUUUUPER tiny and AWESOME!!! It was just the six of us in the tasting. The best part was at the end, our pourer left us with the wine while he was ringing us up. His advice was to revisit anything that we were still not sure about and we did....oh WE DID!!! The only thing was because we were in their very small barrelling facility, it was full of teeny tiny flying beetles, but we got to meet the owners. Oh and the vino was no so malo.

Last but not least, our visit to Rutherford Grill-Sure, it's a lot like Houston's, but Ohhhh, it's so much better! I mean, you're in freaking Napa!!! There's no corkage fee for the wines that you're destined to bring in, plus...the bill was only $200 for 6 of us. Definitely worth the time and the hour long wait...I'm just sayin...

So it may be boring to some, but I truly look forward to the visits and oh hey...here are some pictures just in case I've peaked your curiosity.