This afternoon the four of us took our final adventure of the weekend in Napa by heading to Ledson Winery. The chateaux was built by the founder and was originally intended to be his private home. But soon after the building began to take shape so many people/cars were stopping to take photos and people were asking when the winery would be open that he decided to "give the people what they wanted" and to live in a more private residence. Shortly after arrived we were escorted to a private tasting room by our guide for the day, Lorenzo. As we took our places around the table I noticed the personalized menus......
Nice touch! We all agreed afterwards that each winery and presentation/tasting is unique. And this one was a great experience, but Lorenzo was far from the best wine teacher. BUT he was also far and away the most personalized guide to wine and wine tasting. We all very much enjoyed the more than one hour and forty-five minutes that we spent with him and our six wines, along with two "plates" of appetizers prepared by the Ledson chef. I personally was happy that we got to taste at least one white wine and a blend while the others truly enjoyed the red wines. Randy and Karrie so much that became Ledson Wine Club members :) After the tasting Lorenzo gave us a short tour of the mansion which was very interesting. It was an excellent afternoon and a wonderful way to end our tours and tastings from Napa Valley!
Monday February 20
Just a couple of final photos from the morning we left......
Sunday's Breakfast: California Cowboy Breakfast - beans & tomatoes on top of poached eggs (buried - can't see them) with sausage and baked pears & apricots
Monday's Breakfast: Dutch Apple Pancakes (so yummy), apple/chicken sausage, baked pears, and the scone - very interesting......made with bacon, eggs, and cheese since "the breakfast is sweet"
The living room - looking out towards the front door - we sat in the front part several times and in the part closest to the camera is where we probably spent the most time, and played the game with the other couple from New York.
The living room looking the other way - in the foreground is the same as the last photo, but now you're looking towards the kitchen / dining room area is straight ahead. Note on the right just before the door is a small area where there was always coffee and in the evening, wine :)
The kitchen - where I'm standing, on the left, Straight ahead is the dining area - note the bar before the table towards the left.....food put out here buffet style. The good news was we could and were encouraged to go back for seconds, which is NOT typical of the other B & B places we've been; the bad news is that the presentation of the food in the serving dishes is "ruined" when you dig in so the look of the meal on the plate is not nearly the same "gourmet affect" as other B & B places. Also, note the glass ceiling over the dining area - pretty cool. And you can just see out the doors to the left a huge patio where on good weather days people often eat their breakfast, or so we were told. Really enjoyed our stay here.
Today Kim and I were off for a morning visit to "The Castle" of Napa Valley - Castello di Amorosa. The day began with a scrumptious breakfast that featured poached eggs & sausage served with what is called "California Cowboy Breakfast." We played some cards with Randy and Karrie and then were off on our adventure. As you can see from the above photos, this clearly was the winery to be seen and photographed. The story goes that when the owner purchased the property and they began planning the chateaux he finally decided on this castle. They imported the rocks and it took well over twenty years, but it is something to see and walk around in. After we'd toured the castle we headed up for our tasting where we were given the opportunity to pick six wines from a menu - and we didn't have to pick the same ones. Two that were noteworthy - both Kim and I selected their "La Casttellana" from the "Reserve" list - and this red win sells for a mere $98 per bottle. I will say that as far as red wines go, it was good. And the other noteworthy one was one I tasted, "Ill Passito" which was a white Sauterne wine which tasted nearly identical to the Sauterne wine I'd had in France and recently found in Orlando. It was only $89 per bottle. Despite the drizzling rain all morning we had a great time touring the castle, taking photos, and sampling some very good wines!
Today's planned big event was the much anticipated reuniting with our good friends Gary & Claudia whom we'd met on our Fall Leaves Cruise in New England - October 2015. We met at dinner the first night of the cruise and spent hours together every evening over dinner before exchanging information with the promise to keep in touch and try to get together again. Well, we all know how that usually turns out but today we were able to make that promise come true!
The day started out great as the day dawned without rain! Kim and I were able to take advantage of our balcony/porch and posed for a photo under the bright skies. The temperatures never got out of the fifties and any time the breeze would kick up it was chilly, but us Floridians were loving the weather change. After morning coffee with Randy and Karrie it was soon time to head into the dining area for our fully prepared breakfast. On today's menu was.....scrambled eggs, poached apples - which were delicious - bacon, and the big hit of the morning: apple-raisin bread pudding! It was all delicious! We had plenty of time after our meal to play cards with Karrie and Randy; one of the highlights being when Randy bid clubs and all he had in his hand was a single 9 of clubs. If you've ever played "Bid Euchre" you're laughing now, if not, well let's just say that like most card games typically you bid to take the hand when you have MANY cards of the trump suit and alot of them are face cards :) We all enjoyed the moment and the morning together. A little after eleven Kim and I headed out on the road and the GPS said we had about an hour and 45 minutes ahead of us. Under the bright skies we enjoyed the drive through and out of Napa Valley and onto the interstate before arriving in Pleasanton, California around 12:45 and at our good friends' home at almost 1 pm. As Gary said it best - "You guys look just the same; it's as though we saw you just last week." And that was the big story of the day. Today I don't have lots of stories to tell, except that despite having only spent that one week together in the fall of 2015 the four of us immediately hit it off. And this afternoon when we were re-united it was as if we truly had just seen each other a week ago. For the next many hours we talked and laughed and just enjoyed each other's company as much if not more than we did a year and a half ago. We are so hopeful that in the near future we can end up traveling together! After lunch at the clubhouse of one of Gary's favorite Golf Clubs (photo at top of the page taken on the balcony there) we headed out to two small, local wineries and enjoyed many different local wines. The first was at the Brent Creek Winery.
We had seven different wines here, one of which was so delicious that Gary & Claudia bought a case (it was on sale!) We posed for a selfie here between glasses :) We headed just down the road afterwards and arrived soon at the Charles R Winery where we sat around a table made from a wine barrel and enjoyed another half dozen different local wines.
By 5 pm we'd drained all the wine from our glasses and as the sun began to set it was time for Kim and I to head back to Calistoga where we were meeting Karrie and Randy for a late dinner. We stopped off to get an "official" tour of Gary and Claudia's home - what a great house in a wonderful neighborhood! And then Gary graciously gave Kim one of the bottles of wine he'd purchased from the Brent Creek Winery, as she enjoys the red wines. And Claudia gave me two smaller bottles of White Ziffendale as well as some yummy "home-made chocolate chip cookies" (no one will ever know the difference Claudia :)))) The drive back - like the drive there was smooth and enjoyable and Kim and I spent most of it talking about just how much we enjoyed the day with our special friends and how glad we were that we not only DID stay in touch but made them part of our visit to northern California. Gary & Claudia told us of a spring Mediterranean cruise they've booked on Celebrity that is an itinerary that we would definitely enjoy going on and so we left them with the promise to look into the possibility of joining them on this adventure. We arrived back in Calistoga a little before 7:30 where Karrie and Randy were waiting for us and we walked - despite the upper 40 degree temps - downtown (about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile) to the restaurant. Kim and I were not hungry for a full meal and we both ordered the same thing: a bowl of French Onion soup and the most delicious corn bread, home made and served with a generous amount of honey butter slowly melting on the piping hot bread. What a great end to a great day!
Today was a great day in spite of the weather - the forecast called for 100% chance of rain today and we figured (a) it would be like our several trips to Alaska where "they say" it rains all the time but it's never, ever rained on us through four different trips there, or more likely (b) it would rain today but off and on at best. Well, it was raining when we got up and rained until we went to bed. Not a torrential downpour, but a steady rain all day. Didn't bother us at all. The day began with Kim and I walking across the street, just right across the street so she could get here daily cappuccino - so she was happy, so I was happy! Then I worked on the journal and photos from the first day in the living room downstairs while she surfed the web, checked email, etc. until her twin sister Karrie got joined us, with husband Randy shortly thereafter.
At 8:30 am breakfast was prepared and ready for everyone so we moved into the dining area - which has three walls which are all glass and a ceiling of all glass! The menu for today - Homemade yogurt and granola (original recipe from the owners); white wine poached pears - just to die for; fruit salad; maple walnut scones; corn souffle with an avocado and tomato salad on top, with chicken & apple sausage. Hot coffee and/or orange juice finished the delightful meal to start the morning. All prepared fresh by our host and chef, Max.
After breakfast I climbed to the third level of the outside deck and took this picture of the property. You can see the glass ceiling of the breakfast room on the left just past the tree......
Peju Winery Tour & Tasting
The first outing of the day was to head to Peju Winery. The twins and Randy had been here before but none had taken the tour. We had an 11:30 am reservation for a "private" tour and tasting. And trust me - after being on many winery tours recently, if you can, THIS is the way to go. Just the four of us with our personal guide to take us through the history of the winery property, the family, and then the tasting. The most interesting thing of the tour was when we discovered the the owner's family was originally from Iran - which is where the twins spent a good deal of their childhood and early teen years.
The multi-level facility was interesting to walk around and the process was similar but in many ways different from the French wineries we've toured in the last year. As part of the tour we went through several different rooms and areas......
Close up of the detail in the stain glass mural
When it came time for the tasting we were escorted up to the very top of the tower to a private loft and were greeted by a table setting for four with a plate of appetizers specially prepared by the chef on the property specifically designed to go with the five wines were were going to taste. And the food, oh my - it was so delicious. So much so we asked to meet the chef to give him our personal compliments. Half way through the tasting of the various wines I asked Chris, our guide if we'd be tasting any white wine or blush wines. I explained these were my favorites. So he paused, pointed at me and said, "I'm going to go get you three wines that will go with the food samples that you will LOVE." When he returned he continued with the three last and most expensive red wines for the other three, while I had a white, a rose - DELICIOUS - and a "Provence" wine that was intended to be served chilled and was a special blend of three red wines and three white wines. That was the best wine of the day and we WILL order several bottles of this!
Note the centered window - that's where we were
Inglenook Winery Tour-Tasting-Caves
When the Peju experience ended it was about 1:30 pm and we were schedule to begin our tour at Inglenook at 3 pm. The other three had been here before. We decided there was a lot to look at inside so we'd go ahead of time and explore on our own. Which we did and then sat in their cafe area until it was time to start the tour. Side story.......When we came out here for our oldest son's wedding I'd flown back to Florida to run the high school graduation. But the twins stayed here in California with their parents, and our youngest son, to cruise up and down the California coast line. Well one day they were HERE and went to the Inglenook Winery and were headed to the Peju winery next. Between the five of them, a GPS, an atlas, and "Mapquest" on their laptop they set out to travel the distance between the two facilities. Somehow - I can't explain this part because I wasn't there - apparently there was a GREAT DEAL of "discussion," let's go so far as to say "heated discussion" about which direction to go, turns to make, etc. As the famous family story goes, they were on the road for some forty-five minutes before arriving the 0.1 miles it is between the two wineries. That's right, they are nearly right across the road from one another, but somehow it took them nearly an hour of driving around to discover this :)
While, without question, the BEST experience of the day was at Peju, the best story of the day came here at Inglenook. In 1879, Finnish sea captain Gustave Niebaum had amassed a fortune of over $10 Million - a huge sum in today's world, much less in 1879! He wanted to build a wine estate that would rival Europe's best. He took his wine to an international wine tasting and brought home all the medals that fulfilled his dream of producing world class wine. There is a LOT to the story of the brand that makes the history fascinating, but the last and most recent part of the story of the property is the last part I'll share. Famous Hollywood filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola was looking for a scenic piece of property to purchase in the area where he and his wife could settle and he bought this property. He had no intentions of being a wine maker. But when he met his neighbor Robert Moldavian he came to understand that some of the best wine in the WORLD was in the cellars of his property - some of the ORIGINAL WINE of that had been made by Gustave Niebaum some 85 years ago! And so began the return to greatness of the Inglenook name and wines.
We began our tour by climbing the grand staircase - made from Coppola's trees from a South American rain forest - and the second floor had been cut open to make room for the staircase. After being given some of the basic history and some of the description on how the wines are developed we went back downstairs and our guide opened the front doors to reveal the wines on the front part of the property. He said at this point, normally, the group would go out and walk the grounds. But today with all the rain we were going to do something that is very rarely done (because rain is so infrequent in So Cal).....we were headed down to the caves beneath the mansion and would walk the length of those caves until we reach the opening on the back of the property where we'd see the backside vineyards and the personal home/mansion of Francis Coppola and his family! What an amazing part of the day that turned out to be - check out the short video of this part of the day below.
Inglenook Caves
Next, after re-tracing our steps through the caves we went into a special tasting room and sampled four of the best wines they make - the last of which was a white wine, which was my favorite. And in front of us were cheeses which were specifically selected to be paired with the wines we tasted.
Sunday's Breakfast: California Cowboy Breakfast - beans & tomatoes on top of poached eggs (buried - can't see them) with sausage and baked pears & apricots
