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Recently Amy and I spent an afternoon at one of those paint-your-own pottery places. It was a great chance to catch up with one another and to let our creative energy flow. My masterpiece:
A little over-the-top for a kitty water bowl? Maybe. Totally adorable and perfectly preppy? Absolutely.
Jack agrees:
Look who made partner this week:
That's right, honey. Cheers to you! I'm such a proud wife.
In my triumphant return to blogging, I had big plans. Big plans. I would start out with daily recaps of our Napa trip, which would provide sure-fire subject matter and easy jokes about drinking early in the morning. I would then segue back into regular-life postings. It would be a natural transition and give me a chance to ease back in to the routine. Foolproof!
Alas, I'm a slave to The Man all over again. So today I'm totally going to cop out and just post some random pictures of our trip. Hey, it's something (and no, there's nothing else going on around here). Happy Tuesday!
About halfway down the hill from Kuleto sits Chappellet. We've always loved their wines, so we had pretty high expectations. It was a much shorter tour, beginning with a tasting in the barrel room:
We continued with a quick walk through the property, starting on the crush pad:
And moving right along into the vineyards:
Overall, were a little disappointed with Chappellet. The wines were very good, but the main building wasn't very well-maintained, and the tour guide seemed to really rush through things. This one probably won't be on our schedule the next time we visit Napa Valley.
We had some time to kill before our next scheduled tour, so we made a pit-stop at Frog's Leap.
They were nice enough to let us roam about without an appointment (a rarity in the Valley) and even gave us some Sauvignon Blanc to sip on. Here's a tip: look for Frog's Leap on the wine list next time you're out to dinner- we see it on wine lists all the time and it's very reasonably priced for the quality. Gotta love it!
We got a pretty good tour on our own, but next time we visit Napa we'll definitely sign up for a guided one, and of course taste more wines.
Cheers!
Well, I'm finally getting around to posting about our Napa Valley trip back in October. We visited about 15 wineries overall, so expect a series of posts to come. Enjoy!
One of the most beautiful wineries in the valley is Kuleto Estate:
The winery is owned by famed San Francisco restaurateur Pat Kuleto. It sits high up in the hills above the valley; the driveway itself takes about 10 minutes to climb. Though I nearly lost my breakfast on the way up, the view was definitely worth it:
The tasting started in the main building with food pairings and the first couple of wines. I almost felt as if we were back in Tuscany, especially drinking Kuleto's Sangiovese, which is the same grape used to make Chianti.
A Kuleto tasting wouldn't be complete without a long walk throughout the grounds. Our guide filled his neoprene bottle carrier and we were off on our tour.
Raise your glass if you like drinking at 10 am!
Pilot, the trusty wine dog of the estate, decided to join us (apparently he is a real attention hog and escorts most of the tours).
As we continued on our walk, we sampled several more wines and generally just enjoyed the scenery:
This reminded me of the old widow in Great Expectations:
The really cool thing about Kuleto is that it's a self-sustaining compound. Pat Kuleto actually lives up there, and nearly everything needed for survival is grown on the property. From the gardens to the animals, it's all right there. Very green!
We're not the only ones who enjoyed the view:
The scenery at Kuleto, combined with the friendliness of the staff, made it one of our favorite wineries of the trip. Even though their wines don't quite measure up to some of the others in the valley (they're great - don't get me wrong - just not the best in Napa) the entire experience of being at the estate makes them unforgettable. My favorite was the Sangiovese, but their Cabernet was also very good. Though I wasn't able to talk Dan into joining the wine club, we did pick up about 6 bottles to add to the cellar.
Though we didn't get to try a Kuleto restaurant when we were in San Fran, later on during our trip we had dinner at another one of Pat Kuleto's restaurants, Martini House in St. Helena.
It's widely considered one of the best restaurants in the valley, and it definitely lived up to the hype. Dan and Jesse had pork chops, and Karen and I enjoyed mushroom bisque and grilled halibut. We paired everything with a fabulous Merry Edwards Russian River Valley Pinot. Delish!
Many more winery recaps to come!
