napa. one year later. part 1.
When you’re seven months pregnant in Napa it might seem hard to form an opinion on where to go and what to do but it was my second time there so I feel like I was able to really help the gang pick some good spots and those wine that I was able to taste were the best of the best.
We planned the trip out to Napa with two of our besties to coincide with a friend’s wedding that was being held at a gorgeous old estate in downtown Napa so staying close by in the heart of it all in an air bnb was a must. Although I wasn’t the one who booked our air bnb (shout to Allie), I’ll go ahead and take credit for it. It was the cutest, most bizarrely decorated home I had ever seen. And has about 1 mile distance to all of the restaurants and shops downtown. Our first stop in to town and therefor my walking destination every morning thereafter (because the rest of the house was sleeping off their hangovers), was the Oxbow Market. If you’re from DC think of Union Market, if you’re from NY think of Eataly, if you’re not from either place google it. We had a lovely dinner out on the back patio at kitchen door the resident restaurant in the market.
Our first day off to the races started with breakfast at the. most. amazing. Bakery. Ever. model bakery I basically had a grilled cheese for breakfast (since I don’t do eggs). And it was incredible. I have since forever been in pursuit of recreating this amazingness. Our first stop was the one I was most looking forward to - Duckhorn. Why you ask? Because this preggo wanted the largest glass of the Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc that they would pour. If I had to rank my top ten favorite wines in the world this would undoubtedly be on it (I may have had two glasses - sorry dr. King). We opted at Duckhorn to kick off the weekend with a full tasting experience. It was a semi=private experience where we got to taste the full range of their wines. If you are interested in wine but don’t really understand the difference between the varietals, then doing a tasting like this is highly recommended. It is very informative and a bang for your buck in terms of the quantity of wine they provide.
After a quick and delicious lunch at Farmstead, which I would very highly recommend, (that we stopped at per the advice of our resident San Franciscan friend Tori), we were off to two more visits. HALL winery is the ideal spot for those interested in art and culture while sipping wine. The winery itself is beautifully designed and the grounds contain a mini art museum. For this sober chic it was ideal. Our last stop of the day was Round Pound which by far has the most quintessentially, beautiful, stereotypical California entrance of any winery. ever. And the view for our bottle to stay wasn’t too shabby. At this point my little posse was three sheets so I got to drive us around in our rental convertible and enjoy the gorgeous countryside.
To end our first day we opted for Italian at Don Giovani (after a quick siesta of course). The food was excellent, service was shotty. Try the calamari! But all in all a great ambience to end a long day of sipping and touring the California country side.
Saturday was wedding day… so to be continued with sunday's shenanigans…
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