Napa Visit...I could get used to this!

We took a trip to Napa yesterday (Dave's first visit!) with our friends Chris & Valerie. They are really great about going up at least once a month as an excursion out of the city. We went to two wineries, Vincent Arroyo and Benneserre Vineyards.

At Vincent Arroyo, it was a completely private tasting for us! Valerie made the appointment and, after tasting a few wines in the "tasting room", they took us back and let us do two barrel tastings of wines that will be bottled the first week of August and released on September 1st. It was really cool! Here is a picture of the guy pouring a tasting. He got this directly from the barrel behind him.

We then went to GREAT lunch in St. Helena called Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen that I highly recommend. Following lunch, we did one more tasting at Benneserre Vineyards. This was a public tasting and their vineyards were right out the door and you could walk through them and see the tiny grapes. It will be interesting to keep going back to Napa & Sonoma to see how the vines change through the year! September/October are the biggest months in the Napa area (lots of tourists but also apparently the harvest season), so that should be a blast.

We just found out that my friend Kevin from NC (now in PA) is coming out with his wife, Dana, in August! They are vacationing and staying a couple of days in SF before heading up to Napa to veg out and...I'm assuming...get all toasty on wine tastings! We can't wait to have them up (over?).