The Hills are Alive...with the Smell of Vino!

I swore I could smell the wine even with the windows rolled up even as we entered the city of Napa. I thought I was just dreaming. Twenty minutes into our drive from the south end of the Napa Valley to the north Will and I both could swear we were smelling the scents of the vine waft beneath our noses. Maybe it's easier to believe you can smell pig manure, skunk spray, sulphur, or any other manner of putrid aromas through the car windows rather than the good stuff. Finally I rolled down my passenger window and shouted for joy, "Holy CRAP you could get DRUNK just by breathing in AIR!!!". Not that I wanted to find myself inebriated, but the smell was so lovely I could have died. But that would've spoiled the day no doubt.

Will and I took the day off from the tedium of moving logistics and drove an hour to Napa Valley where we began our tour of the area heading north on highway 29. A bustling 2-lane highway, (that apparently the locals have fought to keep from becoming a divided freeway) the 29 runs through perfectly-sized towns that embrace the local agriculture and culture that emanates from it. Since today we were just getting the lay of the land and didn't know how long it would take us to circuit through the valley, we didn't stop in the beginning, but definitely plan on going back both on our own and with visitors ;-)

We finished the drive north with a stop in the quaint town of Calistoga with a great brunch al fresco at the Calistoga Inn, and with the temperature at a relaxing 20 ℃ or so, I couldn't have been happier. We continued our drive by cutting through Calistoga to the Silverado Trail, a bit of a quieter drive through the eastern edge of Napa Valley and right along the base of the mountains, the bottom half of which were covered in vineyards.

Let me interrupt here by saying this: I have NEVER, EVER in my life thought I would see SO MANY VINEYARDS. Will and I didn't quite know what we were in for, and although I'd seen plenty of photos, I had no idea that the ENTIRE valley floor and hillsides would be covered with vineyards from east to west, north to south. It seemed there wasn't an acre of land left for anything else unless you intended to grow or build something on the steepest part of the mountainsides. It reminded me of southern Spain where in some areas all you could see were olive groves, or outside of Lincoln, Nebraska where corn reigns supreme all the way to the horizon. Napa made the Okanagan's 'wine region' look puny--and don't get me wrong, I'm proud of our burgeoning wine country back home, but this was UNBELIEVABLE! You could spend weeks cycling, walking or driving through Napa's 300 or so glorious wineries on back roads and main thoroughfares, staying in cozy B&B's or luxurious spas, drinking and eating to your heart's content (and till your liver's said ENOUGH!). I fell in love and decided that should I ever have the money, I'd like a gallery in Calistoga or St. Helens and a Tuscan-style cottage in the hills overlooking a vineyard. Hey, as my mom says, 'dreaming is free'!

Probably one of the highlights of our little adventure was our stop at S. Vattui Winery which I'd heard had gotten a bit over-comercialised, but felt like it was still worth a stop. It was at least worth the bottles of Sauvignon Blanc and Madiera we bought to start out our wine collection! We stopped in at their tasting room and tried six different wines from both their regular and premium lists and fell hard for the two we bought. The SB is a great dinner white, hearty enough to eat with meats, seafood and pasta. The Madiera is a dessert wine, and while I never thought I was a fan of sweet wines, I loooved the caramel and hazelnut overtones. A wee bit spicy, perfect for warming you up at the end of a day, and sounds delightful warmed up and poured over a cup of French Vanilla ice cream.

Ahh, so that's that...a great day together in wine country (a locale that can only be topped by wine regions in Italy and France I'm guessing) and some souvenirs to take home! Not to mention a solid idea of wineries to visit and roads to travel in the future!

Cheers!