Pictures and info page three | |
On day three we were scheduled to meet up with a friend of
mine from Mountain View that I knew from when I lived in CA. It
was actually their wedding anniversary weekend, as our last trip
to CA was last year during the same week of October when I was
a groomsman in his wedding. We headed to Napa and had a crappy
breakfast in a run-down, corner cafe in downtown Napa. For such
an upscale looking, classy northern California small-town, downtown
Napa didn't have anywhere to get breakfast, fast-food or otherwise.
We were under the gun to get to Opus One by 10:30AM because according to their website there was a tour. We made it on time, but unfortunately either because it didn't say on the site or there was an error on my part, reservations were required for the tour. We were in luck though as someone had cancelled and the woman doing the tour graciously allowed us to join at the last minute. (Note, contrary to other trips I had made to Napa, we elected to dress a bit more upscale than just jeans and I think it was reflected in the treatment we received.) If I had been in my favorite comfortable clothes of jeans and a t-shirt instead of my dress pants and a nice golf shirt, we may not have been invited to join the tour at the last minute. As with other wineries we had visited, Opus One was doing their harvest so we were able to witness the grapes being sorted and loaded into gravity-press, stainless-steel tanks. The tour lasted about an hour and we elected to skip the tasting offered because it was $25 a taste, per wine! Our stops after Opus One on Thursday Oct 2nd were in the following order. The winery names are links to their websites, if they have one. |
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Our first stop after Opus One was Niebaum-Coppola, hardly a 1/4 mile down
the road and across the street. More commercialized that what we had become
accustomed to in Sonoma, it was still a beautiful setting with excellent
wines. It was also quite crowded. Hardly worth getting back in the rental
car to drive to since it's so close, our next stop was Grgich Hills on the
same side of the road as Niebaum. This was a smaller atmosphere, but I
wouldn't say it was relaxed. One of the people serving the tastings was
quite rude and couldn't be bothered to answer any questions or even come
back in a timely manner when you wanted to move onto another wine. The wines
here were excellent, but we felt uncomfortable in a snobbish atmosphere.
We didn't buy anything.
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Opus One winery tour, sorting |
Opus One winery tour, sorting |
Opus One winery tour, sorting |
Opus One winery tour, sorting |
Opus One winery tour, barrel aging |
Opus One winery tour, barrel aging |
Niebaum-Coppola |
Niebaum-Coppola |
Cardinale |
Niebaum-Coppola |
Artesa
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Artesa |
Artesa |
Artesa with our friends |
Mustard's Grill |