There and back again…now with Hyperlinks!

airplane mountains This looking out my window after taking off from LAS. And the baggage claim area at SMF. On the 29th of January I left for a trip to see the bosses in CA. This was supposed to be a trip with Joseph. Obviously that did not happen. It was the “what-are-we-doing-this-year” meeting, and the annual release of the new vintage year at Silver Oak Winery. Several other wineries in Napa take advantage of the crowds this release produces, and they too offer up their new releases (if they have any). Silver Oak released a 2003 cab, and it is spectacular. They call it a soft year, I guess because it is infinitely drinkable right now. If you can lay your hands on some do. They say you can cellar it for 20 more years if you want, but I would drink up now. FABULOUS!Well anyway, I get ahead of myself. We laid out our calendar for the year and discussed who goes where, when. I am doing my usual run of GA, Bristol, TRF; without any extraneous activities this year. It rained nearly every day, but we had one day of sun at the Ranch. Ken took me to the apple side of the mountain this time. Where the Cabs and Italian varietals grow.Here is Lava Cap in the snow. And since we had one day of sun, we had a sunset. This is through the trees on the Ranch. Ok, so finally, off to the Napa Valley. Most people think that they need to go to Napa (the town) for the wineries, but nope. The wineries are actually divided up into sections… Rutherford, St, Helena, Oakville…etc.We spent most of our time in St. Helena, and Oakville. The first day was a trip to Altamura along super windey roads. I even almost got carsick. Yuck! This is a gorgeous vineyard. Some of the prettiest country I have ever seen. It is a little off the beaten path, and hard to find, but worth it. We only missed the driveway once. -smile- Then on to Caymus in St. Helena. They are very proud of themselves, but I was not. It was fun though to see how the big boys do it. We visited another couple of smaller wineries, and then stopped in at out hotel, before Dinner. We ate at the Culinary Institute of America. I thought “I ate at the CIA” t-shirts would be amusing, but apparently no one else did.The next day was up early for Silver Oak. Did I take any pics, nope! Not a one. It was cold, wet, and there was wine. *shrug*See top of post for thoughts on Silver Oak.We left Silver Oak to see what we could discover of the other people riding the coat-tails. Here we find Cakebread. An Absolutely stupid name, but we had the most fun here of anywhere.Here are some of their vines.They were offering three wines. They had them all paired with bread, cheese, meat and fruit. Oh, their pairings were heavenly. All the people there were happy, energetic, and knowledgeable. The mood of the crowd was 120% better than at the larger wineries.I made sure I took the time to let the tasting room manager that I thought his arrangement was very effective and enjoyable. I just wanted to say ” Thank you!” We visited a few other places including Beringer. Their wine is hideous, but they put on a nice presentation, and their history is impressive. They still store their wine und They have 4 lovely barrels that are carved from Germany. They were built in 1835. Just amazing! And finally back to WI. It is stressful, but there are rewards too. Coming back to my lovely kitties, is good for the soul. It makes the difficulty of this whole situation a little easier to digest. Tomorrow I pack.