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| Domaine Carneros Winery in Napa, CA |
Wine before noon? In Napa! We drove west, back towards Napa, Monday morning for a 10:15 wine tasting. What a treat!!
The chateau was built in 1988, inspired by the Chateau de la Marquette in France. The Chateau de la Marquette is the country home and estate of the Taittinger family, founder of Domaine Carneros. It is considered one of the most beautiful wineries in North America.
My requests were fulfilled. I had a tour, as well as tasting yesterday at Berryessa Gap Vineyards, and wine tasting at one of the top scenic wineries, Domaine Carneros today.
I loved both spots but they were very different. They both had various wine tasting and tour packages. Berryessa Gap was a lot more informal and laid back. It was beautiful, but a natural beauty. Wine tasting for a flight of 5, plus the tour was $40 per person. I like Malbec so Woody gave us a sample of it too. These fees were taken off of our purchases. Wines were nearly all in the $20-30 range. Wines were excellent.
Domaine Carneros is in the Napa Valley. It was more formal. It was beautiful but in a more planned, sculpted way. They charged $40 each for the 4 flight tasting. Here it wasn't taken off the purchase price. Our waiter, Richard, was super nice and offered us a 5th tasting. Their wines were around $30-125. Wines were excellent. A cheese or charcuterie tray was available as well as Caviar.
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| Since I always need food after wine, Pat went ahead and got a cheese tray today. |
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| We had a persistent friend. |
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| I told Pat that a bathroom tells a lot about a place. |
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| Scenery after we left the winery. |
Heading back after the winery we passed through Fairfield, home of the Jelly Belly factory. Time for a tour!
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| Ronald Reagan was a big fan of Jelly Bellies. |
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| Molds for the Jelly Belly centers. |
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Molds for gummy rats.
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Below the rotating drum is sorting out Jelly Bellies that are too big or small. They are kicked out of the front.
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| Sorting out the "Belly Flops." They sell these rejects in the gift store. |
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| There were lots of Jelly Belly portraits. |
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| Lots of goodies in the gift shop. They make other candies besides jelly beans including, gummies, licorice, candy corn, and CHOCOLATES. I noticed the cafe had Jelly Belly ice cream. |
Zoom with Boston has moved to Monday nights. Medical advances! Our daughter-in-law, Zia, had an emergency appendectomy Sunday morning, came home that afternoon, and was with us tonight for zoom. Glad she is doing so well! Not sure how well it works over zoom, but I'm going to try reading to Cyrus and Samira. "Trapped in a Video Game #4," and the first book in "The Critter Club." Will a chapter a week work? We'll see.
I've had too much wine. A 3 hour nap this evening. Pat was in bed pretty early too.
Where are the Piepers now? Vacaville, CA
When Mom and I were in Napa and Sonoma Valleys years ago we did a tour at the Berringer winery and I think we also stopped at a Chateau winery but I don't remember the name. It could have been in the Sonoma Valley. We drove through both of them on the way from San Francisco to visit Mel and Alayne when they were living near Sacramento.
ReplyDeleteThe Berringer Winery itself looked pretty neat. We're already planning a return trip, when we come west in a couple of years to finish up states and National Parks. It would be fun to have someone to go to the wineries with...!
DeleteThat sounds like a plan. Fall 2023.
DeleteOK, we will expect you! We go to Alaska in June of 2023. Then we will pick up the Dakotas and Wyoming and a few National Park's including the two we just missed because they were closed, Sequoia and Kings Canyon. We'll also have 1 off the coast of CA to get before we head somewhere for the winter. I will really look forward to returning to Napa!
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