A trip to Napa

This Sunday we took our friend Eduardo to Napa. Eduardo is visiting from Spain on an international postharvest technology scholarship and has been working in my lab for the past few months. He has been almost everywhere in California except Napa, so we decided to take him on a day tour through the area.

The vineyards as seen from Castello di Amorosa

We started off by visiting the Napa Visitor's Center, always a good idea, and decided we'd visit some of our favorite wineries as well as a few new ones that we had never been to. We enjoyed champagne tasting at Domaine Chandon, the free self-guided tour and smell-a-vision kiosks at St. Supery , the sun and the views and delicious cabernet sauvignon at the Robert Mondavi winery, and had burgers and fries at Taylor's Refresher (one of our favorite places to eat). Their Ahi Burger is amazing, as are their sweet potato fries. We also visited the Culinary Institute for the Arts at Greystone in St. Helena, which was a beautiful old Hogwart's style building with lots of culinary goodies inside.

Tasting champagne at Domaine Chandon

The long lines at Taylor's Refresher, well worth the wait!

During our last visit to Napa with Andy and Patti, we saw as Castle in the distance from the Sterling winery views. We asked about the castle at the visitors center and learned that one of the owners of a winery down the road had a love for Italian history and Italian castles, so he had a few shiploads of Italian rock sent over and built a castle, the Castello di Amorosa. It was sort of strange, but very cool. They do have tours of the castle for an arm and a leg, but we did the $10 tasting only deal and were able to wander around the castle a bit. I thought the best part was seeing a little girl who came to visit--she was dressed up in her snow white costume and running around the castle like she was a little princess. Quite cute.

Castello di Amorosa

It was an enjoyable trip, one of our longer times spent in Napa, and it was nice that we got to see some new places. We're so grateful that Napa is so closeby! So that means all of you come visit us in Davis so we can do a day trip to Napa!