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Napa/Sonoma Anniversary Trip

So...it's been a month since we celebrated our first anniversary in Napa and Sonoma California.  I've been a bit of a slacker for sure!  Anyway, one of our bucket list items was to go wine tasting in Napa and we decided to do so while celebrating one year of marriage.

 It was lovely y'all.  The weather was perfect and I would highly suggest going in the Fall.  It was after harvest, the wineries weren't so packed you could barely move and the leaves on the vines were breath taking!  We had highs in the 60's almost every day and no rain or fog.  Perfection!

 The first part of our trip was dedicated to time together.  We stayed at a lovely cottage in Sonoma through that we found on Trip Advisor.  LOVE that website!  Anyway, rather than go into a trillion details about each winery and each wine, I thought I'd list them out with a couple of pictures from each one. 

 Napa Wine Train & Castello di Amorosa:  Day long trip that included a 3 course lunch and winery tour and tasting.  We got this as a package an had a great time!
On the train

View from our car on the train!

Who's in Heaven?  THIS girl.
Chateau Montelena (see the movie, Bottle Shock)...we're now wine club members!  Robert Mondavi Winery...super pretty!  Beringer...a disappointment because they actually don't seem to make their wine like they used to anymore, but our tour guide, Jack, was AMAZING!  He's been there for 30 plus years and was knowledgeable about everything.  Super awesome guy and high recommend meeting him if nothing else!
Gorgeous!



Mondavi had to be one of my favorites as far as the scenery!  Wine was meh, but the vineyard was AWESOME!




 Gloria Ferrer...LOVED it!  Great views, great tour and I learned about how one of my favorite bubbly beverages of all time is made.  Super laid back and a ton of fun!  Jacuzzi Family Vineyards (yes...they invented it) was another fun place we read about and decided to visit.  It was pretty and the wines were great! Gundlach Bundschu (gun, lock, bun, shoe) was a complete hidden gem and probably our favorite!  We became members and were blown away by the quality of wines.  They're in their 5th & 6th generation of family owned and operated wine making which isn't too common around there anymore!  Domanie Carneros was really pretty with a great bubbly rose, but the prices were pretty expensive.
The driveway to Gloria Ferrer


Beautiful, no?





Jacuzzi!



Hah....found this guy and had to take a pic!

At Gundlach Bundschu
We decided that Sonoma was our favorite place of the two.  It was more laid back and we found a couple of real gems that we just stumbled upon.  We realized that 4 days was not enough to even begin to put a dent in what California has to offer when it comes to wine tasting. Our plan was to not have a plan, get in the car and go and even though we didn't have a set itinerary (NOT like me at all), I was glad we played it by ear because we wouldn't have found some of the wineries we did.  I sort of wish that we had done a bit more research before going because we would have tried to visit a couple other valleys while we there to try some other varietals.  Oh well, I guess we're just going to have to go back!
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