13 June - Napa Valley

 13 June
The weather was nice today.  Cool throughout the night, enough to want a blanket on the bed.  This morning we visited the Morale, Welfare and Recreation office on base and got some good info on "GO Card San Francisco" which gives us access to a hop-on, hop-off double-decker bus and many venues.  We also got a map of Napa wine country and a list of military-friendly tasting vineyards.  We also got more information on the ferry system.

We then headed to Napa Valley and visited the Castello di Amorosa vineyard.  There are literally thousands of vineyards in Napa Valley, but this one is really unique.  The name Castello di Amorosa translates to "The Castle of Love" and it is absolutely amazing!  It's founder, Dario Sattui, culminated a live's dream and built an authentic Tuscan castle right here in Napa Valley where we could make Italian-style wines.  So he built a castle, authentic in every aspect.  He used old, handmade materials using the same processed and materials that they would have used 700-800 years ago.  Two-thirds of the castle are underground and it contains eight levels, 107 rooms, and totals 121,000 square feet.  Bricks and iron ornaments came from Europe.

Austrian bricks shipped here for the castle

Locally quarried stone was hand-chiseled, and on and on..  It has a moat, a drawbridge, five towers, courtyards, a church, stables, a Great hall, a torture room and wine cellars that go on for every.  Incredible to say the least.

A view from the parking lot

One of the towers

The draw bridge

Gargoyle, ornamental handcrafted ironwork

We purchased the guided tour and wine tasting package and we are really glad we did.  Our tour guide, Jason, was extremely knowledgeable and did a great job.

Jason describing the courtyard to our group

Jason took us through the castle and described in detail the process of building this magnificent structure.  Had we not had a tour guide we would have really missed out.  Some more pictures:

One of many beautiful paintings, this one in the chapel

Ceiling construction in the chapel

Stonework was unbelievable

The Great Room, which can be rented for special functions.  The biggest table I have ever seen!

More incredible paintings on the walls

This fireplace was imported from Europe and was from the early 1400's, pre-Columbus!

One of the chairs in the Great Room

The area where the grapes are processed, yeast added, etc

Barrels describe the various wine locations in California

Doreen navigating the tunnels

Various sizes of wine bottles

Barrels as far as you can see!

Barrels are used for about four or five years and then they lose their ability to flavor the wine, so they are no longer used here and sold to start-up wineries.  I believe tey said they cost about $1400 each new

Stains from the refilling or topping-off process.

Jason describing the process of refilling the wine barrels as there is loss due to evaporation through the wood.

All of their wine barrels are made in France from oak

Some of this wine is original and over 100 years old. It survived Prohibition and has the original labels on the bottles.

Doreen's knight in shining armor??  Hey I thought that was me?!

The authentic armor and weapons on display

Various weapons

See the chain mail (maille) shirt hanging from the wall.  It is made of metal links that create a mesh

That helmet is made of iron!

Torture room items

Chair full of pointed iron would be very painful

Room after room after room after room of wine barrels.

 Jason then tapped a barrel and we tasted some wine that was not fully developed.  I found it quite bitter and very dry.

 We then moved to the wine tasting room where we had the opportunity to sample many different varieties.  Doreen and I could sample each other's wine, so we sampled 10 different types.

The bar looked like our travertine floor at home!

We each had a book that listed the particulars about each of the wines, and we each had a score sheet to rank them and make notes, AND to mark how many bottles of each we wanted to buy of course!!

Doreen marking her preferences!

Cheers!

We bought a bottle of Moscato and a bottle of La Fantasia.  We are really glad we did this tour.  We intend to visit other wineries while we are here.  We have easy access to the Napa area from our present location, and we can also come back here while we are at Petaluma also.

Driving here is interesting.  There is apparently a severe shortage of turn signal fluid here as no one's turn signal seems to work.  They either drive like a bat out of hell, or they poke along.  It is very common to see people apply their brakes while traveling 70 mph down the interstate for no apparent reason.  People like to exit the interstate by traveling in the left lane and then all of a sudden just turn right across four or five lanes of traffic and exit the off-ramp.  Even though I unleash my vocabulary on them it does not seem to make a difference.  It just raises my blood pressure LOL.

We finished up the evening grilling some burgers and had a great conversation with the neighbors who are from northern CA, about our trip from Petaluma to Redding and on up to Oregon.  Based on that conversation and a review of the map we may alter our plans just a bit.

Tomorrow we will head through San Francisco to visit some lighthouses on the coast and then to San Mateo where Doreen's cousin Jim Schwandt lives.  While we are there we will see Dan's wifes's sister Kayse Nation and she will give us a tour of Facebook where she works.  If I survive driving the RAM through all that there will be a report tomorrow night.