Friday, July 11, 2014

San Francisco Trip - Day 3 Wine Country

Our third day in San Francisco we rented a car and drove up to the wine country, hitting up Napa Valley first.  In total we toured three wineries or really had a full tour of one and drank at two other wineries.  The drive up was nothing spectacular, but we took the more scenic road on the way back to cross over the Golden Gate Bridge. The drive back was so gorgeous I didn't dare take my eyes of it, not even to get my camera out to take some pictures. 


We had made a reservation a week before our trip to take a tour at Del Dotto, our first stop. This was based off of a recommendation from a friend of ours who has spend a few vacations in the wine country. She said this was by far one of the best tours and wines in the area so we couldn't ignore the recommendation and booked it that night. It was one of the best first Napa wine tour experiences I have every had, haha. We talked to a lot of people who had taken other tours and all said this was their favorite. They also said we were spoiled to have this as our first ever tour in Napa and that the other's wouldn't compare. It was a three hour long tour in these beautiful caves lined with wine barrels and it was only 4-6 people per group. Our tour guide was a cheeky New Zealander who was very knowledgeable about wine and tons of fun. The wine was amazing and you tasted right from the barrels. We even got seconds. Needless to say we had to order a few bottles for ourselves and some friends at the end of the tour. 




After our long tour at Del Dotto and half the day gone we decided to just drive down the main road where all the wineries were off of and try to stop at a few more that didn't require a reservation, which aren't too many. This lead us to BV wineries, which is one of the oldest and largest wineries. We just shared a flight there and it was not extraordinary, however, the girl was really nice and helpful about the area and other wineries to try. So that lead us to our next stop.


Our last and final stop was St. Clement Vineyards, which used to be a personal resident back in the late 1900's of a doctor who lived in San Francisco but vacationed here. It was later bought and converted into a vineyard, which I believe had gone through two owners. However, the draw here was how laid back it was and the beautiful views of the vines below while sitting on the patio. The old house was full of charm and you were surrounded by blue skies and green fields. This made our last stop a great ending to our wine tasting in Napa. 












All in all we can't wait to go back and try new vineyards and wineries and even some of the old ones!


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