Napa Wine Tour

We had planned to take a trip to Napa Valley and tour some of the wineries, but when we heard about the earthquake, we thought it would  not be possible.  However, after being in the San Francisco area a few days after the quake, businesses were pleading for people to come to the towns and wineries.  They needed the business.  This is one of the busiest times of the year for them.  They usually start harvesting the grapes in September, but we found out that most in this area had already started picking the grapes a few weeks early due to the dry weather.  

My nephew, Jim Stancil, lives in San Francisco and has visited the Robert Mondavi winery on a couple of occasions.  He really enjoyed the tour and recommended that one to us.  

Since we had to pass right by the town of Napa on our way to the winery, we decided to drive through and see some of the damage from the quake.   It had only been about a week since the quake, so we weren't surprised to see the amount of damage still visible.

Most of the damage shown in the pictures below were what they had been showing on TV. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several of these trailers were sitting around different areas in town.

 

 

 

 

Not far down the road from the town of Napa, we saw cars pulled over and realized everyone was stopping for a photo op! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop is the Robert Mondavi winery for our guided tour.

 

 

 

 

Some of the grapes in the vineyard had already been picked, however, they must leave rows around the parking lot for us tourist to take pictures of and taste.  They were small grapes, but very sweet.

 

 

 

 

There were also olive trees in the parking area.

 

 

 

 

 

Some of  the wine bottle labels have a picture of this statue on them.  We were told that you could only purchase those bottles from this winery.  They were not available in any retail stores. 

 

 

 

The grounds were beautiful.

 

 

 

 

There were several seating areas on the property, however, some were used only for wine tastings.

 

 

 

 

 

There are some of the other eating areas.  The weather is so nice you can actually sit out and feel very comfortable. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking a break.

 

 

 

 

These were huge hand carved doors that came from a castle in Spain.

 

 

 

 

 

This was our tour guide.  She was really nice and very informative.

 

 

 

 

These are some pictures we took of the wine barrels stacked inside.

 

 

 

 

 

The workers were busy taking barrels back and forth from one area to another.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These huge vats on the left hold many gallons of fermenting wine.  The tour guide told us these barrels are rotated  every so often to test the wine.  The numbers are written down and when the wine reaches the perfect number it is bottled. ( She gave us the specifics, but I can't remember what she said :-) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of the old presses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a new press.  The working principal is the same, but instead of people turning the press handles, it is done automatically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This area was white wine.  You can tell by the barrels.   There are no red stripes on the barrels.

 

 

 

 

 

After our tour of the grounds and facility, we ended up in the gift shop.  What?  :)