Leaping Stags and Honking Ducks

Up until now we have been hitting new wineries. Today, we wanted to revisit some of our favorite wineries Napa. Our old friend Trefethen was worth the stop as usual. And as usual, I spent way too much time taking photos of their vineyards and grounds. Their wine was spectacular as usual. I don't know how they make so many standout wines.

We went to the fabulous Stag's Leap. Stags Leap leapt to noterity when their Cabernet won the 1976 Paris wine tasting. Their wines are indeed awesome and may inspire your own leaping. The pourer was very knowledgable about the wines and we had a very good time tasting of some of their single vineyard Cabernets. It's amazing how you can test the effect of different soils on in the final wines.

We were driving right by Robert Sinskey, so we swung into their drive and headed in. They do have a nice tasting area, complete with a koi pond. I'm a sucker for koi ponds, don't know why. The fun thing about Sinskey is that they give you a little plate of food to pair with the wines you are drinking.

The next stop on our Napa express was Duckhorn. Duckhorn provides a very classy and relaxing tasting experience. They sit you down at a table and bring the wine to you. The server gives you a spiel about the wine and leaves you a card with information about the wine as well. It also helps that their wines are world class. Their tasting room and grounds are workd class as well. We had a plesant and relaxing to stroll around the grounds before heading to the next destination.

Our next destination was a bit of the beaten path The Hess Collection is not in the Valley itself, but instead is located on one of the nearby mountains. The interesting thing about Hess is that it is not only a winery, but it is a pretty significant collection of modern art. My favorite is a typewriter that has flames shooting from it. We're taking an real typewriter and real flames. It's perfect for writing recipes and testing them at the same time. The gardens outside are a work of art onto themselves.

Dinner brought us to Brix in Yountville. We sat outside with a view of their wonderful garden. This garden is the source of many of the components of the dishes served here. The standout part of our meal was the corn and candied bacon pizza. They say that everything tastes better with pizza, and this course proved it correct.