Time to check out and head to our last scheduled activity. First stop, of course, is breakfast at the Oxbow market. Straight to the breakfast taco shop, but I decide to check out another spot that has some great pictures. Yes indeed, I ordered a second breakfast. Turns out to be so much better than the first: sweet corn pancake wrapped around beans, fried plaintains, avocado, grilled tofu and chipotle creme. Mmmmm.
Into the car and up just past Calistoga, we turn into Chateau Montalena, set in a beautiful wooded area nestled up to the hills:
Stacey’s pick and the subject of a Hollywood movie:
If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s about the famous “judgment heard around the word” in a 1976 wine tasting event in France. The blind tasting resulted in some (snobby) oenophiles selecting (gasp!) a California wine winner in both the red and white categories. It was shocking and unbelievable to say the least, and marked the “arrival” of Napa Valley wines to the world.
It seems we got a little misinformation from our tour director and arrived late for our scheduled library tasting, but they hastily sent us back to a nice room and we were soon introduced to Joel, who gave us history and information on about 6 different wines:
We oohed and aahed and the sniffers even got a little wine on their lips. We all agreed it was by far the best tasting we’d had so far, and soon Joel was scribbling away our information as one by one, we joined their wine club:
Here I am in front of the wine-making tool I was hoping to dance in, a la Lucy Ricardo:
Damage done, we hit the road back to Napa for our lunch at Celadon. One of the best of the bunch, I’d say. We walked through a lovely, flowered entryway into a covered patio area and enjoyed some yummy food.
Time to drive into the big city. With Stacey at the wheel and Lee giving directions (and damn good at it, we all must say), we arrived in a little over an hour safely at our hotel just off of Union Square. We walked around a bit and hung out until we had to leave at 8 pm for dinner and Lee headed back to the airport, returning our rental car on the way. Dinner at Spruce was lovely. Back in a residential neighborhood up on one of the many hills, we enjoyed our meal then cabbed it back for a restful evening.