{"id":784617,"date":"2011-10-19T22:25:25","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T22:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/?p=784617"},"modified":"2011-10-19T22:25:25","modified_gmt":"2011-10-19T22:25:25","slug":"beautiful-napa-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/2011\/10\/19\/beautiful-napa-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful Napa Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

My cousin, Terry, came down for a quick visit from Washington state. \u00a0We snuck away for a day trip to Napa Valley.<\/p>\n

I dropped the kids off at a friend’s house, (thank you, Tina), and we were in Napa just before noon. \u00a0Our friends Eric and Crystal were coincidentally in Napa, celebrating their anniversary. \u00a0They joined us and spent the day with us.<\/p>\n

First stop:<\/strong> Duckhorn<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a favorite wine of a client of ours, so went there first to pick up a couple of bottles for him. \u00a0They encourage reservations, but we were able to be seated without them. \u00a0The property is lovely and the tasting room is bright and airy, with natural sunlight shining through the windows.<\/p>\n

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The path from the parking lot to the property…
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Eric and Crystal in the tasting room…
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David and me…
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Next stop:<\/strong> Cuvaison\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

This property has one of my two favorite pinot noirs right now. \u00a0They also have two tasting rooms. \u00a0One tasting room is in the Carneros region. \u00a0It is a beautiful, modern, room, with a patio that overlooks their vines. \u00a0Gorgeous. \u00a0The other tasting room is on the Silverado Trail. \u00a0It is not as visually impressive as the Carneros room, but it is still nice, and bonus, you can picnic here. \u00a0(Only select properties allow picnicking.)<\/p>\n

If I can share two good Napa Valley tips, they would be these: 1) Share tastings. \u00a0Not only do you save money, but you can also visit more properties. \u00a02) Buy your picnic items at home and bring them, instead of waiting in the insane boutique grocery lines in Napa to pick up lunch.<\/p>\n

I brought a picnic lunch for us to enjoy at Cuvaison. \u00a0The weather was perfect, and we all marveled at the amazing day we were having.<\/p>\n

Terry, me, David
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\nDavid, Eric, Crystal, Terry
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Heading to stop 3, we were behind a truck full of grapes!<\/p>\n

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Next stop: Darioush<\/a><\/p>\n

If I had anything negative to say about this day, was that everyone else had the same idea to visit Napa. \u00a0We were stuck in traffic everywhere. \u00a0Something that typically would take 15 minutes was doubled. \u00a0Oh well.<\/p>\n

Darioush had been a place that I had wanted to go to for quite a while. \u00a0I had heard that their tasting room is one of the most visually beautiful places to visit. The grounds are unique and gorgeous, and yes, so was the tasting room. Unfortunately, it was so busy, we decided not to wait around for a tasting. \u00a0Next time.<\/p>\n

Getting ready to go in…
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Back on the road. \u00a0We did not stop here, but this is a drive by shot of one of our favorite wineries for their quality wine: Chimney Rock\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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Final stop:<\/strong> Domaine Carneros\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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This is not necessarily a tip, but a preference. \u00a0We always start or end our wine trail with a sparkling wine. \u00a0This is our favorite place to end our trail. \u00a0Domaine Carneros. \u00a0I have posted about this magnificent property before. \u00a0They have an incredible patio that overlooks the hills.<\/p>\n

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We were stuck in traffic most of the way home, but it was worth it.<\/p>\n

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My cousin, Terry, came down for a quick visit from Washington state. \u00a0We snuck away for a day trip to Napa Valley. I dropped the kids off at a friend’s house, (thank you, Tina), and we were in Napa just before noon. \u00a0Our friends Eric and Crystal were coincidentally in Napa, celebrating their anniversary. \u00a0They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-784617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thisnthat"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784617"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":784647,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784617\/revisions\/784647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}