Saturday, October 15, 2011

Ok, where were we….


So, day three.  My brother-in-law's uncle, who is in the 'business' in that area, was kind enough to make a reservation for a tour for us.  Many of the vineyards were scrambling to get their grapes harvested because they had had more rain, earlier than usual.  As a result, many wineries weren't doing private tours this weekend.  But, we lucked out & were able to go on some great ones.  


Today we started off at Clos Pegase.  What's neat about this winery is the art displayed all over the property.  The owners were huge art collectors, so the vineyard is as much about that, as it is wine.  We had an amusing and knowledgable tour guide who really took his time with our group.  
Only drawback here was, there was no tasting during the tour.  
We had to wait over an hour before we tasted any wine.  (I know, sinful.)  
We learned some things about the wine making process that we didn't know, enjoyed the beautiful weather & tasted some decent wines, before making our way to our next stop.










'Gaia' - The flowers are replaced regularly, as a memorial to the Mrs. who recently passed away.



From there we jumped back in the convertible & drove to the Oakville Grocery.  We got some delicious goodies for a picnic.  I highly recommend stopping there if you ever have the chance.  Then we headed on to Chateau Montelena (another one of Matt's favorites).  The grounds were beautiful & we snuck past the 'reserved' sign & had lunch in the island gazebo.  We didn't time it right for a tour, but we had a great tasting here.  More really good wine.  We even shared our tasting with another TX couple.  They were from Waco, but we let them stay anyway.
  











After some relaxation time back at the suite, we rallied & stopped by The Saloon at Jack London Lodge.  (A scene from the movie Bottleshock was also shot here.)  We had a drink and were tempted to stay & celebrate with the 50th wedding anniversary party that was going on.  From the looks of it, it was the place to be.  But we left because we had reservations at another place that came highly recommended - Cafe La Haye.  It did not disappoint either!  There were only about 10-12 tables in the whole place.  Very quaint.  And DELICIOUS!  We had great service, great food, and of course, great wine.  All in all, another amazing day in the wine country!










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