While visiting Rudy’s family over the Holidays, we decided to spend one of our days in Napa. I had never been and always wanted to go. You know when you hear about a place or person and you create this image in your mind of how it’s going to be? Well, I had my idea of what Napa was going to be like, but it was so much more!
Since Napa was only 2 1/2 hours from Rudy’s parents, we decided to drive in that morning and stay the night. We hoped that by going on a Sunday, we would avoid a lot of the weekend crowds.
We arrived in Napa around 11AM and started our day at Silverado Vineyards. Since it was earlier in the morning, we were their first guest and received great one on one customer service.
The tasting room was in this gorgeous building. We enjoyed our tasting at their bar surrounded by all of the Christmas decorations they still had up.
The winery sat on top of a hill overlooking the vineyard. The views were amazing!
Although it was a little chilly, we braved the cold and enjoyed some of our wine on their balcony.
Once we finished the delicious wines at Silverado, we were off to our next stop. If you know me, you know I LOVE anything bubbly. Luckily, our server at Silverado told us about Mumm, who is known for their Sparkling Wine.
Rudy isn’t a big sparkling wine drinker, so we purchase one flight to ‘share’. I use share lightly because Rudy maybe had 1 sip out of the four glasses. The wine was amazing, the views were breathtaking and I was in heaven!
I have to be honest, I was so excited about this stop that I forgot to take any pictures except this one on the way out.
After we left Mumm, we ventured over to Opus One Winery. Now, Mumm was my favorite because it was sparkling but from a wine perspective, Opus One was the best.
This stop came highly recommended by our friends and after enjoying the wine, the estate and the views, I understand why. Unlike other wineries, Opus One only makes one wine every harvest. Their goal is to produce one extraordinary wine each year.
As soon as you pull into the drive, you are greeted with beautiful sights. The drive leading up to the estate was lined by trees on each side.
Once inside, you are greeted by a host, who takes your name and other information. You are then escorted to the tasting room. Here you can purchase your one glass of wine, if you choose. Now, the one glass is $45 per person, but I promise it is worth it.
Once we purchased our glass, we went up to their atrium and took in the views while sipping on their 2011 vintage.
My handsome hubby!
Once we left Opus One, we decided to stop for some lunch at Dean & Deluca. Not only were we hungry, I need some food to soak up some of the alcohol.
After we finished lunch, we ventured on to Castellio di Amorosa. Although the winery just open in 2007, the castle was built to look like it was from the 12th Century.
To be completely honest, I enjoyed touring the castle more than I enjoyed the wine. We had avoided huge crowds until we got here. There were so many people, that we had to wait 30-45 minutes just to get a glass of wine. It was a little annoying on how crowded it was but the castle was amazing.
The castle as we were walking up
This was one of the storage rooms that we passed while going down to the tasting room.
In the basement of the castle, they had this little store. I’m not sure how I was able to capture this picture without anyone in it!
One of my favorite things about the castle was all the doors and they were everywhere.
Our final stop for the day was Robert Mondavi Winery. By this time, we were almost maxed out on wine. You can only drink so much wine in one day but thought we would stop to at least take in the views. It was the perfect way to end our day in Napa.
If you have never been to Napa, I highly recommend going. There are so many wineries to visit and the views are spectacular. Rudy and I will definitely go back on our next trip to California.
Thanks for stopping by this morning and Happy Monday!
xoxo,
Tiffany
