Can we take a few moments to discuss my spur of the moment, Monday afternoon, high speed trip to Napa?

Napa seems to be in a perpetual state of sunshine.  It’s absolutely gorgeous.  There are grapes everywhere.  If not actually growing from the earth, then engraved into the side of a freeway overpass, or painted on…. um… every available space in Napa.  Turns out they’re really into grapes.

Can I be honest?  Napa was a little too uppity, snootypants for my taste.  I know just enough about wine to make my way through a conversation about tannins and acid, grape varietals, oak aging and whatever other terms wine people drop…. but I don’t think good wine should be all about the secret, and unapproachable language of wine.

I discovered, in these few hours in Napa, that the beauty of wine is all in the land.  See, it’s the land that creates the beautiful grapes.  It’s the land that’s beautifully adored and so carefully tended.  It’s the careful love of soil that creates such beauty up in wine country.  The care is evident in the carefully places acres and rows of grapevines.  It’s lovely to see the earth adored for what it can produce.  I feel like the story should be about the people and the land… not about fruit forward mouth feels… or whatever.

Here’s the deal:

The looking.  The strolling out in the sun.  The lazy walks through the tall grass of the vineyards… that’s free.

The tastings and the wine… so very far from affordable.  Do I sound like I’m looking for a free ride?  It’s not that, it’s just that a $65 bottle of wine is outside, way outside, my wallet’s comfort zone.  Fact.

I need your help.  I need your wine country guidance.  Where’s the wine with spunk?  Where’s the wine with story?  Where’s the wine that will make me want to give three cheers to Napa.  Let’s go there this spring.  Seriously, we’ll make it a party!

Five hours in Napa… ready, set, GO!

Drink wine.  Talk about tannins, body, oak barrels and finish.  Blah Blah Blaaaaahs.

Stomp around the vineyards like you own the joint (pictured above).

And stop by Fatted Calf to talk about how approachable and awesome American charcuterie can be.

More later!  Right now I’ve got more ground to stomp, and a plane to catch.