Day 7: Wine Country (Part 1)

After a very late night...the alarm rang bright and early. Ugh..wish we had more time to enjoy our luxury surroundings, but we had a plane to catch. We were headed to WINE COUNTRY. Woo hoo!

After landing, we rented another convertible, but this one a little more relevant to the locale we were in :)

We headed north to Napa.....

It wasn't long before we started seeing grape vines EVERYWHERE. Vines, yes, grapes no.

Our innkeepers in Napa had sent us some online recommendations a couple of weeks before they arrived, and one of them was this grocery store for lunch...they were right...we had some incredible sandwiches-probably the best we have ever had.

More grape vines and mountains...really a pretty view everywhere.

We had a late afternoon appointment our first day at Beringer Vineyards for their Rhine House Tour...which included tastings and a tour of the Beringer Mansion.

The grounds of the Beringer Vineyards are gorgeous...everything was still in bloom. As we were walking around, we got a call from Taylor telling us it was SNOWING in CT. Meanwhile, it was about 70 degrees and beautiful in Napa Valley.
Guess we picked a good week to leave New England!

With a glass of chardonnay in hand, we followed our tour guide to the Rhine House...

John (the tour guide) was very charming....and has a pretty good job, as he gets to taste too.

Beautiful mansion...we couldn't wait to get inside.

There were stained glass windows, stained glass doors, stained glass cubbyholes... it was everywhere.

How's this for a mantel decoration?

Bill Shakespeare in the library room, of course.

Books about the house were for sale....

More stained glass....it was glowing in the afternoon light.

The inlaid floors were stunning too.

We got to sit for tasting #4 and #5 (thankfully).

Another tasting room.

Someone was having a private tasting for themselves and a few friends...I took a peek at the wine selection....veeeerrrrrryyyyyy expensive.

We finished up our wine tastings with a dessert wine...a beautiful color, but way too sweet for my taste.

Jim seemed to like it, though.

The house tour was very interesting...something a little different than what we were planning on seeing over the next few days.We also met some nice people from Massachusetts who are a group of about 6 couples who vacation together every year. Each year they all nominate a vacation spot, vote and the top vote getter is where they travel to. Isn't that cool?

After our tour we drove south back to the town of Napa and checked in to Inn on First, our next B+B...more about that later!