Napa Valley, Day 2

To kick off our second full day in the Valley, we headed up North to Castello di Amorosa. Designed to an authentic representation of a 13th century Tuscan castle, I was very much looking forward to checking this place out. I mean, I love Tuscan wines (read our engagement story to see why) so how could I not love this place???

We didn't do the full tour, but we did do a tasting here. 

The wines were fine, but definitely nothing to write home about. This was probably my least favorite tasting experience (partially due to the wines and partially because of the pushy salesman serving us) but the view alone made the trip well worth it. 

Feeling ever so slightly disheartened and ready to try some real (non-touristy) wines, we decided to swing over to Twomey Cellars, the sister store of our favorite place from the day before, Silver Oak.

The wine tasting room is nothing fancy, but it was quiet clean and the staff were so friendly.

The best part? We tried their 2009 Merlot and instantly fell in love. We went to Napa to find the perfect Cabernet and ended up walking out the door with a Merlot. That's how good it was. I will definitely go back there again.

After two tastings, we were ready for lunch, so decided to try and get in at another famous Napa restaurant, the Rutherford Grill.

They were on a little bit of a wait, so we popped next door to BV Vineyards for a quick tasting. We drink their wine alot at home, so we knew it would be a good tasting experience. By this point in the day, I was feeling fantastic and very quickly made best friends with Victor, who let me take a picture with him and a giant wine bottle. Don't question it.



Thankfully, it was then time to eat, and I ordered an incredibly simple and DELICIOUS cheeseburger. It was seriously so good, and exactly what I needed to, ahem, sober up and enjoy the rest of the day.

Next up? Opus One.

I always see Opus One listed under the Carbernet sections at restuarants, but I never order because, oh, I don't know, it's $350 a bottle typically and that doesn't pair well with the $15 burger I'm usually housing down. But when in Napa, do as the Napians (?) do??

The tasting experience here was simply wonderful. It was quiet and peaceful, and my GOODNESS that wine. Oh that wine. So good. Just so good. I think about it in my dreams. 

Love him.

The view here was also spectacular and if you're a Cabernet fan, this is an absolute must-stop.

Feeling like I had just had a glass of the world's most perfect wine, we went over to Inglenook.

The grounds here were also stunning, but when it came down to it, we were both a little too buzzed to taste more wine at that moment, so we just walked around.

I will say though, Inglenook wins the prize for "Coolest Gift Shop" that we saw. So many cool things, I wanted to take everything home.

After touring around for awhile, we decided to squeeze in one more visit after a recommendation from our friend Victor at BV.

We only intended to get one glass of wine here to split, but imagine our surprise when we walked in and the entire tasting was free. I mean, if it's free, I'm not gonna NOT try it, right?

So, we enjoyed our free tasting with our feet up by the cool fountain and the light breeze. I actually preferred their whites to their reds, but all were good.

We thought about going for another nice dinner, but after such a full day, I knew Gott's Roadside had to happen again. I got the chicken fingers, which burnt my mouth because I refused to let them cool before I had to gobble them down, but it was well worth it.

As you can see, another successful day in Napa Valley was in the books!