Napa

It was beautiful weather in Napa yesterday. We hit four vineyards (Whitehall, Pine Ridge, Stags Leap Vineyard and one other) and got to a point where all I wanted was a Budweiser. The beauty of being with Ted is that he's a member at a number of the vineyards, which means they break out the reserve stock and pour pretty generously for the tastings, until we're ready to move on to the next stop. After a while, all of the wines run together and our teeth were all purple the wine.

The scenery in Napa is amazing. (It's even home to the famous Windows XP background, bliss.) You have these Mediterranean-like rolling hills and plains that are covered with grape vines. You can't swing a dead-cat without hitting a vineyard in Napa, and people get a little carried away with wine. I now know more about how wine is made and how to taste it and what to look for. I know that I still can't fully appreciate a great bottle of wine, but I can at least tell the difference between Boones Farm and the good stuff.