Sometime, about three or so years ago, I joking commented to my parents that when Claire turned 21 we should take a family trip to Napa. My parents have always been wine aficionados and it's an expensive habit that they turned onto their children.
Well, that joke became a reality and last fall the family made the trek to NoCal and up to Napa. The timing was perfect. We spent a day in sailing on Scott's yacht (pictures to come) and then on the day before Claire turned 21 we drove up to Napa and at midnight on celebrated with the token bar visit. The next day we helped her celebrate more at our favorite winery:
Hendry
If you ever get the chance, GO! The tour we had was in-depth and beyond amazing. Our guide had a science background and was able to tell us a lot about the wine making process both in general and about Hendry.
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| Our guide, was amazing. I love Hendry wines but the tour took that to a whole new level. |
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| We were walked through the different grapes and encouraged to taste the grapes off the vines themselves. |
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| Our guide encouraged trying to taste the different flavors that were in a single grape. |
During the tour, we heard of an earthquake that was so high on the scale that barrels of wine fell down and exploded on the ground. The winemakers walked in the next day to find themselves ankle deep in spoiled wine. Can you imagine? All of that wonderful wine going to waste on the floor; such a shame.
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| Each marking on the barrel means something: the year, the number of the time the barrel had been used and the type of grape or wine inside. |
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| That's a log of corks. |
-Elise
