Napa/Sonoma Day 1: We're going back to Cali, back to Cali

We didn’t intend to come to Napa this year. Originally this was supposed to be a trip to Peru, but in the Fall. But through a series of negotiations during our annual New Year’s Eve planning meeting, we agreed that a spring trip to the Valley with the trip to Peru coming next year was a better idea. We’ve really go to start taking better notes at that meeting.

Anywho, today’s entry is short because it’s a travel day. Directly flight from CVG to SFO at the butt-crack of dawn. Our Lyft driver was super chatty and we had an interesting conversation about his work in the car repo business. I was reminded that I hate flying on the weekends, especially when the Orlando flight is leaving out of the same little gate area…Amateur day galore!

After an uneventful flight, we arrived at SFO. We ended up on the train with a group from Cincinnati on their first trip to San Fran. We helped them find the rental car building (Pro tip: Get on the train. Stay on the train.) I once again rented from SilverCar and while their off-site location adds a bit of delay to the process, I think the total time spent is actually less. The hassle and aggro factor is definitely less! I texted them while we were still on the train, the van picked us up for a two minute ride to the lot, the confirmed my driver’s license (It had expired since I last rented from them,) I scanned our car, loaded our bags and we were gone. Note to AudiUSA – Since you own SilverCar, figure out a way that A4 owners can port their seat, radio, and car config settings between vehicles. It was nice to not have to figure out a new car when we arrived, but it would have been AMAZING to have my seat exactly where I like it and the radio tuned to my favorite XM channel when we rolled down the road.

We took the Golden Gate up to Sonoma and on a while decided to stop at Ram’s Gate. We had passed this winery many times on our way in and out of Sonoma but I didn’t really know anything about it. They have a fantastic ‘board’ with a selection of 3 local cheeses, a couple of bread/toasts, 2 meats (we had chicken liver pate and a smoked trout dip of sorts,) a dried fruit (in our case apricot mustardo that was devine!) and a couple of sweet bites (candied almonds and an amazing salted chocolate toffee.) This was our lunch and I would totally stop there for this again. The wines were less than memorable, although the Blanc du Noirs they splashed us with (which is technically a ‘members only’ pour) was the best thing we tasted. They do two tasting menus that are nearly identical; the vineyard select has two additional pours and subs out their base pinot for a single vineyard. Fairly small production w/~13000 cases.

We wanted to stop by our usual ‘first stop’ in the valley, Domaine Carneros. Apparently they are everyone else’s favorite first stop as well though because they were not only slammed, they were reservation only! Do they not know who we are!?! As we trudged back to the car, I was actually secretly relieved though because the lack of sleep from a late night/early start and travel hit me like a ton of bricks. So, up to Windsor we headed to check into the hotel.

After checking into our weird timeshare/resort/condo/hotel community thing, we crashed out for an hour. We then go cleaned up and headed into Sebastopol for, what else, ramen! We hit up a place called Ramen Gaijin. Holy crow! This place had the best Japanese food we’ve had since we left Japan. We started with grilled chicken thighs and a grilled rabbit sausage. The thighs were good and the sausage was amazing! We ended up ordering another round of rabbit and a slab of pork belly, which was also fantastic (Tip: put some of the super hot mustard from the rabbit sausage on the pork belly. We also had the smoked potatoes pictured below.

 While tasty, they were missing the smoke flavor implied by the name. For the main event, we had two different types of ramen. Kris went non-traditional with a Chinese influenced dan-dan ramen, while I had a more traditional version topped with a chicken roulade. 

Both had that unctuous depth of flavor of a true ramen, but if I’m honest, Kris’ was better because the spicy notes really punctuated the broth to make something special.

Full and happy, we wandered back to the hotel to crash and hopefully get a full night’s sleep for tomorrow’s adventures. Fingers crossed that there’s no 3am wakeup call due to time zone confusion!

Italy Day 8 – Montalcino, a Monty Python moment, and exporting wine

Today is all about wine! We’re headed into the hills of Montalcino to visit four wineries. After a great night’s sleep, I felt ready to hit the back roads of Italy. I was talking with a friend before I left and she mentioned that she and her husband had been to Tuscany and found the roads to be quite stressful. Armed with this knowledge, and what feels like a huge SUV (the Nissan Juke in Pittsburgh black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow) I had some trepidation about how this day would go. But with wine at stake, I’m no quitter!

With Google maps queued up, we set out for Montalcino. I first decide to stop for gas. Now the rental agent made a big deal about how this car was a diesel engine. Fortunately, when I pulled into the gas station, I managed to pull up to a full-service pump (I didn’t think anyone outside of Jersey still did those!) The pump jockey asks me if it’s okay to fill it up, since it takes super premium. Since I was outside of the car to stretch my legs anyway, I took a look at the gas cap and sure enough, high octane required. I know that the diesel nozzle won’t fit in a regular gas fill tube, but I’m thinking that would have been a frustrating enterprise until I figured it out. Thanks, gas-guy!

Fully fueled, we head into the hills. Kris could do a better job of explaining the scenery, but from what I could pause to look at, it was even more amazing than yesterday. Somehow, while I was admiring the view I apparently missed a turn to go *around* Montalcino and we ended up *IN* Montalcino. Now this is a very old mountain city with charming, wending, not-made-for-cars streets. I knew we were in trouble when Kris asked twice ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to fold in my mirror?’ Now, I thought things were going fairly well until we popped out onto Via Landi where it meetings Via Soccorso Saloni and Via della Circonvallazione. I’m pretty sure this intersection will forever be seared into my brain. And perhaps Kris’ as well. Because this is the spot where I almost got us bludgeoned to death because of a Monty Python-esque moment. Via Landi joins the other roads I mentioned at something of a steep angle. And, even though I only mentioned two other roads, it’s really four because the one road is a hairpin curve at this ‘intersection. So, I’m at a steep incline, going onto a fairly major road, with an almost blind turn, and I’m in a still-unfamiliar manual car. So I take my first shot…and stall it out. So I take another go and immediately stall it out.

At this point, there’s a guy with hedge trimmers just outside my window tending his hedges. Kris later informed me that the look on his face in the midst of this was priceless. I, however, was more concerned about the one, two, now FOUR cars that have piled up behind me! Attempts 4, 5, and 6 also do not go well. At this point I have several thoughts going through my head: 1) OMYGOSH, I broke the brand new rental car, 2) can I quit now? 3) Well, this is where I live now and last, and perhaps least sensibly, 4) Do you suppose I can put parking brake on and Kris and I can get out and push the damn thing over the crest of this hill and then I can pop start it on the road? Stalls 6, 7, and 8. Okay, deep breath. I can do this….And somehow I red line it, don’t stall it out, and make it over the hill. I’m a bit disappointed hedge clippers didn’t give me a golf clap after that.

Now, you may be wondering how this is a Monty Python moment. Yeah, well, later in the day, when clearer heads prevailed, I accidentally recreated the problem. I stupidly had the thing in THIRD gear! So, I needed the Holy Grail ‘1, 2, 5, uh three sir!’ But in reverse, of course. Gah!

Anyway, from there we headed to the first stop of the day, Caparzo winery. A cute little spot, I immediately learned a lot about Brunellos. I was surprised that they use no more than half toasted oak barriques and some instances, only use untoasted casks for their aging of this wine. Other than that, the cellar tour was pretty much like every other one we’ve been on. The wine was good, but we didn’t pick up anything here.

From there we headed to Fattoria di Barbi (And drove past the spot of my shame…) It started to pour just as we pulled into the parking lot, so we walked into the Cantina looking like drowned rats. The other couple tasting here was from California, and while we were tasting, four more Californian’s showed up. It felt oddly familiar…We like much of the wine here and ended up buying a vertical of their 05, 06, and 07 vigne di fiore. We also got lunch here where I had an amazing stewed rabbit dish. Perfect for a wet, rainy day.

From here we drove back thru Montalcino, past the point of my shame AGAIN to head to Castiglion del Bosco. This place is owned by the son of designer Ferragamo. Had I known that before we came, I might have struck this from the list. However, they are doing some excellent wines. I mentioned that we were here for our anniversary (Sort of true) and that we had gotten married in a vineyard (actually true) and they brought us a library pour of their ’07 brunello. It was drinking very nicely in deed! However, it wasn’t for sale. We bought a bottle of their Millocento instead.

From there we headed thru the countryside over a rutted dirt road to our final stop of the day, Tenuta Fanti. A very different experience than Bosco! Much more down to earth and real. They’re doing dome really nice, easily drinkable wines. We started talking about their export percentages and I was shocked to learn that most of the wineries in the region export nearly 75% of their production. A big part of this is because wine in Italy is so highly regional and is made to be aged less. Anyway, we ended the day by picking up two bottles here.

The drive home was much less eventful than the drive in, however the rainy, cloudy weather made for very dramatic country sides. It feels like everything is in bloom here right now. Everything is surrounded in the most amazing cloud of perfume from the flowers on the trees and shrubs; it’s just delicious! Tomorrow, we’re staying close to home and out of the car and exploring Grosseto. Happy driving and remember, starting from third is hard, but not impossible!