California Day 4, Napa Valley and Sonoma

Robert Mondavi Winery

Beautiful roses

One of the hundreds of grape pictures :)

Inside the Mondavi fermentation room

5,000 gallon oak barrels for holding the wine

Oak aging barrels

Our private tasting room!

We tasted 3 wines

Chateau St. Jean in Sonoma

Picnic lunch

Another beautiful day in Napa Valley! We started the day with a 75 minute guided tour of the Mondavi estate and vineyards. It was an excellent tour because there was only one other couple with us, so we could ask lots of questions and the guide has his own vineyard and knew everything about wine. We started walking through the vineyard where I learned the reason every vineyard has so many rose bushes is because roses are almost identical to grapevines and anything that affects the roses will affect the grapes exactly 2 weeks later (i.e. mildew, bugs, etc.). After walking through the vineyard, we went to the fermentation room and learned about how wine is actually made. We finished up with a private seated tasting of 3 wines and delicious focaccia bread.

After Mondavi, we ventured to Sonoma where we ate a picnic lunch and played bocce ball at Chateau St. Jean winery. Again, gorgeous grounds and I'm thinking of starting my own vineyard on my apartment balcony :)

We are now in Granite Bay with my aunt's family for the weekend. Hopefully, the snow moves out of Lake Tahoe and we can get up there tomorrow!