UMTravels

Out of the house with breakfast in our bellies by 10:30 for our 1pm Tour and Tasting appointment at the Castle.

Considering it’s a holiday, I (as were we all) was surprised by the lack of traffic. Less traffic than even a normal weekday. The end result was that we had time to stop at Clos du Val.

Here is an interesting trick to really aerate your wine…

This was done by Jim, Clos du Val’s Hospitality and Wine Education Associate. He pretty much took over the presentation when he heard that I run a wine shop in Seattle along with comping ALL FIVE of our $15 tasting fees, pulling a bottle off the premium tasting for us to try and giving everyone 20% off at the cash register. WOW. Thankfully the boys between them bought five bottles.

Next stop is the Castle (www.castellodiamorosa.com) and a great shot of all of us in front:

Of course, the castle should really look like this with its Disney®-like quality:

Here is the link to all the pictures of the castles inside: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4wdl7rezxyd4mh7/fkrqvJB8Lb

I would have included some more shots on the blog, but there were just too many good ones, so, check out that link.

Nice lunch at the Calistoga Inn:

Wedge salad (Lunetta), mussels and clams (me), steak and salad (Onyx), burger and fries (Bliss), pasta avocado (Eagle)

Stopped for a bit in the town of Napa which was having a 4^th of July Street Party, then back to Berkeley.

Dinner tonight was a chicken Caesar salad since our lunch was a late one at 3:30. Add much more wine, and a fun evening for all.

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