Day Five, San Francisco (Napa) Spring 2010

Saturday, April 10th.

Hungover. Tired. Trip to Napa and Sonoma County planned. Doing the wine tour with the bus. Cheesy, I know, but it's a start. I thought we'll test the waters with a crew to see how the wine country looks and if it looks good enough then I'll probably do it again. One my own in my own vehicle.

The day didn't start off as planned. The bus arrived on time and I was somewhat ready. Except I was hungover from last night's debauchery plus I had allergy eye, also known as Pink Eye. Pink Eye and hungover headaches really don't mix. Worse was the fact that I was going to do some more drinking today, a more sophisticated kind, but alcohol nonetheless. I couldn't let it get me down, This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that had cost me a pretty penny so pink eye be damned I'm heading to Napa.

We left at a little after 9 am.  As we drove, the scenery was not like I imagined. It was comprised of fields and mountains filled with grape fields. The first stop was to Madonna Estates with their organic grapes.We were told that this would be the only place that would give us a lecture about the wine-making experience. The other 2 stops would just let us have the wine without taking us through all their rigmarole. That's what I want. I really was in no mood to hear how the grapes were plucked and all that shit, not today with my eyes throbbing.

Madonna Estates quickly handed us a glass of wine as we walked through the door, instructing us not to drink it yet. I soon learned that this was as far as their generosity would go. The wine tasted smooth and sweet, with no tangy after taste. I don't know if that had anything to do with the fact that it was all organically grown. Because it was still morning, the weather was rather cold, something in the low 50's. The tour guide lady kept us outside in the field beside the grapes so we can observe (and not touch as she kindly pointed out as if we were kids) the grapes on their stems. I didn't really care for this. I was freezing. Even though I was dressed for the drop in temperature I really would rather just stay inside. Also, there was this condescending tone of the people at Madonna Estates, for one, their pours were smidgens, guaranteed it was still morning, but none of us was driving; two, they kept telling us how superior their wine was because it was "organic", and then, 3, she kept instructing us on how to sip the wine, how to swirl it in a glass, how to "safely" uncork the bottle. Who doesn't know this? We are here because we are wine connoisseurs of some kind not just a couple of vacationers dedicating our precious vacation time to listen to you babble.

We left soon after and headed to our next stop.

I forgot to mention the interesting group of people that happened to be travelling with me. There were young couples here and there and older ladies here and there. There was a family from France, with their 2 small children about 5 and 7. The children were so well-behaved. The older ladies turned out to be a group of childhood friends vacationing together. A couple of students from the university and then, an engineer from Germany on a seminar who had nothing better to do after the seminar was over. There was me of course, a single young lady and then, there was this particular group of  girls, young girls all foreigners from Brazil and Hungary, who now live and work in SF. Not surprising is they had the same motives I had. Lets get on this bus and drink as much wine as possible and have as much fun as possible. That early in the morning when you encounter people that are that pumped to party it's a little off-putting, so the entire bus spent the first couple of hours, staring and whispering about them as we drove to our destination. As the day wore on, I was the first person to appreciate their motive (plus my eye didn't seem to be bothering anybody so hey, I relaxed a little) so I clung onto them and we gossiped about the Madonna Estate "Principal" as I termed her. By the end of the day with everyone reasonably inebriated, we all joined them to sing along to Beatles tunes and just generally cause a racket at the back of the bus.

The next stop was Sutter Home winery. Sutter Home, unlike most wineries in Napa and Sonoma County, offers complimentary wine tastings. Most wineries in the region charge for it. I just thought to myself, when I paid for this wine tour I thought we would explore rare wine, wines that I'd never heard of, that charge for their wine tastings; "not complimentary and can be bought at Wal-Mart" type wines. At this point I was beginning to see how much of a rip off this whole thing was. Yes, and my eye was still throbbing.

The good thing about Sutter Home was that even though they had a little lecture on how they were at the forefront of the whole "White Zinfandel" movement, they didn't pinch on their samples. Generous pours along with an assortment of hors' d'oeuvre's in their store, chips and salsa, bread bits and black pepper vinegar, and cheese based olive oil, etc. Not the regular cheese charcuterie but an assortment of nibbles that helped to soak up the wine. This made up for my slight disappointment at the other winery. I ended up enjoying their winery completely.

Next stop was lunch at the Yountville town center where we had about 2 hours to eat lunch and return to the bus. The nicest restaurant I could find at the town center (which didn't really have much) was Bottega. I know, I have such high taste. A couple of my fellow wine tourists picked this restaurant as well so I wasn't the only picky eater. The engineer from Germany (who was on an expense account I am sure) and the family from France.

Bottega was strictly fine dining Napa style. I couldn't understand half of the menu items, in fact almost all of them. And the bartender was in too much of a hurry or just didn't give a shit enough to want to explain them to me. I thought if I am going to pay upwards of $20 for a meal, I need to know what it is and I need to know if I will enjoy it. He really didn't care. So I stuck to what I know, the calamari, which comprised of about 10 pieces and cost $10, at a cost of $1 a piece. The wine list was extensive being that this is Napa where the wine is grown, I would expect nothing less. However, I stuck with beer. The two gentlemen diners beside me who were out celebrating one's birthday reprimanded me for my drink selection. "You don't come to Napa and drink beer," they said with a chuckle, fearing that I was unenlightened. I coughed up that I was on the wine tour so I had already had my fill of wine with plenty more to come. I thought the beer would serve as a good change of pace (plus it was a lot cheaper) They gave me some pointers on what wineries to visit. I explained that this was not up to me, the tour company decided this. If it were up to me I wouldn't have chosen any of the wineries we visited so far.

After my calamari I was still noticeably hungry and in need of real food but not wanting to expand my wallet any further, I filled up on the starter bread and butter, plus it came with sparkling mineral water (complimentary). I eventually asked for dessert when I saw another diner eating something that looked utterly scrumptious. My selection did not turn out that way and was a teeny tiny bit of chocolate cake with little bitty ice cream. Oh, I could kill the folks at Bottega.

I talked some more with the gentlemen to pass the time. I could have sworn one of them looked like an actor. The creepy guy in that M. Night Shymalan movie - Girl from the River or something. They talked about Hollywood movies a lot too, about budgets and financing and what movies are still looking for financing. So it may very well have been an actor. Talking to them was the high point of my day at Napa and reinstated my love of fine dining. You always end up talking to the most sophisticated people and they treat you like their peer. I love it!

I forgot myself, lost track of the time and almost missed the bus. I know scary. Negative part of travelling alone. No one on the bus knew my name. I mean there was a roster but unless there was a head count at some point, no one knew who I was or how to reach me. If I was with someone at least one of us would make the bus and wait for the other. But I digress. Nothing that dramatic happened. I waved the driver down as he was reversing and gave him the stare down that said, "How dare you leave me in this expensive town?"

Onwards to Cline Cellars winery. Our last stop. Yet another winery with complimentary wine tasting. Just how cheap is the tour bus company. Yes, that cheap. Cheaper than me I see. At this point we all relaxed. They brought out a bench and let us sit there and just sample as much as possible. We asked questions, drank, tasted a couple of the favorites more than once. It was very low-key. A sharp contrast to the setting at Madonna Estate where we all had to stand still and listen to that lady "lecture" us on wine at 10 in the morning.

This was the point where I sat with the raucous bunch and we ended up talking about what brought us to Napa this faithful Saturday. We even ended up hijacking the bottle that they would have thrown out for "our open Bar" concept. It was hilarious. Cline I had never heard of but their wine was good. They even had this reasonably priced Rose that I so would have bought if I didn't have to travel the next day.  I don't think I've seen Cline wines in the grocery store. The girls bought a bottle to drink in the bus, but at this point I was pooped on alcohol I needed food and some drugs for my eye.

So we drove home. Past the rolling hills, the various nameless wineries, Coppola's house on the hills, the Golden Gate bridge and the foggy mores. This was my last full day in San Francisco, I had an early flight to Los Angeles the following day. I stopped at Fisherman's wharf and bought a couple of souvenir gifts for my family. Had dinner at the Hyatt restaurant over there. A big chicken sandwich with lots of fries which I finished and got some eye drops for my throbbing eyes. I was just so shocked no one noticed my red eye. They actually thought I was a fun, adventurous, ballsy person.  

It all sort of worked itself out in the end, as it should:

The food, the wine, the company, the weather, everything. I would do it again in a heartbeat.