Monica (grape)

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there is a grape variety called "Monica", especially that I like its description and how it matches my personality ;)

Santa Helena Ranch - March

Mike's family owns a beautiful house (ranch) in Santa Helena, the heart of Napa Valley. Mike, Lev and I went there for one of the weekends in March. It was an absolutely great trip, both very eventful and relaxing at the same time. All of us had a wonderful time there and we all agreed that everything about this weekend was perfect. Throughout the weekend we had great food (mostly thanks to Lev's great cooking skills), great wine and good conversations over variety of subjects. Moreover, in the evenings we either watched Monty Python's Flying Circus or played games (Modern Art, Scrabble).

On one day we went for a longer hike in the nearby hills (The Palisades? have to check on that one with Mike). During this hike I learned how to recognize poison oak and the reasons for avoiding it... something most Europeans are not aware of at all.

On the second day of our stay at the ranch, we visited Terra Valentine Winery, where we got a private wine tasting. Afterwards we got a private tour through Casa Valentine, a house of the owners of Terra Valentine, as one of Mike's friends (Rori) was taking care of it in their absence. That was a very interesting experience - we got to see how our lives could have looked like, if we had been extremely rich :)

Few pics:

View from Mike's family house to their vineyard:


Breakfast on the fresh air:


Still bare brunches of vines:


View to the village from Floral Springs vineyard:


Hiking the palisades:






On the top:


View to the valley from the top:


Terra Valentine Winery:


Outside Terra Valentine:


Rori, Lev and I in front of Casa Valentine:


Me with Casa Valentine in the background:

Lodi ZinFest

Last year in May, dudes (Mike and Lev) took me to Lodi ZinFest, an annual Zinfandel festival. It was a very nice and relaxing day trip during which I had much too much wine :)

If I remember correctly during that day we visited 4 or 5 wineries (the ones that I remember and would recommend you to visit were: Michael-David Winery, Jessie's Grove Winery, M2 Wines). Each of these wineries was completely different in style: some were bigger than others, some were more commercial and some had more home touch to them. Still, at each of them there were not that many tourists and (as a result of that I guess) at almost each of them we had a chance to talk with the owners and get a lot of information about wine making process.

Here are few pics.

Mike and Lev at Jessie's Grove winery:


One of the wines that we tasted:


Intro to wine making:


Wine fermentors and storage barrels:


Mike and I at Lodi Lake:

hedonism

I am in love and with each minute my feelings grow stronger and stronger... Her name is Rosenblum Cellars Vintner's Cuvee XXIX Zinfandel (I am sure that it is she, because it/she is too sweet to be a man). She smells like a mixture of plums and blackberries, she moves down the glass slowly, with grace and dignity, and tastes like lips of sixteen year old girl...

PS (added 13/04/07) Hey "Chyba"

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