34 (in wine drinking years).

Celebrating my 34th in wine country this Monday was pretty awesome. Instead of my usual nervous breakdown, I relaxed alongside Shawn, soaking up some sun and enjoying the scenery. We didn't plan on visiting many wineries and were mostly interested in seeing what others had told us looked very similar to Tuscany. We were also pretty stoked to visit some "foodie" stops (such as the well-known culinary town Yountville). So, hoping to find our own little piece of Italy just a couple hours south of Seattle, we set out for a nice drive with plenty of roadside stops. Click photos to enlarge.


We started out the day at the west coast branch of the Culinary Institute of America (view from front above). They have a pretty great "campus store" that is open to the public. The CIA is set in a huge old estate with pretty amazing views.

We took off to visit a couple of wineries after grabbing a bite to eat at a roadside diner. Grapes were hanging on the vine right along the road. We were loving the rolling hills and vineyards along the way, although we decided that Tuscany doesn't really have valleys like what we saw here.




We stopped at Mumm Napa first. It seemed slightly stuffy and the terrace was under construction, so we just checked out the grounds and adjacent photo gallery before heading along the Silverado Trail. From there, we headed back towards Sonoma to visit Domaine Carneros (shown below). We were thrilled with this choice. Not only did they have a terrace with a view of the hills surrounding it, but they served us a divine cheese plate with our tastings of bubbly. I read my birthday cards as we sat there, which the server apparently took notice of. I later asked about purchasing some spiced pears that were on our cheese plate and, upon finding out they were sold out, she brought me a HUGE box of them (like 5x more than we had on the cheese plate) and called it a birthday gift. She also did not charge us for my (somewhat pricey) tasting. I was so pleased by this random act of kindness. I've seriously needed some kindness lately and this birthday did not disappoint (more on that later!).





We headed back into Yountville for dinner at Bouchon that evening. It was rich, delicious, and generally unforgettable. As much as I like to eat, I have a hard time describing food, but what I can say is that we were really pleased with everything we had. The atmosphere was lovely, too... almost like being in a French bistro in the 1930s. All that and good company, too. It was a great birthday!