When in Napa…
Barry and I figured we’d visit a select winery or two for the true Napa experience. We weren’t planning extensive wine tasting since I rarely drink anymore. We saw a Wine Train advertised. That would be cool, so Barry got online to check it out. Details didn’t matter–there was no availability during our three night stay! When we stopped at the visitor information center downtown our first afternoon, we were informed that all wineries are fully booked for at least a week. What!?! We could try checking some for a possible cancellation either at a winery or at a downtown tasting room, or if we went to a smaller winery and they weren’t busy they may let us taste. We had no desire to taste in a rented space in downtown Napa. We wanted the full winery experience with true Napa ambience. We had no idea reservations would be required for every winery let alone that they would be completely booked for the days we were here.
The winery we really wanted to go to was Castello Di Amorosa. It was built as a castle. We saw it when we visited Napa back in 2011, but with limited time and being on a motorcycle, we didn’t do any tasting. It was on our list to return some day. We thought now is that some day. We went online to book the Diamond Estate Tour and Reserve Wine Tasting for $65 each. This included six reserve wines, including their Super Tuscan Blend “La Castellana”. Their wine educator guides you through the Castello’s ‘state of the art’ production area, underground cellars, torture chamber, armory, and the Grand Barrel Room where you taste a young Cabernet Sauvignon direct from the barrel. After the barrel tasting you are escorted to a private-to-the-group tasting bar for a sampling of six of the current release reserve and small production wines. You are also free to roam other areas. NOTHING available.
Since we couldn’t get into at least 3 others that interested us, we decided to just go for a drive to “take-in” the beauty of the wine country. We tried stopping at one nearby winery that was not on the main loop. No luck. Just as well–tasting there was $100 per person! I took some pictures, and then we continued on our way to drive the “wine loop” up to Calistoga.
Accepting that a wine tasting wasn’t going to come to fruition, we decided to just go to the Castello Di Amorosa, park and take pictures outside as we did last time.
OK–now I got pissed. We got to the base of the driveway up to Castello, but were not permitted to go up to the parking lot unless we had a tasting reservation or were picking up an order of wine! I told the guy that we only wanted to go up to take a few pictures outside. Nope, sorry. I told him that they need to add that pertinent information to their website! I was not happy that we drove all the way up to Calistoga to be told we can’t even go to the parking lot!
I guess wine tasting has become a social sport for the elite!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~With all this time on our hands I was easily able to play pickleball for a couple of mornings with the Napa Pickleball group. Super nice group of players. In fact, Ron brought me an ornament the second day. He makes these for several of the wineries, but where the pickleball is, he has a grape cluster in the crusher. This is the motif or logo for the Napa Pickleball Club. I felt honored that he brought one to me!
Later that day I went to BevMo. They were having a “+ 5 cents” sale. This meant any wines that had a +5 cents on the tag, you get the second bottle for only a nickel more!! OK–now we’re talking! I shopped around for quite a while. The $130 it would have cost for the Castello Di Amorosa tour and tasting, just bought some special bottles of wine!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At least the Napa Valley Elks Lodge and RV area was terrific. Very peaceful and beautiful. Felt nice to have a coded gate for entry to the RV area.
The RV area behind the lodge. Each site had its own concrete patio and a picnic table.
Colorful snapshots of Napa:
We made a reservation to have dinner at Eiko’s in downtown Napa. We saw Eiko’s the day before, but you guessed it, they were booked solid. Figuring that was a good sign for food quality, we made a reservation for tonight. It’s a little tricky sometimes ordering gluten free, but they were good to assist. We started with 1/2 doz oysters on the half-shell. The coconut lemongrass sauce that came with my seared scallops was fabulous. It was paired with ginger cured Chinese long beans and shitake mushrooms. Yum! Barry enjoyed his Rainbow Sushi/Sashimi. Hmmm…are we becoming obsessed with oysters as we continue our travels down the west coast?
We went home for our peach cobbler dessert!
Inside seating–we chose outside. 
Oysters on the half shell 
Yum! 
My seared scallops 
Rainbow sushi/sashimi 
Our lounge/firepit area seating. Perfect! 
Next stop MONTEREY for 5 nights!! Really looking forward to this stop.