A Day in Napa Valley

Yesterday, I spent the day with friends in the Napa Valley. It was a beautiful day and, as usual, the vineyards were picturesque. After church, the four of us hopped in the car and drove the one hour, fifteen minute road trip up to Napa. We ate a picnic lunch at V. Satturi winery, then tasted some wines at Plumpjack winery. Our next stop was olive oil tasting. Yes, EVOO (if you don't watch Rachel Ray, this means Extra Virgin Olive Oil). It was wonderful, I loved it! We went to an olive oil mill called Round Pond. A woman named Megan, gave us a tour of an olive orchard (mixed in and around the Round Pond vineyards) and then the olive mill itself. Round Pond takes the olives from picking, to milling, and into the bottles in 3 hours! It's amazing. Megan hosted a lovely sit-down tasting with their Italian and Spanish varietal EVOO's and lemon and blood orange fused EVOO's, along with red wine vinegars and fruit syrups they also produce. We tasted the many oils and vinegars with fresh cut greens, French bread, tomatoes, cheese and strawberries. It was SO yummy. I decided to purchase the Spanish varietal EVOO and a small bottle of the Merlot red wine vinegar. Below is the link to the Round Pond site. I thoroughly recommend you make a reservation for a tour and tasting the next time you travel to the Napa Valley, or simply buy online. It's worth it!

http://www.roundpond.com/

I'm on the left with my friends Peter, Carol, and Sarah.

I'm not sure why this photo ended up so blurry! I will replace it if Carol or Sarah send me a better image, as they took photos with their cameras as well. We ended the day at Auberge du Soleil, a beautiful inn with amazing views of the valley. We sat out on this balcony and enjoyed a glass of wine before it was time to return to the city. Isn't the Bay Area great?