california, day three: napa wineries and lovely bouchon dinner

After having a better night of sleep, my headache dulling even more, and the promise of sunshine and no more rainclouds, Saturday was looking good. We ate breakfast at the hotel and then ventured out to our first wine tasting of the day at Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa. Since we were staying in Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, we knew we would have a bit of a drive to Napa and we thoroughly loved the gorgeous drive through the Petrified Forest and other beautiful roads winding through vineyards and luscious green bucolic settings along the way.

Once again, we were seated with some fun people. The other couple was local, and the wife actually worked at a smaller, boutique winery. Their friend was in town visiting from the east coast. The person assisting us during the tasting was very knowledgeable and interesting to talk to as well. We really liked the wines paired with excellent cheeses. The wife of the winery owner is actually a James Beard award-winning chef, and this winery is known for their excellent cheese and wine pairings. Brett discovered this winery through Food and Wine magazine. We ordered three different wines from this place. We had fun talking wine and wine documentaries! I mean how often can you discuss a wine documentary in real life without people's eyes glazing over?

Relaxing on the terrace before our reservation of wine tasting inside.

We didn't want to repeat the mistake of the day before of eating too large a lunch and, on the recommendation of the Robert Sinskey employee, we ate at the R + D Kitchen in nearby Yountville. We sat on the patio and selected something filling, yet not monstrous, from the patio menu which was a lot smaller. 

Next stop: Pine Ridge Vineyards which would end up being our absolute favorite of the trip. Their wines were exceptional. We got the full biographical tour (my favorite kind!!! I love hearing the personal human side of how these wineries came to be and, even better, when they throw in historical fun facts for background and little-known anecdotal asides). This winery made a huge cave to store their wine, and there are 7 different tunnels that make up the cave. Our formal tasting ended up in one of the caves). 

This place can be rented for parties!

So amateur hour to photograph the sign, but we LOVED LOVED this place so I had to document all aspects 

We bought one very expensive bottle (AAAAH! saving for a very special day or something) and I was over the moon to find my beloved Napa Soap Company soaps, of which I bought four bars.

My favorite one is Berry Rosé :)

The ridge of pines alongside the vines

Oh how we loved riding around in this car! 

Back to Yountville for our reservation at the wonderful Bouchon, for which the only time we could get a reservation (weeks before, mind you) was at 5:15. We admittedly weren't raging hungry or anything, but everything tasted wonderful and the service was great, too. I ordered rainbow trout and Brett had one of the specials which was a bouillabaisse.

We started with crab beignets

Salad with goat cheese; Brett had French onion soup

Rhubarb tart a la creme fraiche ice cream

Meanwhile when we were eating, we could see people queuing up down the sidewalk for next-door Bouchon Bakery. Our server said it's pretty much always like that. 

What a great day!