Sunday
Last year I was the high bidder at Saugus HS on a tour of the Honig Winery. March was the last month we could take the tour before it expired, so off we went.
We decided to take the coastal route even though it takes about an hour longer. The main reason for choosing this route was because snow was expected on the grapevine and we were leaving at around 6 AM, meaning we had a high likelihood of either snow or icy roads, or both. Having had our share of snow and icy roads on our last trip, we decided to take the coastal route. Besides, the coastal route is much more scenic.
We left at around 6:30 AM and with the time change to daylight savings, we lost an hour of sleep and were a bit tired. We drove to San Jose and stopped at the Winchester Mystery House. We had always wanted to see the house, and this trip provided the perfect opportunity to see it.
The Winchester Mystery House was built by Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Winchester, the famous gun manufacturer from the turn of the century. When Mr. Winchester died, his widow sought the council of a psychic advisor. The advisor told Mrs. Winchester she was being haunted by the spirits of all of the people killed by her husband’s guns. She was told to move to California and build a house and continue building it until she passed away. This would confuse and scare the ghosts and keep her safe. Construction began on the house in 1884, and under Winchester’s day-to-day guidance, its “from-the-ground-up” construction proceeded around the clock, by some accounts, without interruption, until her death on September 5, 1922, at which time work immediately ceased.
Prior to our mansion tour, we toured the Winchester Historic Firearms Museum. This is a small three room museum that shows Winchester firearms through history. If you are a gun buff, you will really enjoy this. If not, it is still worth a quick look. For example, I learned that the Winchester Firearms Company made cannons from 1903-1958. Who knew? Below area few pictures from the museum.
Cindy and I took the regular Mansion Tour which lasted just over an hour. The tour was very enjoyable, our tour guide was quite knowledgeable, and the mansion itself was fascinating. See some of the pictures below.
And here are pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Winchester, and clothing from the period.
We very strongly recommend a visit to the Winchester Mystery House if you are in the San Jose area.
Interesting Fact: You cannot lick your elbow.
After our wonderful tour, we hit the road for our last leg to Napa. To this point, we had not experienced any bad weather. That was about to change. Just north of San Jose, it started raining really hard. Then it started to hail pea size hail while raining so hard it was difficult to drive. Luckily, this only lasted for about 10 minutes. After that, it turned into a sprinkle then dried up completely. We arrived at our hotel in one piece and still dry! At our hotel, we received a map of the local wineries.
Interesting Fact: It turns out there are more than 420 physical wineries in Napa County, California with over 800 different wine brands.
Monday
So what do you do in the Napa Valley at 10 AM? How about drink a lot of wine. After breakfast, we were off to visit our first winery, Honig Winery. This was the tour and wine tasting we won at the silent auction last year and I had made reservations for last month. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by our personal wine person, “Carol,” who started us with a glass of wine for our tour. Because of the heavy rain in the area the day before, we could not go on the golf cart tour of the grounds. Instead, we walked around the grounds and went to a second floor patio to look over the vineyard.
After our walking tour, we went into a room in the tasting area and had our tasting.
The wines were really good and Carol did a great job with the wines, and answering our many rookie wine drinker questions. Honig Winery is on our “must visit winery” list when in Napa.
Interesting fact: The Napa Valley only produces 4% of the wine that is produced in California.
Our second stop was at the V. Sattui Winery and Deli. V. Sattui was named winery of the year for the last two years in the Winemaker Challenge. It has also been family owned since 1885.
Interesting fact: 95% of the wineries in the Napa Valley area are family owned.
Since it was lunch time and we were hungry, we order a sandwich from the deli and ate it outside on the picnic grounds. The sandwich was delicious and the picnic area was very relaxing.
The grounds at V. Sattui are really beautiful. You can have events and weddings there. The wine was pretty good too. The tasting experience was at a bar with a lot of other people, so it was much less personal than the Honig tasting. But that is the difference between a reservation tasting and a walk in tasting.
Interesting Fact: The first commercial winery in the Napa Valley was established in 1861 by Charles Krug, which still stands today.
From V. Sattui we drove into downtown St. Helena for a wine tasting at Orin Swift. Orin Swift wines are very tasty and are know for their unique labels. We walked in and there was only one other couple, so we had very good service. Orin Swift is on our “must visit winery” list when in Napa.
Interesting Fact: Cabernet Sauvignon accounts for approximately 40% of the overall Napa Valley bottled wine.
We ended our day at the Ox Bow Market in downtown Napa. We ate at the Kitchen Door and had a very nice meal. We also visited a distillery that made a clear Brandy which tasted like vodka, not wine. Of course I had to buy a small bottle of that.
Tuesday
Our last day in the Napa Valley started at 10 AM with……………………………………More wine tasting. We started at St. Supery where we were able to call and get an immediate appointment. Bonnie was our wine person and she did a fantastic job. The winery was beautiful, inside and out.
From the second level, you could look down into their winery operation. This was really cool to watch. Another winery on our “must visit winery” list when in Napa.
Interesting Fact: Napa Valley is about 30 miles long and 5 miles wide at its widest point.
Our next appointment was at the Prisoner Wine Company.
Their tasting room was brand new having just opened in November of 2018. I would call the interior a kind of an industrial hipster look.
The wines were really good and our service was good as well. Prisoner wines are know for having almost double the alcohol content as do most wines. So go easy when drinking these wines. And yes, it made our “must visit winery” list when in Napa.
Interesting Fact: Grapes grown in warmer climates, like Napa, can be more ripe when picked, making for sweeter wines.
We stopped for lunch at Gott’s Roadside. This is a really good burger and fries kind of place.
Our final winery stop was at Tank Garage Winery. This is a small winery in a converted gas station and was the furthest from Napa in the town of Calistoga. This usually requires a reservation, but we called and they said to come on in. The people were very friendly, the place very eclectic, and included oil can guitars, and the wine labels were all very different, but in a good creative way. As you can imagine, this place made our “must visit winery” list when in Napa.
We ended the day by walking around downtown Napa. It was down right cold, but the walk was well worth it.
Interesting Fact: The Wine Industry in Napa Valley represents over $50 billion to the U.S. economy in recent years.
Wednesday
On the drive home, we stopped and spent the night at Harris Ranch in Coalinga. I had always wanted to stay there, but I could not tell you why. Harris Ranch is know for its amazing beef and is in the middle of nowhere. Our hotel room had unusual fake log looking furniture and a balcony with a very nice view.
That night, we had dinner in the Harris Ranch Steak House. We had absolutely amazing steaks, giant shrimp scampi, and grilled veggies. A meal fit for hungry wine travelers.
Thursday
On Thursday, we drove the rest of the way home.
We are now preparing for our Palm Springs Desert X art trip. We leave next Wednesday.
Final Interesting Fact: Nine out of ten people who read this blog will have tried to lick their elbow before reading this sentence.