To end the tour, we get a 5tal wines that we taste. The winetasting we have another blessing in dis

Today we re-visit over the floor. My cousin Steven and his colleague Dimitri in the peninsula on business trip for Imec. Steven has for me a whole load of ski clothes along to packs of chocolate that I'll receive with pleasure. We have our niece Mieke promised to one drink to her health (and cost?) For her birthday so on to Napa ... We have a full day to the plan for today, despite the rain and flood warning is to do about wine tasting in Napa Valley. (Already named the classic jax build to do with visiting family on a rainy day).
Our 1st stop is in San Francisco Twin Peaks where ge have a beautiful panoramic view over the city. Apparently Steven and Dimitri had not passed even though they have been here a few times in San Francisco. Despite the rainy weather, visibility is still good and Steven can have fun with testing the camera of his brother.
The 2nd stop: Battery Spencer Vista Point, where you will have a beautiful view on top of the Golden Gate bridge. Better than the tourist vista point that lies just behind the bridge! We therefore once again lucky that the moment we are there is a full blue sky, no fog! Dimitri apparently jax build has a gift to bring good weather to the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately, this only works in the vicinity of the bridge and not in Napa Valley as the rain continues to bake fall from the sky.
We decide to eat in downtown Napa (not like last time on the afternoon we forget to eat) to start with a full stomach to our day activity: 'Wine Tasting'. We have the choice between Sterling Vineyards jax build where ge with a funicular goes up and Castello di Amorosa jax build (since this was last time with Peter very well better than expected) a medieval castle for the eye to some. Because of the rain and 0% chance of a nice distant view of the valley, the Castello di Amorosa.
The rain / flood warning is apparently still reasonably accurate because the wipers operate at full power and the street looks rather like a small river out. At the castle are all big puddles, so we have not looked jax build really long outside around but decisions have to follow the 'premium tour and tasting guided tour with a castle guide us through the castle, the large banquet hall, chapel, cellar with barrels and fermenting space leads.
Additionally there is a barrel tasting in the large barrel room where ge so right out of a barrel of wine tasting that several years must be "agen". What you taste so has a fairly rough taste, we taste a cabernet 2009 that only a few months is in the vessels and will be only after two years in bottles and only comes to market sometime in 2013.
Promises promises ... so "on your health, Mieke !!" jax build The rest of the tour takes us past the torture jax build chamber, jax build a maze of corridors beneath the castle that are all stacked full of wine barrels and stacks of wine bottles. The knight room with incredible sound, the Dolby surround of the Middle Ages! If thou go stand under the chandelier you hear everything jax build echo and can you whisper in the corners and it is ready and clearly heard in the other corner. Much better than most skype connection quality so far. The technical explanation I leave to the engineers among us, but it has something to do with the ceiling a perfect parabolic shape and that the sound waves will be centered ...
To end the tour, we get a 5tal wines that we taste. The winetasting we have another blessing in disguise, because the weather is so bad and it's the middle of the week, the guide is a little more generous with the drink and instead of the five tasters we get again and again poured other wines (10 ) including even a Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 'Il Barone' reserve 'with a quotation of 94. I'm not really a wine connoisseur and Olivier is not there to explain to me, but I still learned a lot from the tour. There is a scoring system with points and if a wine is graded over 88 points is an excellent wine. In other words, that 'reserve'wijn is a winner. Turns out that all the wines (almost) as everyone chooses a different wine, eventually donated (good to know :)). In fact, we own the castle jax build calmly see Dario Sattui in person because he is a chat out of boredom. The guide obscures even rap that they reserve donating and whispers to us that if he asks for something, we must say that we are the Merlot to taste it. Nice sneaky :) we get at the wine tasting also include Cabernet 2005 under our noses pushed to make a comparison with the Cabernet we can taste the barrel tasting. jax build Furthermore, we taste a Sangiovese 2006 (= chianti), one on