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Napa in a day, or, But it's a dry heat...

We spent the Saturday of our mini-vacation weekend in San Francisco visiting Napa with another couple who were also out there for work. We knew a day was not a lot of time, but we wanted to make the most out of it, so we signed up for a tour with Esperya Wine Country Tours. Esperya will create an itinerary for you, make all the reservations at the wineries, and most importantly: drive.

Our young, enthusiastic, fun-loving driver, Keith, picked us up at The Argent Hotel in SF and drove us to Napa, where we picked up our wine guide, Joe. Joe was semi-retired from the amusement park business and now worked in the hospitality department at St. Supery (this I believe is the Napa retirement equivalent of being a Wal-Mart greeter around here) -- and on his days off, he worked for Esperya giving tours.

Our first stop was Cakebread Cellars. I don't think I've ever had any of their wine, but I was familiar with the winery through their recipes. Joe and Keith dropped us off for our reserved tasting. It was very busy, and we were herded into a little gift shop area, and then a group of about 10 of us were taken into the back by some large tanks. We were given a little wine making trivia ("who knows the difference between red and white wine? no, it's not the grapes...?") and moved into the large air-conditioned barn. The barn was full of barrels, and there were little wine tasting carts scattered about with multiple guides and their tours. I thought we'd move from cart to cart as they explained the wine making process. Instead, we stayed pretty much parked at one station and sampled about six wines. The cool thing about this was getting to try wines that you can not buy, literally -- they only ship them to their wine club members. I also liked that they talked about what food paired well and handed out little recipe cards. Unfortunately, I did not find myself amazed by any of the wines, which is probably just as well since you can't buy them, and, I was being careful to only take a sip since we had a long day of tasting ahead. While I was glad we went, the tour did feel a little impersonal, but I was happy to get my own copy of the Cakebread Cellars Cookbook on the way out. They do have other tour options I would probably enjoy more, like the "Wine-Food Pairing Experience" -- next trip.

The next stop was Reverie on Diamond Mountain. This winery had amazing terraced vineyards, beautiful gardens and their own wine cave. The four of us and our guide Joe got a very personal tour from one of the winery employees. We started in the cave, which was man-made but still pretty impressive -- can very cool, no need for A/C. Then we moved into the gardens, and sampled some more wines in the middle of a tight stand of redwoods that was almost perfectly circular and fully shaded. We then moved to a gazebo and ate lunch (tremendous sandwiches from Oakville Grocery) while they poured some more wine -- more wine than we wanted, actually, since we knew we had to watch our consumption in the heat. Everyone really enjoyed their Cabernet Sauvignon, but alas, the only way to get it is to join the club. And I couldn't even finish what they poured me.

It was after lunch that I first noticed how really hot it was. I mean, knew it was hot out, but I hadn't been uncomfortable at all. We'd been going slow and I hadn't even really broken into a sweat. During lunch, although we were in the shade, we were sitting in iron chairs that were baking us. I drained my bottle of water pretty fast. Mistake: Now I had a large volume of liquid sloshing around in my stomach. As we walked back to the office, someone commented that I was flush and asked if I was OK. I thought I was and just needed to get cooled off. Back in the office bathroom, I started to wonder... I was feeling odd, not quite nauseous, not quite a headache -- unlike anything I'd felt before. (Actually, the closest it felt like was when I take Benadryl.) I also noticed my heart was really beating fast and hard -- not palpitating, but like I'd been on a brisk walk. At this point, I was convinced it was mostly in my head and all I needed was a little cooling off back in the car.

Our next stop was Sterling Vineyards, where you take gondola ride up to the winery. Normally I would love this, but the gondolas looked small, stuffy and hot. At this point I was seriously debating whether I should sit it out in the air conditioned car. In the end I went up, because I didn't have the heart to tell Joe, who was so earnestly invested in making sure we had an excellent time. The gondola ride turned out to be great -- there was a breeze -- and I was feeling a little better.

At the top of Sterling, they have a pretty extensive self-tour available, with tasting stations all along the way. It looked like a pretty good tour. Unfortunately, much of it was outside, and I was done drinking. I found a cool spot and stayed parked while the rest of the group looked around. Next we headed into the more formal sit-down tasting room, which was absolutely a-bustle. I felt the need to just sit, and we found a little table in the foyer. Apparently this was the waiting area for the tastings, and the frenetic hostess asked me three separate times what I was waiting for -- she just would not leave me alone. So I escaped to the bathroom.

A little cool water on my face felt better, and then I went into a stall and sat down. I've never passed out before in my life, but I started thinking: this could be it. That was countered with the realization of what a bad idea it would be in a bathroom stall that was really its own room with a locked floor-to-ceiling door. I have no idea how long I was in there, but after a while I felt better, but I still did not want to move. I tried calling The Wife to tell her I had in fact not passed out and was fine. She didn't answer but then I noticed I had voicemail from her -- Our guide Joe was looking for me. He'd already been in the bathroom and couldn't find me (I don't think anyone ever knocked on my door). So I headed out.

Joe met me at the door. He had used his wine-hospitality connections to get us into the special reserve tasting room -- everyone else was in there already waiting. He was pretty excited about this. I don't think Joe knew I was done drinking, and I felt awful admitting it to him since he was trying so hard to make sure we had a good time. I sat at the table and passed on any wine (even the smell was getting to me) and just zoned out, trying to move and talk as little as possible. I don't really like I was nauseous, but my biggest fear was that I would be, here, in the middle of the special reserve dining room. Finally, after an excruciating wait in line for the gondola down, we were back in the car.

We had two appointments left. Our next stop was supposed to be Rombauer Vineyards, but everyone agreed they were spent, and so we asked to skip it. We probably would have skipped the last one also, but we couldn't do that to Joe, so we headed on to Mumm Napa. It was long-ish drive with the A/C on full blast and little dozing. By the time we got Mumm I was feeling well enough to sip a little champagne sparkling wine. The Wife and I shared a flight of four wines, each a distinctly different color: pale straw, yellow, light pink and light amber. None really stood out for me, but, I'm not much of a champagne fan.

We ended the day with a little driving tour of the area, including Yountville, where we got to drive by the world famous French Laundry restaurant (read about a local kid's internship there) -- where I will probably never eat ($210 for a nine course meal). It was exciting to see anyway.

After dropping Joe off, Keith drove us back to our hotel in SF. We had a long drive with a lot of stop-and-go traffic. As soon as we crossed the Bay Bridge, the outside temperature dropped from 113°F to 88°. Nice to be back in the city!

All in all, even with heat exhaustion (or whatever it was) it was a good trip. The Wife and I are planning a proper vacation to Napa, and it was nice to do a little reconnaissance and get the lay of the land.