Wine Country, Emmy, and the Jay Kell Express

Ahh... Vino.
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We headed down to wine country - Sonoma and Napa Counties - after the Redwoods. We went to go see our friends - Emily and Jay - but got there a day or so early... so we decided to tour the vineyards and see as much as we could... and, boy, we're glad we did it.

These signs are everywhere and it's a great indicator of how many wineries there are in this little part of the world.

Our first stop was in Sonoma, CA, where we ate a great dinner and spent some time in the park. We drove to Napa to stay the night, and woke up to sights that were pretty foreign to us...


While in Napa, we did some research and routed out 40 mile bike ride through the vineyards in Napa Valley. This is in the first couple of miles.

The ride was fun, and don't worry parents and grandparents, we had our helmets on and plenty of water.

The vineyards were beautiful and picture perfect...

...it also helped that the grapes were beginning to change color and harvest time is getting near - everything is great color.

Our ride was from St. Helena, CA to Yountville, CA and back with some zigs and zags in between. About halfway, in Yountville, we stopped at a great bakery, Bouchon Bakery and had a good rest in their courtyard.

As you see in the picture above and below, the entire ride was through the rolling hills of endless vineyards.

As far as you can see - vineyards.

After our bike ride, Nell showed the battle scars - a pretty great tan line from her bike shorts. We spent the next day by a pool trying to get rid of it (which, in all seriousness, was nice and the first time it felt like summer to us).
On our way out of St. Helena, towards Santa Rosa where we stayed the night.



After a good night's rest in a hotel (complete with a two o'clock in the morning fire alarm), we decided to do some wine tasting at some of the wineries that Emmy suggested...
Quivira, Preston, Bella, and Armida

The wine was good and we had fun going from place to place tasting and acting like we knew what we were doing.

In addition to some good vino, the wineries themselves were beautiful and pretty welcoming.

This is Bella, where their tasting room was in a 7,000 sqft cave...

...pretty unique.

Nell even got into it and we found her some favorite wine.

The view from Armida

In between tastings

After our tasting extravaganza, we headed over to Emmy and Jay's. They live on a vineyard and next door to this one (above). We took a stroll and were blown away by how beautiful it was.


A lemon tree... in the front garden.

Meet Emmy and Jay. We had such a great time with them. They moved out here a few years ago, interested in the wine industry. A few years ago, they decided to start their own wine label, Verge. They are doing really well and growing a lot.. you can get their wine at pretty nice restaurants in SF or just contact them. They've got a great thing going.

Emmy and Nell.

They fed us that night and even let us crash at their house and even more let us sleep in while they went off to work. So... we (and I mean Nell) got up and did a photo shoot of their vineyard they live in....

They have apple and peach trees in their yard...

http://www.vergewine.com/

After the photo shoot and free showers, we headed to where Jay works - Michel Schlumberger.

Schlumberger's courtyard.

So, Jay's pretty much a big deal around there and gave us our own personal tour of the vineyards and the wine making process... It was incredibly interesting and we learned a ton.

Schlumberger's wine celler-ish area.

These are primary fermentation holding tanks ... ish. Not exactly sure the proper name, but just know, Jay, that I really did listen. Thanks for not giving us a pop quiz.

Jay was totally great and gave us a wine tasting over our own, where we got to try out some 17 and 18 year old wine. Basically, Schlumberger's is a pretty ritzy gig, and with some rich winos in the room, I got intimidated and awkward. But Jay took it in stride and made us feel totally welcome. He's a good man.

The End
...of wine country.

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So, now we're in San Francisco and all caught up on the blogs. Go us. Email us if you haven't talked to us in a while.. We'd love to hear from you.

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Again, thanks to Emmy and Jay for being such great hosts and making us feel unbelievably welcome in their home.