Napa Valley Day 2

2012.09.21
Day Eighty Seven. Day two in the beautiful and heavenly Napa Valley was more awesome than day one (despite my initial thoughts to the contrary). I left the macro lens on my camera just for fun (and to continue to play with the concept that super fast primes and zooming with one's feet inspire increased creativity), to which I can only say, worked out marvelously! The name of our first stop now escapes me, but that's ok ... their wine wasn't very good and lest quickly (after a bit more searching, it was Heitz Cellars ... still don't go there). Our next stop however, was far more photogenic. Cakebread Cellars had both good wine, and interesting scenery ... and fish! Our third stop was architecturally fantastic, but financially absurd (I'm sorry Opus One, but I'm not paying $40 for a single glass of wine. I don't care how fancy your building looks). Our fourth (and final) stop was literally heaven itself. Paraduxx is back off the main road and a bit hard to find if you don't already know where you're going, but most definitely worth the stop. We were seated out in what I'm going to call the "back yard" of the tasting house under our own private tree. They brought out the tasting tray and told us a little story with each of the wines. The weather was beyond perfect. We could have sat there forever and never been unhappy about it. And so, sit there we did. And a few minutes later, they brought out more wine to try. So we continued to sit there, enjoying the absolute perfection of the afternoon. A short time after that, they brought out even more wine for us. We were beginning to sense a pattern and quickly losing confidence in the idea that we were ever going to leave (though not exactly convinced that that was a bad thing). Eventually, wanderlust won out and we got up and poked around a bit, ate some grapes off the vine, played a bit of cornhole, then happily returned for another good long sit, discovering that yet another wine had been brought out for us to try. I don't know what eventually compelled us to leave, but leave we did (though if I had to guess, I'd say it was probably my stomach and the emptiness thereof). We headed back in to town (Yountville) to grab a quick bite before stopping in Napa for a good walk around and a proper meal. The blue hour in downtown Napa was particularly stunning that evening - lots of really cool architecture for the sun to bounce off of. It was a perfect sunset for a perfect day :)
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