honey-mooning-- day 4

Today was our last day in Napa Valley, but our first day in San Francisco, so it was both bittersweet and exciting.

We began our day as we have the last couple, by having an excellent breakfast at Churchill Manor, and then it was off to St. Helena to do some shopping. First on our agenda was the Coach outlet, followed by the Napa Valley Olive Oil Mfg. Co. Then it was back to Napa to pick up our bags and wine and head off to Carneros.

We decided to add two final wineries to our agenda Viansa, and Roche, both of which are at the tail end of the region and whose wines are available only through their tasting rooms.

Viansa came first and as we entered the grounds we were blown away. In addition to olive trees and grape vines everywhere, they had a large area of wetlands and beautiful gardens. Viansa concentrates on Italian varietals and grows many grapes not grown anywhere in the Napa valley or outside of Italy for that matter. Our wine expert Josh was great help in navigating the enormous list that is available for tasting. After discovering what we enjoyed he suggested several others and gave us an additional blind taste that turned into one of our favorites. In the end though we could have purchased a few cases we ended up with two bottles, a 2003 Dolceterra and a 2002 Prindelo. A couple we considered but decided against for the time being were the 2002 Samuele and our only white of the tasting a 2003 “Pierina” Vernaccia. After tasting we picked up lunch in their great deli/marketplace and ate overlooking the gorgeous estate. The owners along with Ducks Unlimited recreated a wetland on 90 acres of land on the estate and it makes for a very picturesque landscape.

Next we came to Roche Winery, either the first or last winery of Napa/Sonoma depending on your direction of travel. On a former cattle ranch this boutique/cult winery manufactures about 8,500 cases of wine a year, and only sells through its tasting room. Dale, the gentleman in charge of tastings, was very fun and informative. We tried a large number of wines for the size of the winery, but fell in love with their 2003 Estate Chardonnay and the 2002 Carneros Pinot Noir both of which we decided to bring home. We were also tempted to join their Club Carneros, which gives you quarterly shipments of 3 bottles of wine—new releases, special wine club only wines and the like. At Roche we had one of our most memorable wine tasting moments, we were able to do a barrel tasting of three wines that they are currently selling as futures—a 2004 Pinot Noir, 2004 Merlot, and 2004 Syrah. They will not be bottled for a few months yet and so their taste may be altered slightly by the aging and bottling processes, but you got a great idea of where the wines were headed.

With this our Napa vacation came to an end and we began our San Francisco vacation.

We took the 101 past San Rafael and Sausolito then into San Francisco. As we came over the mountain edge on the highway by Sausolito we were greeted with an amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance with wisps of fog coming over the mountain above us—wow. After a drive through SF, we arrived at the Andrews Hotel and were greeted with a bottle of Champagne in our room. We got settled, drank our champagne and were off. We went to the Levis store at Union Square and then to the Millennium for dinner. Millennium is an upscale vegan/vegetarian restaurant near our hotel. We sat at the bar and had one of the most amazing meals ever! We started with rosemary roasted new potatoes and a corn puree soup. Liane had a black bean torte and I had a pasta dish with a cashew cream-vodka sauce with white beans and nuts. For dessert we had an amazing chocolate torte with a cashew crust and white mousse topping. Then it was back to the hotel to relax.

Liane decided to call it a night and I took a walk to the top of Nob Hill and I was able to see the fog rolling across the city. Then it was back to the hotel and to sleep to prepare for the next day.