Walkaholic

San Francisco Day 6 (Napa Valley)

It was raining all day today but it didn't stop us to go to Napa Valley as planned (even though we were not too happy.. ) We took Golden Gate Bridge..driving on the bridge in the rain. The first place we stopped was Domaine Chandon where they made sparkling wine. The only reason we went to Chandon was that Chandon was in the Snoop Dogg "Drop It Like It's Hot" song. While waiting for the tour, I had sparkling wine tasting.. Raymond didn't like drinking so he wouldn't try, (but did sip a bit.) I had three kinds of sparkling wine (and a glass I drank as a souvenir). They were supposed to taste and smell a bit different, some tasted like apple, some tasted like citrus.. the lady there said the difference came from difference in soil and weather, and blah blah blah. It was good, though I couldn't tell the difference too much.. and because I hadn't eaten anything that day, I was quite tipsy afterward.

After the tasting, we went on the tour of the winery. (I tried real hard to walk straight so Raymond wouldn't know I was a bit drunk.) It sucked that it was raining and we only got to tour the indoor wine making facilities but not the outdoor wineyard. It was interesting learning why the bubbles got in the wine. It was said that the sparkling wine (or champagne if the grapes were grown in Champagne, France) was accidentally created when someone bottled the wine too early and the fermentation started in the bottle and created bubbles. When the bubbles were created in the bottles, the pressure in the bottles were really high, so the bottom of the bottles were egg-shaped to make it stronger. And because the fermentation was still on in the bottle, there were some left over bacteria and it made the wine unclear. They said a nun discovered how to get rid of it by tilting the bottles and turning once a week (either clockwise or counter clockwise, I couldn't quite remember, or maybe it didn't matter.) Every single time the bottles were turned, they were tilted even more. At the end, those bacteria was at the bottom. To get it out, the bottles were frozen to lower the pressure and to freeze the bacteria which were at the bottom next to the cork. It was then warmed up to higher the pressure and the cork would pop out with the bacteria. A new cork was put back on and wine would now be nice and clear.

Out from Chandon, we stopped at KFC for lunch and continued to the Beringer winery. Beringer was started by two German brothers who found Napa Valley great for wine making. Their house was really beautiful with an old oak tree where they featured the tree in their wine. This time, Raymond did the wine tasting with me.. (well, cuz it was part of the paid tour!) The wine was a bit too strong for Raymond and me.. I liked sparkling wine much better. During the tour, we saw a wine cellar that appeared in the movie "A Walk in the Clouds" with Keanu Reeves.

By the time we left the Beringer, most of the wineries were closed already. One of the wineries that were still open was Peju where we stopped by. We only see their giftshops, some wine barrels, and a bit of the wine making facilities. Oh, we actually saw the grape wines. It was supposed to ripe around Aug - Sept, so we only saw the grape buds.

Now heading back to SF, we got stuck in traffic a bit on Bay Bridge. Once we got to SF, we parked the car and went walking around Union Square stopping by some shopping stores.. (like my favorite Forever 21 store located in an old historic building!! hehe..) For dinner, we went to a Thai noodle place called King of Thai Noodle House. It was really good and authentic. All the waitresses there were so pretty.. we both just couldn't stop staring at them.

Back to the Intercontinental Hotel again in a different room, not a suite anymore because they upgraded us only for one night. Moving in a hurry from the suite to this room, I forgot my glasses. Raymond went down stairs trying to get them back for me. Luckily, he got them.

Labels: san francisco, travel

posted by usa @ 11:29 PM