Cheers... at Napa Valley

Napa vineyards, here we come

We picked Sterling Vineyard and Rutherford Hill Winery, out of the 200+ vineyards and wineries in Napa. Why only two ? Simply because we only had limited time in a day's trip. Why these two ? Well...we are no wine expert/connoisseur. We just chose them based on what we saw in their websites. Each has its own selling point.

Sterling's tour is self-guided (that means we could take our own time and not be restricted by time, or interrupted by any tour guide). The self-guided tour includes an aerial tram ride and 5 wine tastings. The best part is, there is a USD5 discount passport if the tour is done before 12.30pm...savings for us, and that comes to USD15 for each of us. Value-for-money. Cheap(relatively) and good, we thought! If you have clicked the "Sterling's tour" link above, you will know another reason to visit this vineyard. Their website is beautiful. Welcomed by the chimes and soothing background music in the virtual tour for a glimpse of the sightings, I bet you will be as attracted as me to visit this vineyard, if you had to make a choice among those 200+.

Entrance to Sterling Vineyard

View shot from the aerial tram

Generous wine tasting

Rutherford's visit was more for the chance to see the wine-aging cave system. The use of caves for wine storage is a tradition as old as the art of winemaking itself, yet they are extremely rare in Napa Valley. However, during the tour, we found out that the caves were actually man-made.

Entrance to the cave system for wine-aging

If you are looking for a refreshing place for lunch in Napa, then drop by St. Helena, Napa, for Taylors Refresher. Hmmm...burgers in Napa wine country...refreshing huh. They do great burgers. But it was the first time to taste burgers since we came here one month ago in April. Maybe this was why it tasted so good. Nope. It was really good. I read a good review about this before we came.

Yummy

Trip date: 13 May 2006
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