Well folks, here it is: the thing I have been most waiting for. Today, Rachel and I drove up to Napa for the Wine train, with food and drink and a tour and tasting at Napa Valley's own Grgich Hills Winery. I highly suggest their Zinfandel. But I get ahead of myself.
We got there around 10:15 and signed in. Turns out that our tickets were pins that we got to wear that said "Grgich Hill Winery" with a picture of the train on them. I thought that was really cool. We checked out the wines they had for sale, and looked into shipping some home. The woman in the gift shop told us that Pennsylvania was a "bad state" and that they wouldn't ship any for us, but that we could buy shipping boxes from them--for a nominal fee, of course--and either ship it ourselves or check it when it flew. Neither of us was planning to do either of those things, but it was nice to know.
They started the tour off with a whole bunch of information about the train that we would be getting on. It was hard to hear, because a lot of the people were just talking and talking and wouldn't shut up to listen. They finally called us, and we went out to get on the train. They had a lot of opportunities to get our pictures taken in "set up" places, and the first was right as we got on the train. Rachel and I opted to skip all of these. It seemed silly and expensive.
Once on board, they sat us at a really exquisite table (see the pictures) and brought us a complimentary half glass of the train house wine. We had both gotten vouchers for two drinks each, so it was nice to not have to use them on this first drink; we got to see if it was a wine we would like, and we chose the Sauvignon Blanc. . They took our lunch orders and brought us a delicious salad: baby lettuce with goat cheese and almonds with a something or other dressing that was sweet and tart all at once. I ordered the beef medallions, and Rachel ordered the pork. They also had chicken and two types of fish. We both decided on the chocolate brownie for desert, which we would get when we got back from Grgich Hils. We had about an hour of riding the train and eating (and drinking! We both used our first voucher for a Merlot with our meals. Delish!) before we got to the winery. We were going past all sorts of other wineries, though, and I got a picture of a few.
The car that we were in was beautiful. There were fans up top moving the AC around (it was over 100 degrees F today), we had beautiful silver and china (see picture!) and our server was very polite. Everything was decked out in reds and greens and golds. It felt very lush, and very early 1900s first class. It might not seem like it from this trip, but I don't pamper myself very often, and this was worth the expense. The beef was so tender I could cut it with my fork, and the carrots that came with it were nice and crunchy. There was a long strip of Cambozola cheese on top of my beef, and it went so well with the truffle potato cake underneath it all. Oh, it was heavenly!
When we got to the winery, we met Mike, the guide. He was hilarious. For example, the owner of the winery also goes by Mike, and you might notice from the picture that he is turning 90. One of the ladies joked that our Mike looked pretty good for 90, and he responded "That's what happens when you drink too much on the ride up!" or something similar related to the idea that alcohol was making him look younger (his was funnier). As I said, it was over 100 degrees out, so he hustled us into the winery itself, where it was a downright chilly 55 degrees. He gave us some history of Mike Grgich and the winery we were in, and then we went to taste their 5 wines. He told us how to be wine snobs, but kept insisting that it wasn't about being able to identify the full body or the smells of the wines; it was about enjoying the wine you were drinking and having a good time. He kept saying "It's Ok if you make a mistake, just drink another bottle and it'll all taste great!" He was, as I stated earlier, hilarious, and really informative, and just a very genial guy. When Rachel and I asked about shipping to PA, he did not call us a bad state, but did note that we had some "really archaic liquor laws" while shaking his head at the travesty of it all.
Back on the train, we were put into the lounge car (pictures!) to have our desert and tea for the hourish trip home. It was so leisurely! I half wish I had petticoats and a dress. I had to go to the bathroom at this time, and I have to say: there were marble counter tops, and everything was full sized--the door, the counter, the sink. It was so spacious for a train bathroom! Rachel didn't believe me.
We both still had a drink voucher left, but between the two glasses before the tasting and the five tastes in the tasting, we didn't have any more room for wine right then. We used them in the gift shop for post cards and a bottle of chocolate wine.
After all that fun, we went to the Jelly Belly factory and did a tour. I had forgotten about this part of the day until Rachel asked if I was still up for it on the way out. The factory wasn't moving, but we got to see all the steps, and we got a lot of free Jelly Belly's along the way.
We checked into our hotel, went to Safeway to get some wine and cheese for dinner to continue the tradition of the day, and came back. We went down to the pool and spa, but there were some pretty obnoxious people in the pool and the hot tub was pretty crowded, so we only stayed for like 20 minutes, if even that long. We came back, and I got to work on this.
Tomorrow, we are going to finally see Joss Whedon's William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Once I realized it would be out when I was in CA with Rachel, I knew I couldn't see it without her. It's the third thing I was most looking forward to (the first being this and The Painted Cabernet combined).
Adios!
Bethie
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