NAPA VALLEY TRIP 2015 - DAY TWO AND MAROON FRIDAY!

Hooray for day two because it was my absolute favorite! Just truly magical.  This was the day that made me fall in love with Napa and has me wanting to go back! First off let me know that it was Maroon Friday! We had a home football game on Saturday that we were going to miss so of course we wanted to show our support all the way across the country!

Pat picked us up mid morning and it was so beautiful out.  Still cool and the sun was bright.  Napa Valley was really showing off for us! Our first appointment was with a very small winery called Aonair.  It is by appointment only and I believe they only take a few tastings a week.  They have a small staff so they are busy picking grapes, making wine, waxing bottles and then meeting people and introducing them to their wines too.  This is what we drove up on.  I mean, really! It was so beautiful! The wine at Aonair was amazing and this was one of the wineries that we joined their club. Can't wait to come back!

 This is the wineries main building.  They had a cigar loft upstairs and a large table for dining, a bocce ball court and a pizza oven out in their outdoor area.  We wanted to stay forever.

Maroon Friday at Aonair with the Laces

Getting the tasting started with the chardonnay

Enjoying the porch that was perched on top of the winery and under this beautiful tree.  

It was all so dreamy!

Kenny was enjoying the morning too.

We headed to our next appointment at Lake Terrace.  Lake Terrace is another small winery on top of another beautiful hill.  They had a very laid back California hippy vibe going and also another awesome patio to taste their wines on.

The girls!

Group shot at Lake Terrace

This winery was extra neat because after we tasted all the wines we were able to go down and look at the process of how the wine is made.  We tasted the grapes off the vines at almost all the wineries but at this one we were able to touch, feel and taste all the stages of wine making and it was really really neat.

Peeking into the large vats with all the grapes fermenting.

This was Monica.  She was so funny and dry and showed us all the ropes 

with her vineyard hand boyfriend!

This was where we tasted just the juice of the berries after just being crushed.  It was sweet.

After learning all about how wine is maid we hopped on their gator and rode down the hill to their small building where they were agin balsamic vinegar the old fashioned way in barrels.  Apparently this is very very rare. And a small bottle of it would cost you a fortune! But it was cool to learn about it all and we were able to taste the vinegars in different stages.

Girls on the gator

Aging Balsamic vinegar 

After we were done with everything at Lake Terrace Pat set up another wonderful picnic for us with another beautiful view!

The boys ready for our picnic.

When we were done eating it was time to go to the very much anticipated Maroon Winery.  When Margaret began planning our trip we knew we would be out there for Maroon Friday and she somehow found Maroon Winery.  We were all excited to go! Paul Maroon is the owner of the very small and private winery.  He does very few tastings and when we arrived and Paul greeted it I thought oh no what have we gotten ourselves into.  He seemed a little eccentric and could not of cared less why we were all dressed in maroon or why we were so excited to be there.  

We sat down with Paul and he began to tell us about his wines, how he was friends with Robin Williams, his home in Mexico and his business partner there and his belly dancing wife that he married for his first marriage at 65. We were loving talking to him.  He was so interesting and of course we were feeling great and the scenery was perfect.  It was by far my favorite afternoon spent in Napa! I will note even though he told him several times why we loved maroon so much he still never really cared but I that just makes it funnier to me!

Listening to Paul tell his tales.

Group picture with Paul!

After Paul's belly dancing wife arrived and very nicely kicked us out (she was quite the spitfire) we headed back into town for dinner at Mustards.  It was another delicious meal!

Tune in for day three and our final day among the vineyards!