My brother works for Sterling Vineyards in the Napa Valley. It’s actually up on a mountainside in Calistoga and overlooks the valley. So gorgeous! Of all the years I lived in Napa I had never visited Sterling before. Randy (my brother) set us up with “special” lanyards that got us on the tram (the only way up to the winery), the wine tasting and THEN the “special” wine tasting reserved for “club” members only. So much F.U.N.! The weather was perfect. It had been raining all morning but broke as soon as we reached Calistoga. It’s “crush” (harvest time) right now in the valley so we got to watch some of the grapes going through the process of being separated from the stems, very cool. In the picture with the red grapes you can see a guy pouring a bucket of oak chips into the grapes. Some of the wine is stored in oak barrels (or stainless steel). Sterling started added oak chips in the beginning of the process to enhance the flavor of some of the red wines. One of the white wines we tried (and I bought) is called “Malvasia Bianca”. Oh my word it was so good! A little sweet and so crisp! Randy said it’s their best seller and they sometimes run out of it! You can only buy it at the winery. We all had such a good time. Nothing like some wine and good friends . . . the only thing we were missing was some “hot chocolate” (inside joke)!!! Thanks Randy!!!! xoxo
Oct1
Country Girl 