We've been in wine country for three days now. It's a very beautiful part of the country and the wine is good too!
Some of the vineyards are very elaborate. The picture below is Rodney Strong, and we were impressed with their estate wines (wines sold only at the vineyard).
It's a good thing we were on a tour!
The picture of the grapevine shows how knotty and gnarled they get as they get older -- this one is over 100 years old.
The picture to the right is a cork tree. The bark is the primary source for wine bottle corks. They begin producing the cork bark at 40-50 years and can live productively for about 300 years.
Overall, our favorite winery is the Trinchero Vineyards. We've liked Trinchero wines for many years, and found out today that the Trinchero Family Estate is very large and encompasses Trinchero, Main Street, Sutter Home and Folie a Deue -- Menage a Trois.
Some of the vineyards are very small, with 10 acres and some are huge with over 1,000 acres. Many of them don't make wine - they just grow the grapes and sell them to other wineries.
There are hundreds of wineries in the area and they each have a different "personality".
We learned that the way to make a small fortune in the wine business is to start with a very large fortune and watch it shrink!
We had lunch in the city of Napa. The police had streets blocked off because someone put a live grenade in the bushes in front of a building just outside the restaurant. The buildings were evacuated and the bomb squad arrived and exploded the grenade, which made a big bang! Everyone was excited!
Tomorrow we are leaving for Yosemite National Park. We hear some of the roads are still closed due to snow, so we plan to have an adventure!
Love to all.
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