Blue Sky and sunny day

We wake up to an amazing day in Yountville. I head over to Bouchon Bakery for breakfast goodies and coffee, and we get going for the first AM appointment: Steltzner.

Enjoying barrel tastings at Steltzner! We love the '06 Syrah!

At Steltzner we go thru a great tasting in the tasting room (with Kory, a native of Akron, OH) and then head down to the caves to try some barrels. We think the '06s in barrels are even better than the '05s we tried in the tasting room; watch out for this next vintage!

After we leave Stelzner we have a bit of time before our next appointment, so we stop by Robert Sinskey for a quick tour. The tasting room is fantastic, and our wines are paired with tiny courses from the open kitchen set up 10 feet away. Our taster is a native of MA as well, and takes us thru a speed walk of the caves and production facilities. (Melissa's note: if you like shellfish, pair with the Robert Sinskey Abraxus, which is a blend of pinot gris, reisling, gewurtz, and pinot blanc. )

Sinskey's tasting room....

....and their library, deep in the caves!

Off to our next appointment: Duckhorn. Enroute, Kelly just happen to mention her father's offer to treat us to dinner at the French Laundry during our stay (menu and pictures to follow). We figure, what the hell, it's Super Bowl Sunday, call, and get a 9pm reservation for the 3 of us.

We arrive at Duckhorn, and are pretty full of ourselves. We have an appointment for a private tasting and tour, but are once again shuffled in with the yokels from Mississippi and Indiana. We ditch the tour (pictures to follow) and head to a Mexican Cantina (where is the logic in that...9 courses coming soon!) for a lite lunch of fajitas and burritos then back to Mr. Larkin's for the Super Bowl. (Melissa's note: Being trapped in a condo with a Giants fan and a Patriots fan was quite the "Dear Diary" moment. While Kelly's ritual is to sport a "I HATE PEYTON MANNING; ELI SUCKS TOO" shirt and scream at the television, Kim prefers a more passive technique of hiding under the covers of the bed when things aren't looking good for Eli. She can tell by the noise of Kelly and me when she can come out.)

we survived!

After the Super Bowl, we put on our finest digs and walk (it's literally 100 yards from Sean's) to dinner. Kelly will post it all on it's own, but I will say that we walked home at 1:15 am.