Happiness is a Canopy of Trees with Spanish Moss on a Winding Road
As it turns out, Judge Clooney did have bad news regarding his father, but decided to make the trip to Napa after all. They flew in on Thursday, and I sent them information and directions for a party at St. Supery by way of my wine club membership. After hitting a record 12 wineries in one day, they descended upon the party and proceeded to enjoy themselves further, and procured a lovely bottle of the 2002 Dollarhide Cabernet for me as a thank-you.
Judge Clooney called early on Friday morning before I had even gotten into the office to ensure my attendance at dinner that night. After a long day at the office, various raffles and cattle calls for left over set pieces from the previous weeks shooting, (I actually came away with some glass bowls, dishes, candles, linen napkins, and glasses - but missed out on the furniture, pots and pans, and pillow sets) I stopped by my apartment to feed the kitties, grab my suitcase, and begin the drive to Napa via Marin.
I arrived while the farmer’s market was still going on down town, and strolled through it a bit on my way to the Bounty Hunter to meet The Boys for dinner. Notice I have taken out Bull Semen Boys; with two additions to their little club who are not in the Bull Semen business, it seems more appropriate to just call them The Boys (one is an OBGYN and the other is a Teacher). I wasn't particularly hungry, having had a big lunch, so we sampled wines the Boys were recommending, and I passed out some Gispert and Padilla cigars I'd brought for them. One of the Fellahs from last year brought me a Cuban Romeo y Julieta from his vast corporate travels.
Because of some kind of festival thingy, we could not get rooms in Napa or Sonoma, which kind of sucked, because we were doing the Sonoma tour the next day. We wound up staying at the Hilton Garden in Fairfield, which is a good 20 minutes from Napa proper, where we'd left one of the cars and planned to swap out mine for the rental so I wouldn't have to drive. We took the long way, winding up through Rutherford and then Calistoga, up and down the mountain again to hit a few wineries closer to Healdsburg and Santa Rosa. Since we had to swap out the cars, Judge Clooney and I wound up arriving at the 3rd winery the Boys had gotten to, and it was only 9:30am! We sampled at J Richioli, before hitting one more on the way to a party near Young's Market, where the best wine of the day was a rare pinot noir from a barrel that Randy Lewis himself poured, of Lewis Cellars. The Judge was egging me to go back for seconds, and he said, "I'll just stay behind you and ride your coat tails. He's more likely to give a beautiful girl seconds before some guy." Try as he might, the Judge did not score seconds; I did, however. So maybe he was right. Heh. We gnashed on little pizzas and cheese and crackers there, before moving on to Cardinale for a private tasting in one of their dining rooms that the Boys had reserved for us the day before.
We had little plates of delicate cheeses, and two of there famous cabernets. We chatted on the terrace for a bit, looked at the mountains through the telescope they have, and enjoyed the scenery of rolling vines, intermingled with charming little houses and lush greenery.
After that, we headed to The Martini House for dinner, where we met up with a gal from Plumpjacks that was at the Bounty Hunter the day before. She brought an exquisite Cabernet that we decanted at table, and despite the name of the venue, none of us partook of Martinis. I had an amazing halibut with ravioli in a gentle sauce, and we all split a few Beef Carpaccios. There was no room for desert, of course.
Later, we drove back to Napa to pick up Teach's keys from the Thursday night Hotel where he'd left them, and swap out cars again. They all had 6am flights the next day, so we nixed the idea of another late night, and I drove home after saying my goodbyes.
All in all, it was a lovely, lovely weekend with them.
Sunday I lounged and pondered some reality TV shows, grocery shopped, and successfully avoided the Nob Hill Grill, which has a penne pasta dish that calls my name each time I get down to that corner on my way to the supermarket. Got some writing done in the evening; still working on scripts. *sigh*.
Judge Clooney called early on Friday morning before I had even gotten into the office to ensure my attendance at dinner that night. After a long day at the office, various raffles and cattle calls for left over set pieces from the previous weeks shooting, (I actually came away with some glass bowls, dishes, candles, linen napkins, and glasses - but missed out on the furniture, pots and pans, and pillow sets) I stopped by my apartment to feed the kitties, grab my suitcase, and begin the drive to Napa via Marin.
I arrived while the farmer’s market was still going on down town, and strolled through it a bit on my way to the Bounty Hunter to meet The Boys for dinner. Notice I have taken out Bull Semen Boys; with two additions to their little club who are not in the Bull Semen business, it seems more appropriate to just call them The Boys (one is an OBGYN and the other is a Teacher). I wasn't particularly hungry, having had a big lunch, so we sampled wines the Boys were recommending, and I passed out some Gispert and Padilla cigars I'd brought for them. One of the Fellahs from last year brought me a Cuban Romeo y Julieta from his vast corporate travels.
Because of some kind of festival thingy, we could not get rooms in Napa or Sonoma, which kind of sucked, because we were doing the Sonoma tour the next day. We wound up staying at the Hilton Garden in Fairfield, which is a good 20 minutes from Napa proper, where we'd left one of the cars and planned to swap out mine for the rental so I wouldn't have to drive. We took the long way, winding up through Rutherford and then Calistoga, up and down the mountain again to hit a few wineries closer to Healdsburg and Santa Rosa. Since we had to swap out the cars, Judge Clooney and I wound up arriving at the 3rd winery the Boys had gotten to, and it was only 9:30am! We sampled at J Richioli, before hitting one more on the way to a party near Young's Market, where the best wine of the day was a rare pinot noir from a barrel that Randy Lewis himself poured, of Lewis Cellars. The Judge was egging me to go back for seconds, and he said, "I'll just stay behind you and ride your coat tails. He's more likely to give a beautiful girl seconds before some guy." Try as he might, the Judge did not score seconds; I did, however. So maybe he was right. Heh. We gnashed on little pizzas and cheese and crackers there, before moving on to Cardinale for a private tasting in one of their dining rooms that the Boys had reserved for us the day before.
We had little plates of delicate cheeses, and two of there famous cabernets. We chatted on the terrace for a bit, looked at the mountains through the telescope they have, and enjoyed the scenery of rolling vines, intermingled with charming little houses and lush greenery.
After that, we headed to The Martini House for dinner, where we met up with a gal from Plumpjacks that was at the Bounty Hunter the day before. She brought an exquisite Cabernet that we decanted at table, and despite the name of the venue, none of us partook of Martinis. I had an amazing halibut with ravioli in a gentle sauce, and we all split a few Beef Carpaccios. There was no room for desert, of course.
Later, we drove back to Napa to pick up Teach's keys from the Thursday night Hotel where he'd left them, and swap out cars again. They all had 6am flights the next day, so we nixed the idea of another late night, and I drove home after saying my goodbyes.
All in all, it was a lovely, lovely weekend with them.
Sunday I lounged and pondered some reality TV shows, grocery shopped, and successfully avoided the Nob Hill Grill, which has a penne pasta dish that calls my name each time I get down to that corner on my way to the supermarket. Got some writing done in the evening; still working on scripts. *sigh*.