California Love: The Wineries

Steve and I honeymooned in Napa Valley and San Francisco, California. We'd never been to the West Coast but had heard so many wonderful things about the Bay Area. It's not a typical honeymoon destination, but the more we thought about it, the more it seemed like the perfect choice for us, since all we wanted out of our honeymoon was to relax and eat good food. Napa and San Fran, with its mild October weather and abundance of restaurants and wineries, worked out extremely well. I have Steve to thank because he planned the whole trip!

We spent four nights in Napa and then six nights in San Francisco. We took over 1,000 pictures so rather than give you a consecutive play-by-play of the trip, I'll break it up into a few posts by theme. Since the first few days of our trip revolved around wine, in this post I'll talk about the wineries we visited.

In Napa, we stayed at a modern hotel downtown called Avia. We splurged on one of the nicest rooms in the hotel--a suite with a fireplace and a private balcony. We were really happy with our stay there and would definitely go back.

The first winery we visited in the area was Sterling Vineyards in Calistoga. It had been recommended to us by a friend. The coolest part about Sterling is that it's at the top of a mountain so you have to take a gondola. The views from the gondola and the winery itself were spectacular.

Sterling has a Mediterranean feel, with its Greek-inspired architecture. We paid for the self-guided tour, which brought us through the winery to learn about how wine is made. We were given a wine glass, and at various points throughout the tour, we were able to taste different wines. It was a leisurely afternoon and we enjoyed the wine. At the end of the tour, we ordered some bottles to ship home.

Had to get a shot of our rings!

Before leaving, we admired the field of grapevines next to the parking lot...and had a little fun with our rings!

Another day, we visited a smaller, family-owned winery called Swanson Vineyards. When researching for our trip, Steve had found a coupon for a wine pairing tasting so we decided to check it out. It ended up being our favorite winery. This place was much smaller and more intimate than Sterling. It had more of a romantic, French ambiance. The owners themselves served us and we had our tasting in their outdoor gardens.

Along with the wines, we tasted a local organic potato chip with caviar and creme fresh, goat cheese and a wafer and a curry chocolate bonbon. Everything was delicious! They also gave us coffee and dessert wine.

Mrs. Elizabeth Swanson, one of the owners, was so sweet. When she found out we were newlyweds, she gifted us a bottle of their "Just Married" wine! She suggested we drink it on our one year anniversary, which we plan to do. :)

We bought some wine from their shop, which was really nice inside. Then we snapped another photo in their garden and were on our way!



After leaving Swanson, we visited our last winery, Buena Vista Carneros in Sonoma. This was a historical winery and had a more vintage look to it. After admiring the grounds (I was surprised and delighted to see foliage), we went inside and had a tasting at the bar.

We didn't buy the huge bottle above but we did buy a regular-sized bottle to add to our growing collection. We are officially all stocked with wine at home! I'm so glad we decided to visit Napa for the first part of the trip because the winery visits were so relaxing and fun. Plus the weather was perfect at 85 degrees and sunny each day.

Next, I'll tell you about the other sights we saw while in Wine Country...stay tuned!

*All photos in this post are personal photos