Napa

The only other thing to note since the Apple/Caramel/Awesome/Spice Cake before I tell you a little about my trip to Napa is our Easter brunch. I really like Easter as far as holidays go because I get to wear something girly and pastel, and because it often involves yummy food and chocolate. We had fourteen people this year in my little 2-bedroom apartment and it was a smashing success! There was totally enough food! We had: biscuits and (actually good) vegetarian gravy, blueberry buttermilk cake, fruit salad, quiche, deviled eggs, mimosas, bacon, mini croissants, and some excellent egg mess with homemade chips. So yum!

Anyway, back to the point of this post: I went to Napa with my mom and another mother/daughter pair for a short weekend getaway. It was my first time to the Napa Valley and hopefully not my last! The highlight for me was sabering open a bottle of champagne (and not hurting anyone or myself, dropping the bottle, or spilling too much), although the entire trip was fabulous. I loved being able to sit down with a sommelier and have them walk me through exactly how they figured out which wine was from where, what the year was, what it smelled like, etc. We saw how and where the wine making was done and got to try quite a bit too. The only downside was realizing that most of them are out of my price range! Oh well, I can dream.

The 5 'S's of Wine Tasting:
1. See. Is the wine red or white? Is there anything in it? Bubbles? What color red or white--dark or light (apparently red wine gets lighter with age and white wines get darker)?
2. Swirl. This apparently increases the surface area so the molecules of smell come out. This is also where you get to see the wine's "legs" (a term I find amusing). When you swirl a glass rather vigorously, you watch where the top edge of the wine has hit the glass and the lines that fall down from that are the legs. The faster and the slower they fall depend on alcohol and sugar content--the faster they fall, the less sugar or alcohol there is, and vice versa.
3. Smell. F.E.W: stands for fruit, earth, and wood: when you smell the wine does it smell really sweet? Then it probably has a lot of fruit in it...a chardonnay often has a more mineral-y smell which can be described as earth.
4. Sip. This is when you confirm or deny your guess of what the wine is like based on the first 3 'S's and you use the F.E.W. words again.
5. Spit or Swallow. Pretty obvious--if you like it, swallow it, if not, spit.

Pictures following!