Napa Valley

I was browsing through a book on the Napa Valley called Napa Valley, The Ultimate Winery Guide, and started thinking what a great Valentine's getaway the Napa Valley would be.

We stayed in the Napa Valley a couple of years ago at a wonderful place called the Carneros Inn. This is the only resort that I am aware of in the Napa Valley that has this level of luxury and sophistication. Nestled amongst acres of grapevines, it has been designed to blend in with the local area with barns and ranchers' cottages in subdued greens and browns, but once inside the accommodations there is absolutely nothing subdued about the Carneros Inn. The cottage-type room we stayed in featured a big, puffy, king-size bed, a wood-burning fireplace, and ultra modern entertainment area with high-speed internet connection. The bathroom was also top of the range with massaging shower heads and a spacious soaking tub. Outside there was also a shower and cute little patio area for sampling the day's wine purchases. They also provided big, fluffy robes to wander over to the spa, pool or hot tub.

The Carneros Inn has a great restaurant called the Hilltop Dining Room, which has an extensive wine list, featuring many Carneros wines and numerous others. It was here that we were first introduced to the Franciscan Winery. This winery was recommended to us by the manager as having great tasting wines, so we ordered a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner, and next day off we went to check out the winery. We bought a case of wine and continued to buy the wine when we got back to San Diego. It is really fruity and, as the bottle says, with ripe black cherry, plum and currant flavors...mmmmmm.



This Napa Valley book was a great find. It has amazing pictures in it and takes you on a guided tour through Napa, giving a description of the winery, its location and its history, so you can plan your day's wine tasting in advance.

Pity I didn't own it before I went!