It was Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day of the year, something retail workers call Black Friday, and I was turning 21. Indeed, my birthday landed yet again on Thanksgiving.
Most people who turn 21 look forward to going bar hopping and eventually meeting that white porcelain god, which they will kneel before with open arms. Or even worse, you could get stuck in a gutter on 19th street in front of the adult Wilton Cinema.
Some friends have called me a “wino,” but since I was “younger,” I enjoyed drinking wine rather than other alcoholic beverages. It is for this reason, among many others, that on my 20th birthday my parents began to plan for my 21st. They call it the Wine Country, and for my birthday I got to visit Napa Valley, and went on my first wine tour.
My uncle, who lives in Morgan Hill, planned the tour, and it began Nov. 23 at the inconvenient hour of 9 a.m. After the drive from Bakersfield to Morgan Hill on Thursday, the wine I consumed that evening made it hard to wake up.
But the next morning, I looked outside the window, and there before me was the white Hummer Limo that I’d be spending the rest of my day in. I was pretty happy that I got to keep it classy. My parents willingly spoiled me with this because of the family outing and the fact that one of my best friends came along.
We began the day by stopping for a breakfast of champions: McDonalds breakfast sandwiches, along with a breakfast delight, mimosas. We took plenty of champagne and my favorite vodka, Grey Goose. After about an hour drive from Morgan Hill, I was already under the influence when we arrived at our first planned stop, Roche Winery.
Like most wineries I saw that day, Roche’s architecture and landscaping resembled a European farm style. When I walked through the doors of the winery, the guy greeting handed me a glass of wine and said hello. You could tell this was a pretty nice place.
I like wine, but I’m no connoisseur, not even after the trip, so after tasting my first wine all I had to say about the flavor was that it tasted like a chardonnay.
And it was here that I learned while tasting or drinking you move from white wines to red wines and then you have dessert or a port. It was also at Roche where I tried the most expensive and delicious wine I had that day, a Cabernet Roche Family Reserve, going for $118 a bottle, but it was amazing and tasted like velvet across the tongue.
I had to settle for a bottle of Temprinillo, a red wine that was also delicious, part cabernet, part merlot, going for $36 a bottle. I felt pretty rotten, knowing that I didn’t have to pay for anything that day.
We then made our way to V. Sattui, voted winery of the year 2006-07. It was so busy, I felt like I was at a tourist hot spot, something I didn’t really enjoy. Inside, it was a madhouse of people tasting cheeses, sauces, sausage and of course wine.
The tasting room wrapped around the sales floor, and the tasting options were much broader than the last. Here I was able to start by tasting a chardonnay again, but then quickly moved to my favorites, the cabernets.
Then I had my first port. It’s a dessert wine and I think what they poured for tasting was plenty for any one sitting. On a side note, ports go well with chocolate.
We were in the limo for another 30 minutes or so when we arrived at a place I never really thought I’d ever be, the Beringer Winery. I had always bought Beringer white zinfandel because you could get it for $4 a bottle, and it was pretty tasty for drinking socially.
I never really thought Beringer actually made good wine though. Unfortunately, I missed out on part of the tasting because all of the lovely scenery distracted me. And to be honest, I was pretty intoxicated by 4 p.m., so my brother’s friend and I had more fun taking pictures.
The final visit we made was to Sterling Winery, a pretty unique place due to the fact that it was about 200 feet up a hill overlooking the Napa Valley, and the only way to get up there is to take a lift. We paid $25 dollars for a ride up the lift, which included a tour that they force you to take to taste the four different wines they were offering that day. It had gotten late and cold, so the outdoor wine tasting of Sauvignon Blanc was rather refreshing.
As the sun set we finally made our way back to the limo where I slept the whole way back to my uncle’s, peacefully undistracted by the party that apparently happened in the limo.