Day 3 Napa

Our first wine tasting stop was at Etude Winery, but we were not in search of wine . . . we were seeking their brandy that has its roots in Remy Martin.  They wouldn't let us taste our desire, but we bought it anyway as we know it will be great and is not often found outside where it is made.   http://shop.etudewines.com/etude-brandy-xo

The brandy we sought

For lunch today we went to a little river front restaurant, Angele . . . country French in style . . . felt like a Parisian outdoor cafe without the snotty waiters.  I ordered French onion soup and a heirloom tomato salad . . .Jon ordered a Carolina styled pulled pork sandwich . . . he wanted to see how the French interpreted a pulled pork sandwich.  The baguette with European butter was delicious . . . Jon and I each spooned the French onion soup that I think was second only to mine . . . I make a mean French onion soup.  Instead of the heirloom tomato salad I ordered they delivered a Nicoise salad . . . I decided to accept the salad but it was way too much food for me to eat so I barely made a dent in it and couldn't take it with me because we have no way to store it and I don't know when I would eat it anyway.  Jon told me the French don't quite get how to make pulled pork.  When the bill arrived it not only had the things we ordered, but also included a steak sandwich . .. Jon is polite but direct and mentioned the mistakes . . . the manager came over and we ended up paying only $17 for our entire meal . . . a more than fair price.  The restaurant was really charming and we are still thinking about eating there again Monday night as we think they are capable of getting the food right if we order their specialties . . . . one never knows what tomorrow may bring.

After lunch we traveled to a tasting room special we bought online before our trip.  The deal was a tasting of Waterstone Wines . . . . as part of the deal we got a local cheese tasting and a bottle of our choice with a value of up to $25.  Up until the last two wines we were immediately dumping . . .the last two were quite interesting and we ended up getting the Syrah mostly because it was half the price of the other, and thus for our tasting we shelled out no further cash.

Sparta was a patient girl in the tasting room as well as during lunch so we decided to take her for a long walk along the river this afternoon.  We think she was pleased.

We ordered a pizza to go from a place called Azzure this evening . . .they didn't list the pizza we wanted so we called them up and they graciously made the one we wanted.  Though the crust wasn't as crispy as the one we make it was thin crusted and had great flavor.  In a bit we'll have some Cherry Garcia Ice Cream . . . yum, yum . . .. and all is well.