Day 4 in Napa

Sparta and I approach the unfriendly "dog friendly" vineyard, Darioush

The spot of our lovely wine picnic at Pine Ridge Vineyards

Sparta enjoyed her usual morning romp at Alston Dog Park . . . she formed many new dog friends while we were in Napa . . . her favorites were a group of dogs about her age though they were really active, fast companions who could easily outrun and out maneuver her . . . her friendly disposition kept her in the loop.

We decided early we wanted another bottle of the Etude Brandy so took a drive back out to the vineyard.

After dropping the bottle off at our little nook we tracked down Phat Salads (our friend Gia's food truck) and bought a couple of her healthy Santa Fe Whole Wheat Wraps.  We decided we would spend our last day in Napa seeking unusual finds and have a picnic at a vineyard we had not visited.  With sandwiches in tow and a fun chat with Gia while she made our gourmet lunch, we headed down Silverado Trail and stopped by a couple of dog friendly vineyards.  The first vineyard turned out to be only dog friendly for little dogs that could be carried . . . . we will take care of their listing as a dog friendly vineyard by writing to our web sources and getting them to remove this vineyard from their listings.  The second vineyard, Pine Ridge, had some interesting wines . . . we bought a bottle of their chardonnay and drank it in their beautiful, shady picnic area while we ate our wonderful wraps.  Our next stop was Honig where we felt treated to a garden tasting and bought a bottle of wine we plan to give as a gift.  The young man who served us told us about a little, almost hidden vineyard that primarily made ports.  Prager is run by several generations of family who would be described as gentlemen farmers who also run a B&B . . . one of their ports struck our fancy . . . a 10 year old tawny port.  We visited one other vineyard but did not like anything they poured so decided to head back to town to buy two more bottles of Vinoce Proprietors Red.  For dinner we ate at Restaurant Allegria, an Italian place known for its pasta dishes.  We both had their seafood pasta in a red sauce.  We thought it was a bit heavy in tomato paste and needed more balance, but we enjoyed the meal.

We arrived back at our nook, happy and tired.