Happy FOUR Year Anniversary!

 Today is Devin and my 4 year anniversary. I immediately think about where we were last year and things have gotten so much easier. Last year we had two one month old baby girls and we were getting about 3 hours of sleep a night, all broken up. This year we have big plans to grill a nice meal outside and enjoy the wonderful weather on our new deck. I bought all kinds of great food from Central Market and can't wait to cook! We already took a celebratory trip to Napa Valley last weekend. My parents babysat and we had such a wonderful relaxing time touring vineyards and eating amazing food. We are so lucky to have my parents so close. They are amazing!

Our first trip to Napa was for our 2 year anniversary and we pretty much just bounced around. This year I really planned where we would go and eat so we had reservations and appointments at a lot of places that you can't just walk in, hence the wine was much better! Here's a list of where we went...a little reference for when we go back maybe in another 2 years!

Cakebread Cellars was our first stop. They are known for their Chardonnay but we fell in love with their own special red blend called Rubaiyat. It's a blend of Pinot Noir, Syrah, Zinfandel and Petit Sirah and they make such a limited amount that you can only buy it at their vineyard. I think we might have this bottle with our dinner tonight!

We made a quick stop at Folie a Deux for a tasting. This wasn't on our agenda but we had some extra time. I don't remember much about this place but I do buy their wine at my local Tom Thumb.

We then headed for some sparkling wine at Mumm Napa. We really enoyed their Cuvee M, which is a little more sweet. It's very easy to buy this at our local liquor stores and I'm very glad I now know what kind of champagne I really like. By the way, you can't call it champagne unless it's from France. That's why it's called sparkling wine.

We ended our first day in Napa at Elizabeth Spencer, our favorite vineyard from our visit in 2008. We only have one bottle left from that visit and it's from here. It's a boutique winery located in the old Napa post office 2007. It's so cute and we met lots of nice people there like we did during our previous visit. We bought a bottle of their  Petit Sirah and a bottle of their Chenin Blanc.

We then took a tour at Del Dotto Vinyards in St. Helena. This was by far the best tour we went on. They took us through their caves lined with Italian marble and ancient tiles. It was by candlelight and they got the wine for the tasting right our of the barrel. The caves were pitch black lined with small white candles. This vineyard was voted best tour and we agreed. Unfortunately, no cameras allowed inside but you can see a picture below of the outside.

While at Del Dotto we met some people from Texas that recommended Fleury, and we're so glad they did! We dropped in with no appointment and they managed to squeeze us in to one of their private tasting rooms. We had a lot of fun and ended up buying some of their wine. We left with their 2006 Lauren Bryce Cabernet (named after their children) and a bottle of their 2004 Port. I know most people don't like Port, but I love it!


We had such a nice trip and it was so nice to be away with Devin- even though we missed our girls so much and talked about them non-stop!