napa 4.0 a whole lotta photos!

We're back... from the 4th "almost" annual trip to Napa.
We had a great time again.
Stayed at the Villa Palma again.
Drank lots of wine again.
But did a few things differently this year :)
This year was the photo year. Since last year - everyone had upgraded their equipment. Clare got a Rebel Xs and is loving it... Tonya got a great Nikon... and Char (the newbie) had a really cool Lumix point and shoot. (I still have the same camera, but upgraded my lens.)

We had a little shutterfly website that we built last year - so we added all of our photos again this year... so far we have like 415 photos up there!

Here are a handful :)

I love the feet kicked up on the wine barrel in this shot! It's at V. Sattui winery.

The girls... this is at Bennett Lane Winery. We got lucky and found two guys who were there taking photos for the winery's website... they had insane cameras and were rocking the "L" lenses... it was pretty funny because they were all "do you mind if we change your settings"... they were probably laughing because us "amateurs" are shooting in AV... when I got it back... it was in "M"!!! (which I am way too scared to shoot in!!)

Char took this one - its is Clare, Me, Tonya at Chateau Montelena. This is the winery that put Napa on the map by winning some big wine competition in Paris in 1976 for their 1973 Chardonnay. (See the movie "Bottle Shock"... it tells the whole story) This place is stunning!

Char - at the Chateau. She's a teeny little thing!

Tonya at Summer Estate winery... if only she didn't have a smudge on her lense - this would have been a GREAT shot. Look at the landscape in the reflection of her fancy gold shades!

This little dude was hanging outside of Markham winery.
He had more personality than the staff there.

Beautiful Clare - at V. Sattui.

200 of the 415 photos are probably of this fountain.
One because it attracts lots of awesome birds,
Two because we didn't have to move from the porch to shoot it and
Three... it was beautiful.

I think this has to win the prize for best fountain/bird shot though. Its totally a staredown for the top spot on the fountain.

Appetizers! The tomatoes are from the owner of the Villa's garden. They were waiting for us on Saturday night when we returned from tasting.

There are lots of gorgeous iron gates on the property. This one encloses the driveway.

There are those yummy tomatoes again... they arrived in a Dean and Deluca bag..
which made them even more luxurious.

We were the first to taste this Cab. at Mid Summer Cellars.. "Rollie" the winemaker used the "thief" to steal a taste right from the barrel. It was a VERY cool experience (minus the "Real Hosuewives of Chicago that showed up and crashed our private tasting).
Rollie's wine wins for the best wine - we bought his 2007 Canon Creek Cabernet Sauvignon to sip along with the ridiculous rib eye steaks that Tonya grilled on our last night there.