I recently had the privilege of visiting Napa, California on behalf of Constellation Brands Co., and I have to say, it was wonderful! It was sunny for the majority of the time, and the people couldn’t have been nicer. I was treated to some of the finest food, wine and hospitality that Napa has to offer. To contradict one of my colleague’s blog posts, if that is what magazine living is like, bring it on! The next few blogs I release will be my recap of each day I spent there.
Thursday September 22, 2011- Day 1
I started the day off as many do when taking an early flight, tired and confused as to why I had to be at the airport two hours before the flight. As always, I remembered it is probably a good idea to arrive early because by coincidence I always get picked for the “random” screening; could my last name be the problem? Who knows. We boarded the plane and arrived at San Francisco International Airport six hours later, or, thanks to the timezone difference, three hours later. I got on a shuttle bus, met the other members of the group I was a part of, and off we went. We stoped by the local liquor store–unfortunately Colonial Spirits doesn’t ship to Cali yet– and bought some more “beverages,” just in case we happened to run out. 😉 It wasn’t too long before we arrived in Napa.
I was awestruck by Napa’s beauty, one lovely winery after another, divided by a mere 15 foot dirt path. We arrived at, what we would call home for the time being, Franciscan Winery, and our fun began. We were immediately picked up and taken to Robert Mondavi Winery, the birthplace of Napa wines, and another beautiful building. We walked around the vineyard, got acclimated with our surroundings, and luckily for us we didn’t have to go through any lectures on the first day. It was all about relaxing having a drink, eating good food, and simply enjoying ourselves. We did learn a lot about Franciscan while at dinner later that day, and the hostess was so exciting it was hard not to like her and enjoy her company.
In true Italian fashion, we would end our night playing bocce ball (actually, we ended all our nights playing bocce ball while eating, drinking and just having a good time).
What I learned on the first day: My liver is stronger than I thought.
