RADADADA's another year old :-o

[Lincoln]

Have a good one, man! :cheers2:

[primesuspect]

Happy Birthday!

[Sledgehammer70]

HAPPY b-DAY :)

[QCH]

Hope you have a GREAT BIRTHDAY, Rada!!!!!

:celebrate :birthday: :celebrate
!! ~ PARTY ~ !!

[dragonV8]

Happy birthday RADA.:birthday:

[lemonlime]

Happy birthday, RADA!! :cheers:

[Shorty]

Dude! :D

:beer: all round for my buddy please :D

[RADA]

Hope you have HAD a GREAT BIRTHDAY, Rada!!!!!

:celebrate :birthday: :celebrate
!! ~ PARTY ~ !!


Thanks guys,

I took Friday off (instead of today) Mandi took me up to Napa Valley for a long weekend of wine tasting and GREAT food eating..

I've never been a wine drinker, always thought it all tasted like sour grapes. Visiting all the small "Mom & Pop" wineries, I actually found a dozen or so white wines I really enjoyed. Also realized I'm not a red wine kind of guy... We drove up with one suit case, and a small bag. we drove home with the former and 16 bottles of our new favorite wines....

.. Great weekend... recommend Napa to anyone that can make it, even for a day.

[CB]

Happy Day!

Sounds like fun.

[Lincoln]

Mandi took me up to Napa Valley for a long weekend of wine tasting and GREAT food eating..
OOooo, what wineries did you visit? I was out there one day in August and got to Sterling, Beringer, Rutherford Hills, and one other that I'm forgetting the name of. Picked up a bottle of Chardonnay from Rutherford that won the CA State Fair (2006)... I don't even like Chardonnay, but WOW. :eek: All three wineries were really great. Second RADA's day trip suggestion!

[LIN]

Happy [belatedly] birthday, RADA!

http://i9.tinypic.com/6fgqzbc.jpg


:birthday::birthday:



LIN

[RADA]

OOooo, what wineries did you visit?

Keebs -

Mandi and I received this trip as a freebie for listening to a vaction club package sales presentation. We stayed all weekend in a $600/night suite (basically a 900/sq. ft. condo - full kitchen, tub big enough for a family of four, washer/dryer) for NOTHING! We also got a card that let us visit up to 15 different wine tasting for free!

We started out on Saturday at Acacia Winery (http://www.acaciawinery.com/). Acacia had some very nice low valley reds. While their wine was excellent, red wine and I don't mix. The woman there recommended we try Bouchaine Wineries (http://www.bouchaine.com), right down the street from them.

Bouchaine was my favorite winery of the entire weekend. Matt, if you get a chance to come back here, make a point to stop by, you will love everything about the place. The buildings are sided in this wonderful redwood that used to be the huge fermenting tubs, before they switched to stainless steel. They have a huge coverd deck where they sit you down with a wonderful view of the surounding countryside/vineyards. Dee, our hostess, took the time to answer any question we had about wine (we were wine virgins). We were there for almost 2 hours, enjoying the view, and sampling/learing about wine. Being a lowland winery, Bouchaine's main focus is Pinot Noir, along with other white wines. We sampled around six different wines from a light Pinot Gris through their Rose. Their Chardonnays were wonderful. We left with a mixed case of their whites an a couple Rose

We then visted Hagafen Cellars (http://www.hagafen.com/hagafen/index.jsp). Hagafen was on Silverado Trail, one of the main routes through wine country, so it was very busy compared to Bouchaine. Their wines were excellent, Mandi enjoyed their Riesling enought to buy a bottle.

This was our last visit for Saturday, I was driving, and Mandi was feeling the effects of visiting 3 Wineries..... LOL!

We went back to our condo, hit the pool to sober up before dinner. By the way, the food in Napa is nothing short of amazing. This is a whole other story though.

We were leaving on Sunday, for the drive back home. But we still had time to visit the Black Stallion Winery (http://www.blackstallionwinery.com/). This place was only two weeks open when we got there. Their vines were still a couple years from producing thier own wines. They do import grapes from other vineyard (most wineries do). We loved their desert wine.

[Lincoln]

Oh man, sounds fantastic. Icrontic Wine Tour 2008? :D

[Trogan]

Happy Birthday, Rada! :)