An Easter Wine Tour
Easter Sunday 2010 I was touring Napa in the pouring rain with clients with two young children. For me it was a mish-mash day of juggling umbrellas and puddles at the few big wineries that are open on holidays and would also be interesting to children. Fortunately Napa is still gorgeous in the springtime rain when the lush green hills and clinging fog makes you think that you’re in Ireland, the grape growing part of Ireland that is.
Of course, being good tour guides our work started the day before reviewing lists of wineries that planned to be open. Then calling the wineries that fit our requirements to confirm their ‘openess’, because lists are wrong, as was one that we were depending on.
Picnics were out of the question so that meant more to restaurants. Fortunately our friends at Market in St. Helena were serving lunch and Eddie found my clients a cozy table in the back. Normally, I would scoot over to the Model Bakery for a cup of coffee while I waited, but they closed at noon, so instead I camped out at the Market bar with a huge cup of fresh brewed. I think that those cups were intended as soup bowls and then someone stuck a handle on as a joke.
Tour days, for me, are a stream of coffee; and a rainy day in April even more so. One a typical tour day I’ll drive between 100 and 250 miles, walk five to six miles and talk about tastings and wine, history and stories, culture and people until my clients are dozing, from just enough wine, in the back of the car on the way back to the city. That takes a lot of coffee.
We started off with the great views of Artesa, before the rain arrived, and then Beringer’s reserve tasting in the Mansion, umbrellas in hand. Lunch at Market and then a jaunt past the Castle, which was too cold and wet to enjoy from the inside, so we went to the art of Clos Pegase. There we encountered a scene that was beautifully sad, bowls of flowers filling to their brim in the rain, multi-colored petals strewn like a carpet on the floor of the courtyard, arrangements in memorial to Muzuko, one of the winery founders who had recently passed away.
They had chosen Easter Sunday to have the memorial and the heavens were weeping. While my clients walked around the grounds, umbrellas in hand, and tasted wine while enjoying the barrel room, with its French fermentation tanks, I sat outside.
Over the course of the hour I watched three separate dances, holiday winery visitors in colorful outfits coming and going, scampering through the rain because vacationers don’t often pack umbrellas. Woven among them, dressed in black and grey, under over-sized golf umbrellas, friends of the family with measured steps arrived to remember. Then finally, in the barely protective overhang of the entrance two men, a grounds keeper and an artist, took turns arranging the flowers in the waterfalls that started off as bowls, re-scattering flower petals pushed into rivulets, while the rain streamed through the opening above Henry Moore’s bronze of a female pose. There was something thoroughly human about taking such care that this riot of flowers amid the rain should illuminate the spirit of the person they honored.
When my clients emerged, charmed by the art and touched by the moment, we sailed south on the Silverado Trail splashing and squishing until we reached the lovely tasting room at Mumm Napa. I thought that a little sparkling wine would finish the day nicely, light on the palate and uplifting to the soul. Even in the pouring rain, the warmth of family, friends and wine restores our hopes for Spring in the Napa Valley.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are authors of the Amicis Winery Guides, and owners of Amicis Tours. They are authors of over twenty books on health, design, business and travel. Their iPhone Apps, The Napa Valley Wine Tour, and The Sonoma Winery Tour are a tour guides approach to these beautiful area, complete with 1000’s of photos and insights. Their articles and products can be found on the sites http://www.amicistours.com and http://www.spaceandtime.com