With the new season of wine tasting almost upon us, Chris and I need to brush up on our own Research and Development, with so many wineries in our backyard it is time for us to dig around and unearth some new finds and revisit favorites for the new releases, unfortunately our R&D is never done. Someone has to do it.
Well, the move to Carneros has been placed back into the latter part of our Five Year Plan, but not us. We moved our home and our little fleet up to the City of Napa in early June. Quite a scramble it has been, I still do not know which box has what. We are not exactly in the vineyards, but the small housing development we moved into has vineyards on two sides and a two minute drive in any direction will have us in vines. It is so quite here, one of the pros of country living. In the early morning the balloons float over our backyard, we seem to be in the flight path, I counted 16 one morning over coffee.
Communications have been a problem for us, but all seems to be working now, so we are back up and running. Our move has generated more local business, and as the majority of our clients stay in Napa or Sonoma we feel it was the right decision to make the move when we did. Our biggest problem was finding a home for the carriages, being in 'an agricultural preserve' does present situations that one would not normally expect on a simple change of location, but all is fine now. We are Cristal Blue Carriage of Napa,now.
The weather is spectacular, the people are great and we are much closer to the many friends we have made here in wine country over the years. All is well with the world.
One of the major events of the Napa calendar every year has come and gone again. Wine lovers from around the world have been and are back home now waiting for their shipments that they left almost $10 million here for our local charities, Yes now I can say 'our'. The Wine Auction is a little out of my price range, but I am very pleased there are many, many people that support this event every year, all for a good cause.
There are people out there who are trying to turn wine country into a family destination, not on my watch I hope. Wine and children are that compatible. I may be a little old fashioned, but we adults have certain pleasures that are not appropriate for children to be a part of. You are not permitted to take a child into a bar, hello, what do you think a tasting room is? A child in a tasting room sends out signals in every direction. The taster; they cannot afford a sitter? They are not here to buy. I came on this trip to be without my children for a day. What are you teaching your children? After Napa, lets take in Las Vegas; the kids can gamble for a bit, then we can catch the Follies. What tree did this concept fall from? I had a liberal upbringing, watered down wine was all I could get at dinner to make me feel like an adult, and strictly under my parents watchful eye, never did I get to go bar hopping.
close
