A Day Trip to Napa

Apparently all I do these days is go wine tasting. For a person that admittedly doesn't have the most refined palette for wine, I find this slightly amusing. But as you know, during my last weekend in Geneva I went wine tasting and during my 22 hour layover in Boston I also had a quick wine tasting moment. So here I am my second full day back home and I'm in the Napa Valley wine tasting.
I went with my brother, my niece Malayah, and her mom MJ (who I've known since I was eight years old) to this winery in St Helena called V Sattui. The place was really nice and the lady who did our wine tasting was really nice and super funny. I was a little congested from allergies, which I think is why I liked the super fruity and girly wines more than usual that day. After tasting about 15 wines, my brother and MJ both bought a case of wine each.

 I was pretty hungary after consuming all that wine, since unlike my pretentious brother I did actually swallow all my wine. Luckily, the place that MJ chose had a picnic bbq area. MJ and my brother ordered quite a spread with oysters, bruschetta, shrimp, and pork ribs. We paired that with some white wine, a baguette of Acme bread, and a couple of cheeses we had tried at the cheese tasting. It all hit the spot as we sit in the warm Napa sun. 

It's been rather exciting being able to finally drink legally in America. Although I've been drinking in America for awhile now (I know, big shocker) and I've been drinking legally in Europe all semester, it still wasn't quite as exciting as my new power as a 21-year-old. So my first drink on the plane was a white wine, I went to a wine tasting and went out in my 22 hours in Boston, I had a mimosa after breakfast my first day in San Francisco, and then I went wine tasting yesterday. You know what that means? I just have to go out today or else I'll break my LEGAL streak! Tell you about it later. 

Classy Day Drinking: Les Caves Ouvertes

On Saturday, we went on this magical wine tasting adventure: les Caves Ouvertes. This was the 26th year of this wine tasting event, which invites amateurs to try a large variety of wine from the vineyards surrounding Geneva. It included free transportation (both train to the countryside and buses from vineyard to vineyard) as well as unlimited wine tasting for the whole day for a mere 5CHF. Now, if you know anything about Geneva or Switzerland, that is a crazy good deal. A single bus ticket in Geneva in 3CHF, probably a ticket to the countryside roundtrip is at least 30CHF, and the vineyards? Well, I'm not sure if wine tasting is normally free (I believe places in Napa are), but the difference between this and that is that they are very aware that everyone at this event is getting drunk and not exactly buying their favorite case of wine after the visit.

The event was a far bigger deal than I had realized when Alice had mentioned the event on our Facebook group. I thought it would be similar to our wine tasting adventure in Montpellier, which was very small (just the group of us), sitting around a table, pretending to taste the horse or raspberry in the wine. In other words, I thought it would be nice, but snobby.

However, this was far more of a party. When we got on the train, the whole thing was jam packed as groups of friends yammered away. Exiting the train, hoards of people drifted towards the vineyards where we found an already packed tent full of wine. At almost every stop, we met some drunk new friends who had certainty taken advantage of the unlimited wine situation.
For me, the best part of the whole adventure was being able to see the countryside and vineyards outside of Geneva. The last time I wandered around Switzerland, there was still snow on the ground. But this time the scenery was so lush and green with beautiful blue skies. Well, beautiful blue skies until our last stop, when it started pouring....

After we took the train home, we stopped by Chez Ma Cousine to get dinner. My family friends in the area said it was by far the best deal in town and I have to agree. 14CFH for half a chicken, salad, and potatoes wouldn't even be a bad deal in the US. Our tipsy sells devoured all our food but I left my wine glass untouched and offered it up to the table. After all that wine all day, I didn't think I could handle anymore. 

In general, the day was quite the success. I spent a grand total of 25CHF for the whole day including a little train ride, wine all day and a half chicken dinner. I'm pretty sure that's a good deal everywhere! As per usual, this experience had inspired me to do something back home. And now I really want to drag my brother to Napa during my two weeks back home now that I can drink legally in the states! 

PS. Check out my friend Faith's blog! She went on this adventure too and has muuuch better pictures than me (and sometimes I steal photos of myself from her blog because I hate asking people to take pictures of me)