Wine Country

This weekend we went to Napa and visited a few vinyards. I had no clue about touring wineries so I was a little surprised at the shear number of vinards and at how there are no requirements for reservations. Just drive up and start tasting. After visiting a bigger winery we found a ma pa shop where we got the run of the patio and the guy gave us an educational session on how wine is made, the types and location of grapes used, and he gave us a tour of the caves the wine is stored in. The wine was so good that I bought a few bottles. If you ever go on a tour of wine country I highly recommend visiting the ma pa shops and not the bigger wineries. You'll get a lot better service and they're not so busy so the guys can give you a run down of the wine your tasting instead of pouring as fast as they can.

Some interesting facts of wine making are:
- The flavor of wine has a lot to do with the type of wood the wine ferments in.
- A barrel of wine makes approximately 300 bottles of wine.
- Grape vines take five years to grow before making harvestable grapes for wine. The vines peak age is 10 years.
- When vines are growing grapes most of them are picked and thrown so the grapes that are left have more flavor.
- Caves are cheaper to build and maintain then a warehouses. The cave we toured costs approximatly 1 million.
- Not all wine tastes better aged. Some wines need to be drank within a month or two of bottling.
- The smaller vinards have a protable bottler come onsite to bottle the wine. (the guy offered us to watch if we wanted to come back in a few days)

In all the tour was awesome. We didn't leave ourselves enough time to visit enough of them. I'd say a full day is in order for wine tasting and a designated driver would be nice too cuz I had to cut back after a few since I'm a light weight.