September 17 Napa Trip

On my recent trip to San Francisco, I had the opportunity to go to Napa Valley.  Since there was a group of 45 of us going, we only wend to a single winery, but it was fabulous.

We departed the hotel at 9 AM and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was very foggy, and when we stopped on the Marin County Side, we could not see much of the bridge, but it is alway fun to stop and look back.

We arrived at our destination about 2 hours later, and much to my surprise, it was Castillo Di Amorosa, a relatively new winery that is owned by Dario Sattui, the owner of my favorite winery V. Sattui.  Below are two pictures.  The castle took 15 years to build and is comprised of 127 rooms.  The bricks and stones are from Europe, and the traditional Tuscany building style was followed.

We had a private tour, a private tasting of five wines (good but not quite up to par with V. Sattui yet), and a catered sit down Italian lunch (with plenty more wine).

It was a great day shared with great people, and I look forward to going back again some day.

Castello Di Amorsa

Travel Time - San Francisco

Off to the City by the Bay for a users group meeting.  Leaving Tuesday, returning late Saturday night.  Hope to get some pictures to post, and especially hoping to see my good friend Todd.  Who knows, there might even be a Napa Trip in there somewhere (Friday :o)

I lived in the Bay Area for six years, and it is without a doubt one of my favorite places.

WSJ Wine - Are You Game?

We have mentioned in passing how we have started a wine collection in the basement, now having nine - 44 bottle racks. I try and keep a separate year in each rack, and we only store reds down there (whites we buy and keep upstairs, ready to chill and serve with fitch or chicken :o)

In the past, I belonged to the V. Sattui (Napa Valley, St. Helena, my absolute favorite winery) wine of the month club - but at $20-$30 per bottle, that is just a little to rich for our blood, especially when you can age a cheaper wine for 5-10 years and have a smooth experience.

For a while, I had joined Four Seasons Wine Club, but it did not fit our budget at the time. So I recently received an offer from WSJwine (Wall Street Journal Wine) and decided to take the plunge again. We are going to get a case of reds every three months, and based on the first case, with some Spanish, New Zealand, Australian, 2005 Bordeaux (Franch :o), and Mendocino selections, we think we have found a great new selection source. Our usual rule of thumb is to not spend more than $10 a bottle, because we age them, but we also like to experiment. The cool thing about WSJwine is that you can skip a shipment with no penalty, there is no minimum requirement, and you can cancel at any time - so we will moderate our purchases, and get some fine vino.

If you have any interest in getting some boutique wines, red or white, from around the world, have we got a deal for you. You can get an introductory Discovery Club shipment (twelve bottles and a cool Connoisseur Corkscrew) for $95, with the three month shipment option costing about $140 per shipment (we plan on skipping every other shipment).

If interested, send the following information to buckoclown@aol.com, and I will submit for you. It is a win/win, you get a great introductory offer, and we get a 1/2 shipment, a mini-ponzi scheme if you will :o)

Name:

Address:

City:

State:

ZIP:

Email: