Fog. Fog. More fog. For a girl who loves sun in the summer, this year has been a real bummer. So it was liberating to make an escape from the San Francisco chill and head north to Lake County to hang with our good friends Lysle & Marietta, whom we don't get to see nearly often enough these days. Weather conditions: lots of sun, highs in the 90's. Now that's what I'm talkin' about!
We met up with Lysle at Benessere Vineyards in the Napa Valley (St. Helena, to be specific). Sadly, Marietta is recovering from a nasty illness, so it was just the three of us on the receiving end of some very attentive service from Eric in the tasting room. And in the barrel room, where we tasted some baby wines that will grow up to be great big wines someday. And in the vineyards, where Eric showed us the effect the cooler-than-normal summer is having on the grapes (nothing detrimental, but the harvest may be slightly later than normal this year). We grabbed Eric's business card and told him, to quote Steve, "We'll de-he-he-hefinitely be back!"
After lunch at Brannan's in Calistoga and a stop at Bennett Lane's tasting room, we headed over the mountain to Hidden Valley Lake where the lovely (but jealous) Marietta was waiting for us at home. Steve & I were happy to have taken with us lots of fresh Acme Bakery bread from the Ferry Plaza, which we took out to the patio and proceeded to cover with four different kinds of cheese, olive & walnut tapenade, and truffle mousse pate. (Um, no, I was not watching my diet on this trip, thank you for pointing that out!) Lysle then treated us to his amazing grilled leg of lamb, which was complimented oh-so-well by the magnum of 2004 Merry Edwards Olivet Lane Pinot Noir that Steve contributed for the festivities. (No, believe it or not, Steve & I cannot drink a magnum by ourselves.)
After dinner (and a welcome break after that feast), Lysle broke out his luscious lemon-ginger creme brulee for dessert, which we proceeded to eat in our jammies. Oh, how much fun that was! Then the next day, after more food, more wine, and more sun, it was time to wrap up our getaway and head back south to reality. Funny thing is, I'm beginning to realize that the older I get, the less a fan of the heat I'm becoming. Don't get me wrong, I still love the summery weather... but if I don't have some AC to escape into after a while I get a little cranky. And when we arrived back home in San Francisco, I opened the car door to the dense fog that blanketed us and thought, "Ohh, now that feels good."
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