Napa- Day 7

Monday, October 22, we woke up at 5:00am to get ready for our hot air balloon ride.  Unfortunately it rained all night on Sunday night...like stormed and heavy rain.  So, our 5am wake-up call was really Napa Valley Balloons saying "sorry, it's too wet to fly, but if you call at 8am, you can reschedule."  So, we attempted to get some more sleep before 8am and called on the nose to reschedule.  Success!

Then it was all, "okay...it's rainy all day...what in the world should we do?"  The answer came in the form of an alcohol angel saying "Go wine tasting."  And that's exactly what we did.  We ordered breakfast in bed and got ourselves ready and then it was off to the Calistoga area again for a special wine tasting I had researched months before...in an authentic castle!  Castello di Amorosa!

The castle is the work of Dario Sattui, owner and winemaker.  He has another successful winery, V. Sattui, but the castle, opened in 2007, was an idea of many years that finally came to fruition.  Dario spent decades studying medieval castles, their blueprints, and traveling to see them all over Europe before building his 121,000 square foot castle complete with 107 rooms...most underground to house the wine.  And he didn't just slap it together...he hired a crew from Austria and Italy...men educated in medieval building techniques to come and build and also teach his crew.  The entire castle is made from stones and materials from Europe.  And it includes all of the elements of a true medieval castle- a moat and drawbridge, high walls and towers on a hillside, a great hall, courtyards, an apartment for the nobles, a big kitchen, an outdoor brick oven for baking bread, a church, horse stables, secret passage ways and a prison and torture chamber (that have NOTHING to do with the wine, but he figured if he was building a castle, better make it authentic all the way.)  And as Kevin and I saw...the torture chamber is stocked with ancient torturing devices that would scare the crap out of any criminal!  I know I was shaking in my little leopard ballet flats!

The castle truly was impressive!  We went on a full tour, saw the wine making process and the wine caves in the hallows of the castle and then enjoyed a wine tasting complete with chocolate pairings!  It was divine and PERFECT for a rainy day!

View from the top of the castle!  Gorgeous!

When we were finished at the castle, we headed back to Napa, following a rainbow...and attempted to eat at Sweetie Pies, a spot Kevin had enjoyed the last time he was here, but they were completely finished serving lunch, for the second day.  We were out of luck again!  We went back to Carneros, stopped at The Market for sandwiches and took them back to our cottage to eat and relax!  We ended up putting on the baseball game, National League Championship Game, and watching as we both drifted off to sleep!  We both woke up a few times to see the score before dozing off again.  And when we finally woke up for good and found out the Giants had won, we were SO PUMPED!  We had been saying that if they won, depending on when they did, we might could catch a World Series game in San Fran!  We celebrated with the Giants, ate some cheese and crackers and then headed to bed fairly early again to prepare for our hot air balloon ride, take 2.

Rainbow!