Napa Wine Adventure

Having Monday and Tuesday off, Valerie, Adam and myself (Mr. Nilson, the dog, came too) decided traveling to Napa Wine Country would be the right direction to go. After stocking a lunch cooler with fresh bread, avocados, tomatoes, tofu, strawberries, cherries and grapes, the voyage began.
Wanting to get to know downtown Napa a little bit better, we parked and strolled the streets. Down each street, a new aroma flooded our nostrils. I spotted a sign for the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (really, I saw the smaller sign that mentioned ice cream...). I stepped inside and checked out their selection of cold delights. I notice a triangular thing on a stick that seemed to have been dipped in chocolate. After inquiring what the curious bugger was, I got the reply, "oh, a chocolate covered vanilla cheesecake". Oh was right. Without hesitation, I ran it up to the counter. "You sold me!"
Jumping back in the car, we started on our journey to the wineries. Our first stop was Oakville Grocery, a cute little store with many wonderful delights and nicknacks for pit-stoppers to purchase. They even labled their own bottles of water!
The first wine stop was V. Sattui Winery. Founded in 1885 in San Francisco by Vittorio Sattui, an Italian immigrant, V. Sattui was re-established in St. Helena in 1975 by great-grandson Daryl Sattui. We walked into their wine storage rooms, their historical room with antique machinery and then saw our destiny; cheeses this way-->. And follow we did.
Their cheese selection was fantastic. Every cheese labeled and described, even marked with a flag to determine which country they came from. After a cheese sampling, we purchased six wonderful cheeses: Vacherin Freborgious, Piave Vecchio, Petit Basque, Mormor (grandmother's) cheese , Crottin... (I cannot recall the last one, but I'm working on that).
We looked at our visitor's attractions guide and saw an advertisement for Castello di Amorosa (Castle of Love). A winery and a castle open for tours, we decided to give it a go.
First off, the two wineries shared the same owner. After being successful with V. Sattui, Daryl retired and bought more land to start a small, personal vineyard.
He vacationed in Europe, where he visited castles (he loves castles and the medieval eras). He went from castle to castle and tried to take photographs of each one he entered. Finally, he was kicked out for taking photographs; in many places, photos are not allowed. He left, completely disgruntled, and vowed to build a castle that people could take as many photographs as they desired.
Fourteen years and 180-ish acres later, Castello di Amorosa opened to the public. He expanded the vineyards, produced an entire new assortment of Italian style wines, and even built a torture chamber into the castle just to make sure it was as real as possible.
After a tour, we were lead to the tasting rooms. Long and narrow, these rooms were beautiful with arched brick ceilings. I was not allowed to try the wines, but I could still smell. I swirled the glass, thrust my nose inside, and staggeringly sucked in puffs of air so as to not allow any aroma to float by undetected.
My favorite wine was their new release, La Fantasia. Not allowed to ferment in the bottle for the normal allotted time, this wine was a slightly fizzed, semi-dry red wine.
Their website: http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/