{"id":1440,"date":"2019-12-30T16:38:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T16:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1440"},"modified":"2020-01-25T20:23:20","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T20:23:20","slug":"stormy-weather-tasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1440","title":{"rendered":"Stormy Weather Tasting"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you think of Napa Valley or when you see pictures of it, the skies are always blue and the sun is always shining.\u00a0 One of the beauties of California is the great weather, but that\u2019s not always the case.\u00a0 Mornings in Napa Valley are often foggy and a bit chilly.\u00a0 There are rainy days in the vineyards, too, or there wouldn\u2019t be any grapes from which to make wine.<\/p>\n

For sure, it\u2019s a bit disappointing to go on a wine tasting trip when the weather is poor.\u00a0 We have been in Napa Valley when the temperature was in the 20s, when there were floods and when rain came down in buckets.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t what we were hoping for but it was what we got.\u00a0 And there were some advantages.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The view from Stag\u2019s Leap Wine Cellars\u2019 windows, when the sun pierced the clouds for a few minutes.<\/em><\/p>\n

For one thing, there is a gloomy beauty in seeing the vineyards shrouded in mist.\u00a0 There is always the chance that the sun will poke through if only for a few minutes.\u00a0 The vines (even without leaves and grapes) are quite dramatic against grey skies.<\/p>\n

The great advantage, though, is that fewer people go wine tasting on cold, rainy days.\u00a0 So a nasty Thursday in December, for example, has its own charms.\u00a0 There are fewer people in the tasting rooms and you get more attention from the servers. \u00a0Often you get more wine as well.\u00a0 After all, the servers have nothing to do except wait for visitors.\u00a0 When you show up, they\u2019re happy to see you and maybe pour a smidgen more of this and open a bottle of that.\u00a0 As always, you need to be polite and inquisitive; servers have no more interest in jerks on rainy days than on sunny ones.\u00a0 But when there are fewer people around, the servers may think, \u201cWell, that bottle of the 1998 Cab is open anyway so why not give it to these nice people who braved the weather to come to our winery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Robert Mondavi winery.<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps even more important is that if you are served by a true wine educator, you will have so much more of an experience.\u00a0 Sure, anyone can tell you the grapes and the vintages \u2013 they\u2019re written on the bottle.\u00a0 But a server who knows a thing or two will explain about the growing conditions that year, how one vintage stacks up against the others or about the different vineyards where the grapes were sourced.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not interested in those sorts of things, it\u2019s quite probable that you won\u2019t be make the trip to Napa Valley in the rain anyway.<\/p>\n

Likewise, other visitors whom you do meet in a tasting room are likely to be as interested (and interesting) as you are.\u00a0 Vivid conversations and shared observations tend to come to like-minded people.<\/p>\n

In lousy weather, the roads are less crowded.\u00a0 There are more tables available at the better restaurants, even without reservations.\u00a0 And if you like hearty cooking, there\u2019s a better chance you\u2019ll find roasts and stews on the menus at these times.\u00a0 Save your California cuisine fol-de-rol for sunny summer days; you\u2019ll get real meals when the thermometer drops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you think of Napa Valley or when you see pictures of it, the skies are always blue and the sun is always shining.\u00a0 One of the beauties of California is the great weather, but that\u2019s not always the case.\u00a0 Mornings in Napa Valley are often foggy and a bit chilly.\u00a0 There are rainy days … Continue reading Stormy Weather Tasting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1440"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1462,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440\/revisions\/1462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}