Last year, my friend Tami told me she and a friend were planning a trip to Napa. She knew Sally and I are into wine, so she asked me for a few suggestions. Sharing wine tips with friends is one of the reasons we write this blog, so of course we had a few.
I quickly sent her links to three of our most popular blog posts on wine tasting in Napa Valley:
I also suggested she stay at one of my favorite hotels, the Napa River Inn.
Tami and her friend had a wonderful trip. The Napa River Inn treated them to a wonderful experience, they enjoyed some good food, and of course they had some amazing wine. The two of them visited a few of the wineries I had suggested, but they also discovered a few of their own.
I recently saw Tami while we were both in Washington, D.C. working on a project for the American Society for Training and Development. It gave us a chance to compare notes about our latest wine discoveries. Tami told me that her favorite winery from her Napa trip was Summers Estate Wines. I made a mental note to check it out.
A week later, Tami posted a picture of a bottle of Summers wine on Facebook with the caption, “Living la dolce vita.” ("Living the sweet life.") I made another mental note to check it out.
Later that day, Sally and I dropped by Iowa Meat Farms, our local butcher shop. They have an outstanding wine collection that always bears a look. I was surprised to see a bottle of 2009 Summers Napa Valley Zinfandel.
Was it destiny?
We bought a bottle and took it home to enjoy that night with grilled chicken and roasted root vegetables. It had notes of cocoa and cigar on the nose. Those flavors carried to the palate where they were joined by hints of raspberry and strawberry with a little pepper on the finish. The wine definitely got better and better the longer we had the bottle open and we savored every drop.
Summers Estate Wines has been added to the list of wineries Sally and I must visit on our next trip to Napa. They are just one more example of how wine connects us all.
Living la dolce vita.