Wednesday, October 19th, Day 3

The wine tasting continued at an old-school winery called Regusci, where we met a belly-scratch fiend, pictured below:

The tasting room was calm and the grounds were beautiful--with a storage barn that looked as old as they come and a lovely sunny view. The wine was great! And we learned that some of the wineries in California stayed afloat during Prohibition (how the heck did that ever get passed? What was Congress drinking???) by selling their wine to pharmacies, who doled out wine as "medicine". Totally agree with that--if more doctors wrote prescriptions for wine, we would be one healthy country;)

Here's more about this picturesque spot:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/regusci-winery-napa#hrid:v8aABbir2o4JacA1BbpmVQ

Next was the cave tour at Rutherford Hill Winery. We had a really friendly guide who answered all of our questions about the whole wine-making process and showed us the ground and the man-made caves where they store their wine.
The tasting room is housed in this fantastic redwood "barn" structure that was built during the 1970's (almost certain) and has withstood all those woodpeckers (we heard many of them while we were there).

We were lucky enough to witness the "crush" while we were there--we had gorgeous weather our whole stay, but apparently it rained the week everyone planned to pick their grapes, so the grapes were bloated with water (not a good thing for flavor) and most wineries left them on the vines to dry out before picking.
At Rutherford Hill we saw the man-made caves where they store their wine (a good investment as the caves built into the hill keep the wine cool without the cost of refridgeration).

Here's the same thing as above, only on yelp:)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/rutherford-hill-winery-rutherford#hrid:05pytTFF2NXBiuw8sixohA

Lunch was Yountville (yes, that place again!) deli where I had the ubiquitous Reuben sandwich. I had this sandwich at least three times on the trip, and each time was good!
http://www.yelp.com/biz/yountville-deli-yountville#hrid:uzaUKXqAZ2q0AtGoczxcuw

We ended our day at Chateau Montelena, a gorgeous spot with a Chinese garden and a jam-packed tasting room (can someone mention "Bottle Shock" one more time please? Not sure I heard about it the first 8 million times).

Their famous 1973 Chardonnay won best white at the famous Paris wine competition in 1976, over all the French wines, and put Napa Valley on the map. It's hard to get any information out of the servers in this place unless you look like you have expensive jewellry. But no matter--the grounds are perfect for wandering away from the crowds!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/chateau-montelena-winery-calistoga#hrid:AlOVWtyrucurIatFxzB0wg
After all the wine, we drove to the Gaige House (review to follow).

Here's the route!