Let Them Drink Wine!!

We love wine. Anyone who knows us realizes this is an understatement.

This is a passion for us.. and since we also love movies, This is why the Frances Ford Coppola is our fist major winery that we visit in Napa.

The Francis Ford Coppola Winery is exactly what you would expect from an the Academy Award winning director. The winery houses a large collection of Coppola's movie memorabilia. The wine is made with the same quality and attention to details as his movies.

Bram Stoker's Dracula costumes

Apocalypse Now props and costumes

More from Apocalypse now

The wine is great too!

Mr. Coppola's Film Awards

Don Corleone's Desk

The Godfather Trilogy

The Tucker Sedan

The resort is so large, you can also eat and swim while you're there.

Up next is another famoust Chateau Montelena Winery. This is the winery that put California on the map during a 1976 blind tasting in Paris.  The story of the "Judgement of Paris" is featured in the 2008 film Bottle Shock.  The movie was filmed at the beautiful stone chateau so if you have seen it this will look familiar.

The wine that won the prize, get in my belly!

Ahh, life is good.

Wine press.

Our last stop for the day was Castello Di Amorosa Winery.  This winery is by far the most fun and interesting.  We decided to go for the full castle tour and it was most definitely worth it!

This is a proper castle, the owner is a 4th generation Italian vintner with a passion for medieval times. Among the painstakingly made by hand features are a moat, drawbridge, torture chamber and a knights' chamber.

Oh, and they also have wine.  This is a boutique winery so you can only purchase a bottle from the winery itself.

Our noble steed outside the castle.

Making out among the grapes

A painter was hired to paint The Great Hall. He lived in this room until it was complete.

The Great Hall

Peaking out of the tower at the vineyard

Game of Thrones fans will appreciate the basket on the wall for the head of any defeated kings.
I think every home needs a head basket.

The dark history of basketball.

Red wine aging deep under ground

Aging wine

There is a dungeon and torture chamber.  All of the instruments of torture are replicas with the exception of this Iron Maiden.

Put them in the IRON MAIDEN!

Streeeeetch..

We had the privilege of taking a barrel tasting. If you have done a winery barrel tasting you know that the wine in the barrel does not taste good until it has been aged properly, but this 2014 barrel was an excellent exception.  The wines coming from this area are one of the few things in California that are benefiting from the 5 year drought. The grapes like the dry ground a lot and you can taste it.

Satisfied customer.

I had to mock the couple on our tour that was taking selfies and slowing the tour down.

Duck face!

There are so many wineries and so little time. We picked 3 great wineries to visit and would recommend them all.

Up next, San Francisco!