Trip to Wine Country - Pliny the Elder

This past weekend, Margaret and I took a trip to Napa, California with another couple. We have talked about going to the wine country for several years. It has been on our ever increasing list of places we want to visit since before we had the girls. As they say, life got in the way and the years have passed with no trip to Napa. The fact that I am now a "beer first guy" made me think that a wine specific trip would not be in the cards. 

However, last year, a group of our friends, 6 couples in total were having dinner and the seed of this trip was planted. The plan was for all of the group to go the following summer, which would be now. Much like how the years got away from us and plans changed, four of the couples dropped out for various worthy reasons, leaving only 2 left. 

Not being deterred, the lone survivors set out to have a complete Napa experience. This meant consulting a Frommer's guide book as well as a California Wine for Dummies reference. We toured and sampled wine from 5 vineyards. The wine was equalled by the food. We dined at the restaurants owned by some celebrity chefs, including Thomas Keller and Michael Chiarello. Both places being within walking distance of our hotel. 

The food and wine was surpassed by the weather and views. Waking up to mid 50's temps with next to zero humidity made getting out for a morning run quite enjoyable. Running down paths and streets surrounded by vineyards made the runs worthy of a spot in Runner's World's Rave Run report. 

The reason I thought I came to Napa

With all this focus on wine, I made a surprising discovery while we were out at dinner our first night. While dining at Keller's Bouchon restaurant, as is my habit, I took a look at the beer menu before deciding on what wine to drink. Much to my surprise, on the menu was the Pliny the Elder Double IPA from the Russian River Brewing Company in nearby Santa Rosa. To the well informed beer consumers, this is very significant. I only recently had even heard of this beer while researching the "best beer in the world", the Westvelerten XII. For the article, see Rate Beer's Top beers. Knowing that the Pliny the Elder was rated the best beer in North America, I knew I had to try it. 

As loyal readers are aware, the IPA is not my style, but I figured I would suck it up for this one. Being an 8%ABV and being a larger bottle, it got my night started off right. It was very hoppy as one would expect of the style. Much of the flavors I got were of pine and some herbs and floral notes. However it was not a hop bomb and seemed very well balanced. The bitterness mellowed as it warmed. I can certainly see why this beer is so highly thought of.

As one would expect, this beer is not available in Louisiana, so when I found out that the brewery was located so close to our route to our hike in a Redwood forest, we took the 20 minute detour to allow me to pick up some bottles to take home with me.

Me outside the brewery

Like with the wine, due to some archaic laws in Louisiana, the beer could not be shipped directly home. However not to fear, by simply using a packing company as a "third party" I was able to include it in my shipment of other bottles, which included 2 wines, one olive oil and 2 bottles of Pliny the Elder. I am sure I was the only person who had as many beer bottles as wine ones to send home after their Napa trip.

I plan to set up a tasting of the best beer in North America for some friends at home. I wonder what cheese pairs well with IPA. Maybe one day I will get to try the #1. For more info on Pliny the Elder or other beers, please see Russian River Brewing Co. For those interested in who exactly Pliny the Elder was, please see Who was Pliny the Elder?

All in all, the trip was a huge success, great wine, food, weather, views, friends and world class beer. Much more than I expected.

These trees are over 1,000 years old. 

Cheers to beer in wine country!