Since being married in California three years ago, we’ve visited the sunny state 7 times!  We’ve experienced a wine country bursting with yellow mustard in February, sailing by the Golden Gate, wintery summers in San Francisco, lazy days in Sausalito, hiking among Mill Valley redwoods, and sun soaking in San Diego.

Each trip is better than the last, teaching us a little bit more about this diverse state and ourselves.  The biggest (and first) lesson California taught us was that Zinfandel comes in red.  Who would’ve thought?

Can you believe we got married in wine country and knew absolutely nothing about wine? Yup! And boy did we learn.  Minutes after we said our vows, our self-titled moving reception hosted by Napa Valley Tours and Transportation took us on a field trip in wine.

Still dressed in our wedding attire, we were greeted like royalty at our first stop – Rombauer Vineyards.  Being our first-ever tasting, we were eager to try everything.  But when they offered me the Zinfandel, which by the way they are renown for, I declined.  Because the pourer looked so taken aback I quickly recanted and pushed my empty wine glass across the bar.

I braced myself for the white, I mean pink, wine.  But my glass came back filled with a ruby red wine bursting with tastes of fruit and a hint of spice.  I could literally feel my palette change forever and hear the wine angels sing “Winelujah!”  It was a beautiful moment and hard to suppress, but being new to the wine scene I just nodded, smiled and told my new husband to purchase us a bottle.

After walking through the beautiful property we headed off to the next winery.  Safely inside the limo, my husband turned to me and said “Did you know Zinfandel comes in red?” Before I could answer he exclaimed, “It comes in red!  And it’s good!  I mean REALLLLY good.”

I couldn’t agree more!