The Best Souvenirs From Wine Country Don’t Fit in a Suitcase.

Some of my favorite things from our trip to California won't fit in my suitcase. I’m not talking about the large quantities (surprise, surprise) of wine I bought or even the photographs. The best souvenirs were the stories, the inside jokes, the people we met, and four days of being completely present with six women who have become so much more than friends.

We went to Napa and Sonoma to drink wine, of course. But along the way, the trip became about something bigger.

Sisters of the Vine contingent and four days of wine country ahead. We were excited to get started.

When you love what you do

One of the things that stayed with me most was how generous people were with their time. Our Sisters of the Vine tribe called their friends and colleagues to make this an epic weekend adventure.

We visited small producers who were genuinely excited to tell us their stories and share their wines. Shari Gherman, founder of the American Fine Wine Competition and Mara La Follette, called so many of their longtime friends and we were welcomed with open arms. Woodenhead Vintners warmly received us into their world. Kathleen Inman sat down with us personally at Inman Family Wines. Malia van der Kamp welcomed us onto her family's property on a Sunday for brunch. At Domaine Carneros, the winemaker came out to sign our bottles and the manager, also a friend of Shari's, made a point of spending time with us. At BV wines, Susan Strom's relationships opened the door to a personalized experience that went beyond the regular tasting. Robert Rex of Deerfield Ranch Winery, opened his home to us and made us dinner. (Side note: he ended up wearing the cake that we were serving at dinner. Long story!)

Cake spilled all over the winemaker, Robert Rex of Deerfield Ranch

This is the thanks he gets for hosting us at his home for dinner!

There was a common thread running through all of these visits. People were proud of what they were doing. You could feel it.

Jerry, the sales manager at Ledson, might have been the best example. He has been there for 25 years and has done just about every job along the way. He knew the property, the wines, the people and the history, and he was still having fun.

Jerry Padilla of Ledson Winery and Vineyards

I took a photo of him talking to us, completely unaware that I was taking his picture. He was grinning from ear to ear, with a bottle of wine in front of him. I posted the photo afterward with a line that came to me in the moment:

“When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.”

It wasn't something Jerry said. He evoked happiness and I saw versions of it everywhere we went.

The people who make a place special

Our trip began at Marchelle Wines, and really, Mara LaFollette is the reason we were there.

Mara is the wife and co-pilot of renowned winemaker Greg LaFollette, founding winemaker at Flowers and now the winemaking force behind Marchelle Wines. Greg is the winemaker, but Mara likes to call herself the Cellar Rat. And from what I've seen, she really does do all the jobs. That's part of what makes her so special.

Mara isn't standing on the sidelines. She is part of the whole thing. She is in the middle of it, climbing on ladders, driving the tractors, helping wherever she is needed, taking care of people, paying attention to the details and making sure everyone around her is having a good time.

At the Marchelle tasting room in Healdsburg. Mara is the “Mar” in Marchelle.

Mara is a giver.

She is sentimental and incredibly in tune with how other people are feeling. It gives her genuine pleasure to see people happy. This is her world, and she couldn't wait to open the door and let us experience it.

She tells us she lives vicariously through our adventures in South Florida because she is in California. I think the truth is that she lives in the world we all dream about and romanticize.

Greg and Mara's passion for what they do is palpable. You can see how much they care about the wine, the vineyards, the people behind them and the relationships they've built.

That passion was a theme we kept encountering throughout the trip.

People who have devoted their lives to something they believe in. People who are still curious. Still learning. Still excited to pour a bottle and tell you where it came from and why it matters.

An array of wines we tasted from the Marchelle portfolio. An old vine cane is in the background.

The moments that weren't on the itinerary.

We sat around the fire pit at the hotel at night talking about the day. Nobody was rushing off somewhere. Nobody needed to fill every quiet moment with conversation. We had cocktails with Monty and Sara Preiser, founders of the Preiser Key, a comprehensive journal of wineries and restaurants in Napa. They joined us at BV and later we all went out together at a new restaurant in Napa, Normandie, which I highly recommend. Great French cuisine and substantial wine and cocktail menu.

We bumped along the back roads of Napa and Sonoma in our not-so-smooth minivan, laughing every time the suspension reminded us of a roller coaster ride. We had a few mishaps with the van, including being stuck in a ditch at van der Kamp. Luckily, we weren’t the first ones and they knew exactly how to get us out!

lunch in the vineyard at van der Kamp

Malia van der Kamp

Sharing stories of her family and her passion for winemaking and continuing her family’s legacy.

The best part of traveling with friends is the memories and the inside jokes that no one else can really understand. They're little pieces of a shared history and they'll always belong to the people who were there. Our Sisters of the Vine tribe. What started as an idea that Aixa and I dreamed up a year ago, hoping for a community of women in wine that we could be a part of, has turned into a reality that keeps growing. It seems that others have been searching for the same thing as us.

Maybe that's the real souvenir

Standing among growers, winemakers, hosts and people who have devoted their lives to something they love, I felt incredibly grateful for the community we have built around wine. The bottles will be eventually empty but the memories will always stay with us.

The bottles will eventually be empty but the memories won’t be. Cheers!

Want to know where we went, who we visited, and what made it onto our wine-country itinerary?

I’m happy to share it. And if a trip like this sounds like your kind of adventure, join my mailing list. I’ll be sharing details about future wine trips, including my upcoming Piemonte and Valpolicella trip in Italy.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article! I hope you enjoyed it.