We were up in the Napa Valley over the 4h of July holidays. As usual there were lots of winey cats about and ready to have their photos taken…
First stop. Frog’s Leap Winery in Rutherford. This kitty named Terracotta has been a resident here for years.
She was actually looking like her age his caught up with her a bit lately. She just wanted some peace and quiet to sleep.
Next stop… Corisan Winery in St. Helena. This cat’s name is Vinnie. You might remember his sister Zoe who I featured back in the wintertime in this post here. They were both born on the concrete floor of a barrel room. Look at those big yellow eyes… what a stunning man cat!
I actually thought this was Zoe when we first arrived as they look so similar. Vinnie is bigger than his sister though and normally roaming the vineyards and shy of people. It was a real treat to meet him!
Last stop… Black Cat Vineyard in Napa who I’ve featured many times before. We spent the evening with Tracey, her family, friends and other wine club members celebrating the 4th of July at her Vineyard Estate.
I actually featured this guy O.D. on the blog before. O.D. meaning “Orange Dream” and this guy sure is dreamy!
He basically hung out with us all evening relishing in the non-stop attention and rubbing.
and finally the gratuitous belly shot… dreamy! He reminds me of my very own cuddle bear and “grey dream” Micky cat. What a fantastic 4th of July!
We took off for a few days after Christmas and headed up to wine country in the Napa Valley. One of our favorite stops is Corison Winery located in St. Helena. We’re members of their wine club and they make some of my favorite Cabernet.
Here is one of their beautiful vineyards. Since it’s winter you don’t see much on the vines but the mustard (little yellow flowers) are starting to pop up a little between the vines.
Last spring they had a wine tasting event outside on their back patio and I met this little lady, Zoe. She rules over wine making operations with her brother. (He is super shy and hardly ever shows himself to strangers.) They were born in someone’s barn on a concrete floor like this one before they were adopted. She makes sure they never have any mice in THIS barn.
She was acting especially charming the day we stopped in.
Zoe is super talkative and doesn’t hold back in telling you she needs to be petted. I love how she shuts her eyes when she talks. So if you’re ever in the napa valley stop by Corison Winery. Maybe you’ll see Zoe!
PURR-fect for the cat lover or Hello Kitty fan in your life or just as a gift to yourself!
I mean seriously… how cute it this bottle?
You can purchase it online right here at wine country gift baskets.com 
I baked a fig galette for the first time this weekend and realized that someone in our house has a sweet tooth! I snapped this photo of that someone being naughty although he would consider it being helpful. Micky’s love of baked goodies reminds me very much of Jake. Jake loved cookies, especially coconut and oatmeal. During the winter holidays Jake would practically go out of his mind jumping onto the kitchen counter to inspect batches of christmas cookies. Micky’s photo with the fig galette is the updated version of Jake’s photo from nearly two years ago.
In case you’d like to make a fig galette of your own, here is a link to the recipe I used online. I used Trader Joe’s frozen pie crust with blackberry jam because I don’t care for orange marmalade. It was a snap to make and turned out quite delicious along with a small scoop of ice cream – but of course Micky could have told you that!
Back in February of last year we shared
Black Cat Vineyard wines with you. You can take a peek at our previous post
here.
We’ve been back to Napa a couple times since then to visit
Tracey Reichow the founder and winemaker of
Black Cat Vineyards and taste the current releases. We were back there this past weekend to visit her vineyard estate property and were in for a real treat when we were able to meet a few of her vineyard cats in person.
Black Cat was the inspiration for Black Cat Vineyard wines. Black Cat moved across country to the Napa valley with Tracey and her family. Black Cat immediately loved the vineyard lifestyle and spend his days keeping Tracey company. He has sadly passed on but you can read his story
here. The current ruler of the vineyard is 14 year old calico cat “Patches” above. Patches is an extremely vocal lady who spent nearly 2 hours with us as we sat outdoors and sampled wines.
Is there anything more perfect than wine and cats?
I think not.
The last cat to make an appearance was OD. (Orange Dream) MY favorite of her brood, OD is a chubby diluted orange fella.
OD reminds me of an orange version of Micky with his laid back personality and lover boy body shape. Tracey said he turns a darker orange in winter but is a lighter orange in warmer months.
So if you’re ever in the Napa Valley be sure to visit Black Cat Vineyard. Just contact Tracey via her website and schedule a private tasting with her. Tracey’s wines are absolutely DELICIOUS! Since our first visit, we’ve become more familiar with her wines. We became members of her wine club too and are able to enjoy her yummy wines all year round now. Tracey is a delightful cat loving wine maker that we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a little better each time we visit! Thank you Tracey for a fabulous afternoon of wine and cats!
My friend
Laura of
A Dozen Eggs offered to trade cookies for catnip toys this year. That was a no brainer, I have an insatiable sweet tooth! I had one dozen of her adorable iced
Winter Penguin cookies sent to my family in Connecticut and a dozen of her
Christmas Day cookies (pictured here) sent to ME!!
Everything arrived just as I got home from running errands so I ashamedly tore into these
Toasted Coconut Almond Homemade Marshmallows. These things are going to be the death of me along with her
buttery sweet delectable cookies! I’ve already eaten 2 cookies and almost a bag of these marshmallows. I swear I’m going to get fat before this is over. Needless to say Laura’s sweet confections are simply delectable. If you’re up in Vermont where her bake shoppe is located or looking for a wonderfully handmade, unique and sweet gift to send to someone check out
A Dozen Eggs! Laura’s treats can be sent anywhere around the globe. I knew her sweets would be good but they are EVEN BETTER then I could have imagined. Her husband Dave carefully packages each order in a beautiful cardboard box compete with grosgrain ribbon and sticker. As soon as you open the package you know you’re in for something special and not one cookie was broken! They must have tested out their cookie packing routine flawlessly. I’d completed most of my shopping early this year but I’m going to be sure to send COOKIES next year now that I know just how
yummy they are. Also be sure to check out Laura’s
Cookie Crumbs blog one of my daily blog roll reads.
The handsome ginger “wine cat” at Elyse Winery in Napa, CA
Scrappy Siamese cat I spotted near a truck in Yountville, CA
The wine country is full of cats! We’ve seen so many over the years on our trips. I try to snap photos of the ones I see but I’ve had a bit of a dry spell. We went up for a quick trip (2 days) on Sunday. I was fortunate and saw 2 photo worthy felines and had my camera ready. Hopefully I’ll be able to share even more with you in the future as many of the wineries have “resident cats” that help greet customers and control pests. I vaguely remember the ones that have cats and try to revisit them from time to time and see the kitties.
Always on the hunt for interesting “cat” wines, I recently discovered
Black Cat Vineyard. Luckily we were heading up to the Napa Valley so we contacted Tracey the founder and winemaker. She was kind enough to meet with us for a tasting and introduce us to her unique Bordeaux style wines. Her Black Cat Syrah is absolutely delicious!
Tracey is without a doubt a lover of cats as well as a talented and dedicated winemaker. She oversees every step of the wine making process from the vineyard to the bottle in her small production operation. What that means is especially delicious wine that sells out fast. Black Cat Vineyard is an “off the beaten path” boutique winery definitely worth a visit if you’re planning a trip to wine country.
While in wine country I ran across a bottle of fabulous Fat Cat wine. It’s one of the most eye catching labels I’ve seen in awhile. So many wines have such artfully illustrated labels that it’s worth a trip to the local wine shop just to hunt them out. I’m a sucker for bright colors and clean design. I’ve seen a lot of animals before dogs, birds, frogs and fish but this is the first label I’ve seen with a cat! I’m not so sure about the wine yet since I haven’t had the heart to open it (The chardonnay runs about $8) but the bottle was a “must have” simply for the label!
