The Best Honeymoon (Part 2)

I never expected any “perks” as honeymooners but when we were getting our rental car at the airport, I casually mentioned that we had just gotten married, and the guy behind the counter insisted that we “take the Mustang.” Red Mustang convertible, to be more exact. After we checked that our luggage would fit, we were on our way like rock stars. There’s nothing like getting off of a 6-hour flight after being delayed for 3 hours and knowing that you’d be traveling in luxury for the next six days.

Since we were arriving in San Francisco so late, I had booked us into a convenient and inexpensive Best Western in Chinatown. The Flamingo Inn was just what we needed—close to both the airport and the road up to wine country, clean, and only $79 per night. The only downside was that at 1:00 in the morning on a Monday there was nowhere close by to get anything to eat. My husband raided the vending machine as I got myself ready for bed, and we tried sleeping despite our excitement to really get honeymooning the next morning.

After waking up way too early (jet lag and excitement) and being pleasantly surprised by the free breakfast, we hopped in what now is my favorite car and left the city. The strip through Napa Valley was lined with vineyards and wineries. The scenery was too beautiful to be part of the United States, at least any part that I had seen, and we drank it up.

Arriving at Laird Family Estates, our first official winery, I marveled at the bushes of rosemary and lavender that flourished in the temperate climate.

As we waited to meet with a wine maker (we mixed business with pleasure, slightly, for the tax write-offs) the tasting room staff member kept us entertained with the history of the estate and a private tour of the operation. Laird Family Estates, besides making their own wines, is also a custom crush facility where over fifty wine makers can use to produce their wines.

When the wine maker arrived with samples of his wines (as gifts—the second honeymoon perk) he took us to his private barrels in the massive storehouse that stored the vintages many wine makers. We were treated to barrel tastings and an inside look at what happens in the storeroom. This was a unique way to feel like pampered royalty on our honeymoon.

French wine: Montpeyroux

Imagine if you would a small rural town deep in the heart of France. The road from the highway winds its way to the village, which is set on the crown of a small hill. The houses lining the street are made of stone and look as though they have been here forever. The people bustle by, headed to the market with empty baskets, or coming back with a treasure trove of fresh produce, flowers, poultry, wine, everything that makes life good and livable, the riches of the land to share with a hungry family at home at the family table.

Looking north from the village there are the Massif mountains, and between the village and the mountains are vines-acres and acres of vineyards. Among those vineyards are the vignerons, artisans of untold worth, toiling away in the hot Mediterranean sun, pruning their vines and checking their grapes. They are like artists stretching their canvas and preparing pigments for their paints. Each plot of land is chosen for its soil. Each vine is patiently tended. The earth collects beneath the fingernails of someone deeply connected to the land, the seasons, the passage of time. When autumn comes, they will harvest the grapes, pull them from the stems and crush them, releasing the sweet nectar held within each globe, patiently waiting to be transformed by the artist’s hand. The vigneron will carefully paint their first strokes on their canvas, some bold passes of the brush leaving behind the framework for the art to follow. Every detail is lovingly tended to, patiently addressed by the grower of wine.

For truly, here is not some mechanical production of vinified grapes, not some harsh approach to one of the most delicate balances between art and science. Here are those few who continue to grow wine with their own hands, by their own toil. The families here, from one generation to the next, work to produce what can only be called one of the greatest wines in the world. The vignerons of Montpeyroux produce one of the best wines in all the Coteaux du Languedoc. Its base of Grenache and Syrah, often with Mourvedre and Carignan, adds complex levels to the wine. These winegrowers build a wine inspired by the past, with hundreds of years of experimentation and learning before them, producing robust wines that can stand up to hearty fare, with acids and tannins that add to the quality of the wine and the food. But the people who make Montpeyroux wine also appreciate the heralded future of wine: big berry and rich fruit flavors and aromas.

Pour some out of the bottle and stare at the mesmerizing ruby color of the liquid. Smell the wonderful scents of raspberries and roasted fruits along with clove and laurel, bits of lavender or mint. Every time you raise the glass, a new scent introduces itself gently to your senses. Then the flavor, with the richness and breadth of the liquid on your palate, a bit of soft fruit and spices and herbs, followed by a soft, delicate finish that lingers and invites you to come back for another sip.

Wine from Burgundy is beautiful, but can be rather one-dimensional. It is a versatile wine in the sense that it can pair with many dishes, but the qualities of the wine really are quite similar. Bordeaux has long been heralded as the most amazing source of wine, but the best bottles often require years of careful cellaring before they reach an enjoyable state. Even then, despite a variety of grapes, Bordeaux all too often has the same flavors over and over again.

What is amazing about Montpeyroux, is that each glass of each bottle is its own adventure. Not to imply a lack of consistency, but rather that there is something truly beautiful about the wine here. It’s wild and untamed, and all the more amazing and delicious because of those qualities. Drinking a great Bordeaux or Burgundy can be like watching a tiger in the zoo. The animal is beautiful, powerful, amazing and mesmerizing, but in the wild, the same creature is somehow magnificent, feral, terrible and great all at once. By stepping away from the borders wherein we all feel so comfortable, by taking the bars away from the tiger’s cage, we can truly experience the wild side of wine. True, it takes an adventurous heart to venture into unknown territory, but like the quiet meal at home with family, the rewards that lie waiting in the wild are some of the things that make life worth living.

Ghibli Museum

“Let’s lose our way together,” I read in the brochure I received at the entrance of the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, Japan. “There aren’t any set routes that you must follow. You are the one to discover your own way. Those who can lose their way and fully enjoy this space are welcomed at the Museum.”

I decided I would have to remember back to the first time I went to Tokyo with my family, over 20 years ago as an 8-year-old, when I was overwhelmed with every new sight and sensation. I gazed up at the painting on the ceiling of a giant, tangled vine-like beanstalk featuring characters from Ghibli films with a smiling sun in the center and immediately felt the years start to melt away. A group of professional animators called Studio Ghibli created the pastel colored, magical museum in Inokashira Park, Mitaka, a suburb of Tokyo. Hayao Miyazaki, the most well known animator of Ghibli, has produced many of the popular films such as My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and the recent Academy Award winner Spirited Away. Studio Ghibli’s animated features, some of which have American versions, offer adult themes in a form fit for children (and childlike adults). Princess Mononoke voices the importance of nature and protecting the environment and My Neighbor Totoro introduces two young sisters whose mother is sick and are being brought up by their father.

It’s a good thing the museum didn’t exist when I was a child (it opened on October 1, 2001) or I would have begged my parents to take me every day. Children ran amok through the maze-like museum and after I got over the initial shock of being encouraged to act with no inhibitions in a museum, I joined them. My mom and I tried hard to get lost, and eventually did, leaving my father and brother behind to explore on our own, as we peeked behind every door and around every corner. Unfortunately, we couldn’t join in playing on the giant, fuzzy cat bus, one of my favorite characters from My Neighbor Totoro (little tykes only).The Ghibli Museum reveals secrets behind the films by displaying replicas of the animators’ rooms and studios complete with authentic sketches, photo albums, and books, which show works-in-progress and the animators’ inspirations.

Museum goers can see unique, original short animated features from Studio Ghibli in The Saturn Theater. Outside on the roof, accessed only by a winding metal staircase, stands a life-sized statue of a robot from Miyazaki’s futuristic film Laputa: Castle in the Sky (sorry, kids, no climbing allowed).

After running ourselves ragged, my family met at the gift shop where we picked up some souvenirs and then relaxed at the Straw Hat Café. We sat in the shade on the edge of the park and sipped our cold “Lamune,” a very sweet and fizzy drink, before we headed home, ready for a nap, with years stripped from our hearts and weight from our shoulders.