OK, more Napa... Day 2, Stu and Debbie arrived, so all six of us met up at Harlan Estate winery. We had an amazing tour, given by Sheila and Katherine, thanks to Stu. It's not just anyone who gets a tour and tasting at Harlan; luckily, Stu has been on their mailing list for many years. Woo hoo for Stu! We sampled and chatted about both Harlan Estate and The Maiden - what a treat, my friends. I'm quite sure I'll never drink either of those wines again - a bottle of Harlan Estate was on the menu at our dinner later that evening for $895 - so it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I loved it.

After our Harlan tour, we headed back "home" for a bit, and then made our way to a festive, casual dinner at Redd in Yountville. After our absolute feast the night before, I decided to play things a bit lighter with a lovely skate filet. I slept like a rock that night, whew.

Day 3 opened bright and sunny on Howell Mountain, so we decided to spend some time with a bottle of Turley Zin on Turley's deck overlooking Turley's vineyards and the Napa Valley. NICE! Fortified with cheeses and sausages from Dean & Deluca, Stu, Debbie, John, and I had one of those spontaneously amazing vacation days, where everything falls into place - food, wine, sunshine, a beautiful setting - and could hardly motivate ourselves to get our butts on down the road to Ladera to meet Rudy and Ana (who'd enjoyed their own lovely morning at Meadowood swimming and lounging). But motivate we did, and thoroughly enjoyed our tour, chat, and tasting with Pat and Anne Stotesbury, formerly of Minnesota.

From Ladera we made our way down the road to Littorai, for another Stu-arranged tasting with assistant winemaker Neal (who the guys dubbed Cute Neal because 1) he is, and 2) all the ladies got a little twittery around him). In fact, after our tasting, Neal dropped by the house for - what else? - a glass of wine and some snacks on the deck. After he hit the road, we six dove in to cooking our dinner - over the fire, no less, thanks to grillmaster Rudy (and the Turley's cool fireplace/grill set-up). Steaks and veal chops, oh yeah, with more D&D salads, crusty bread, and cookies and cheeses for dessert. Ohhhh, sitting in front of that roaring fire, all stuffed and toasty warm, full of great wine, laughing and talking, what a night! Unforgettable.

And then...our last day...stay tuned...

Oh, bad, bad Stephanie. I am soooo cheating on my blog with a new (equally, fabulously) narcissistic online addiction - Facebook! Help, my friend Maud "friended" me and it's been all (fun, decadent) downhill ever since! Here I am, on a beautiful, sunny Labor Day - at my computer. And loving it, what can I say? Throw in some gougere (recipe posted in comments below) and champagne and it is a damn fine day. A movie in awhile, then, later, a buttery roast chicken, sliced tomatoes, and brie, all washed down with a sick white Burgundy... And some more Facebook for dessert. Dang. Nice.

And nice to be chillin' because we had a HUGE night at Debbie & Stu The Wine Genius' lovely home last night. Rudy & Ana were there too, another Team Napa Reunion. So fabulous. Mountains of farmers' market tomatoes, with cheese and herbs as a starter, then in a gorgeous soup with a floating gougere as a first course (yep, that's where I got the gougere inspiration for today), alongside perfectly creamy risotto and grilled grass-fed-beef steaks for our main. Lovely and merry, and then of course, the wine...Harlan Estate jewels, the likes of which only exist in (rare) smart, deep, fascinating cellars like Stu's. I would never drink these wines if not for Stu so generously sharing them with us, what a treat. Thank you, my friend! It's very well appreciated! We of course toasted Stu's recent summit of Grand Teton (yeah, even though he's a serious eater/drinker, he's a serious biker/climber too, sooo not fair).

Dinners like that just kill me (in a good way) because I'm so buzzy and jazzed from all the social and palate-tickling stimulation (aka Stephanie Sensory Overload) that when I get home I just can't go straight to bed. Hell no! I have to blog, or...now...screw around on Facebook. And stay up way too late. And be worthless the next day - in a good, cozy, lazy way. Lord help me.

I hope you're all enjoying your last summer weekend, too. It's gorgeous here in Minnesota, and in NYC (according to my bro-in-law Tom), how about where you are? Soak it up, my friends. It's been a special one.