SF Day 5 - Wine Country and Hwy 1

Each day I think we've seen the greatest thing and then the next day comes. We were up and at 'em pretty early so the Enterprise guy could pick us up. Then we were off to Cakebread Cellers. I'm more of a beer girl than I am a wine girl but boy...was this a great experience!! Our tour started in the vineyard and ended at the outdoor grill where we tasted 5 wines...my favorite was the 2005 Napa Valley Chardonnay. The best part for me was learning about the earth, the plantings made over the vine roots to change the mineral make up of the soil, the natural climate, bug detection and removal techniques (of course I would find that amazing), and other issues dealing with the vineyard...Once we got into the pressing, fermentation process and such, I thought that that could just be left to the scientists and their french oak barrels. :) From my point of view, it's what happens to the grape while being nurtured by the earth that determines later on how it will measure up as a wine. So much depends upon it. (I'm doing the 'palms up measure action') What goes into making us what we are? How are we nurtured...can we nurture ourselves? Can we change our acidity? Can we alter the course of how sugary sweet we are?
I like to go to our farm in late July and pick the wild mustang grapes that grow all over the place. The jelly from this grape is amazing but I just get what I get. I never noticed before if the jelly ever tastes different from year to year. I know that the Cakebread wine makers would laugh till they tinkled if they tasted the Mustang Grape wine my uncle makes. Anyway, my question is...are we a wild mustang grape who will just end up how we end up or do we strive to improve ourselves with an effort to adjust and become 'fine'. I certainly don't mean to say that I think we should pretend to be someone we're not. I'm just sayin' that I think it's good to constantly recognize the need to improve and become better, nicer and more genuine individuals.
After Cakebread, we found our way over to Hwy 1 where we took an amazing drive all the way back down to San Francisco. On the way we saw incredible beaches, cliffs, some harrowing hairpin turns and lots of great looking oyster bars. Now we're taking a little rest before heading out to dinner at Aqua...I think it's pretty foo foo so I guess I have to change clothes.