3 aspects of a Wine Country Life

 Hi, I’m Yana from WineCountryLife.

I live and create in the beautiful Napa Valley of California. Napa valley is known for its wine industry, thus often referred to as “Wine Country”. Today I would like to share with you what it’s like to live a wine country life. Here are the three aspects that in my opinion define a life in Wine Country.

1. Inspiring vineyard views.
It does not take much to get inspired here. There are gorgeous vineyards everywhere and it’s fascinating to watch grape vines change year round. I often take my camera and go for a walk. I watch leaves change colors in fall making vineyards flare up with red, orange, and yellow.

When winter comes grape vines become bare exposing bright stripes of green grass and yellow mustard flowers between the rows of grape vines. In spring you’ll see vines waking up from winter hibernation with fragile leaf buds coming out. In the beginning of summer I keep a close eye on the vines waiting for them to bloom. Have you ever seen grapes bloom? They bloom so shortly and their flowers are so small and unpretentious that you can easily miss it. The entire season cycle is so beautiful in the vineyards that I decided to create a calendar depicting the life of vines through the 12 months of a year.

Fresh country air, warm California sun, and the beautiful Napa country side always rejuvenate me but there is more that makes Napa Valley such a happy place.

2. Culture of hospitality.
All of these grapes and all the wine would mean nothing if you couldn’t share it with others. Many Napa Valley wineries set a great example of hospitality by hosting wine tastings for their guests, regular parties for their club members, as well as all kinds of charity events. Napa lifestyle is big on hosting and entertaining not only at wineries but on a personal level.

I like inviting friends over for dinner that is always paired with delicious Napa Valley wine. And whenever you visit someone you bring… you guessed it! – a bottle of wine.

3. Napa Valley Style
Going out to dinner or wine tasting is also a big part of a wine country life. Most people get fashionable and dress up when going out in Napa Valley. Even though California fashion style is rather casual and you can wear your flip-flops or tennis shoes almost everywhere, when it comes to Napa Valley, people get extravagant. That’s why luxurious one of a kind jewelry and accessories are another part of a wine country life.

It’s not unusual to see limousines on the roads of Napa Valley. People often hire a limo with a driver to go wine tasting, which is very reasonable - who would want to go to a winery and not try all of that delicious wine? There is a lot of fine dining in Napa Valley, The French Laundry being the most famous. Napa Valley is also home to some modern artists and you will see beautiful art installations walking the streets in Napa or Yountville. So it’s only natural that people want to look chic when they are going out in Napa Valley. Do you think I can pull it off? :)

Gorgeous views, great hospitality, and fabulous style are the three aspects of a Wine Country Life as I see it. I’d say it’s definitely a happy life. I strongly encourage you to come and visit if you have not yet. If you have been to Napa Valley, I don’t have to persuade you for long. I would also suggest that you get yourself a piece of Napa Valley by shopping at WineCountryLife ;-)

Harvest Time

October is one of my favorite months of a year for many reasons.

First of all, it’s harvest time! Bountiful fruits and vegetables at local farmers’ markets make it fun to cook and be creative in the kitchen. I also like to use pumpkins and all kinds of gourds as fall décor in my house.

Besides the gastronomic pleasures of autumn, fall brings such rich and beautiful colors that they always inspire me to create.

The vineyards around my house become colorful quilts of green, yellow, and red. I like walking through the vineyards and look for color combinations and texture contrasts to use in my designs.

Another reason I love October is because the entire Napa Valley where I live smells like harvested grapes in the morning.

Even when I’m driving behind a slow grape truck on our one-lane highway, instead of feeling irritated about the delay I get excited about the new grape harvest and begin to wonder how this year’s growing season will affect the wine.

What do you like about October? What are your favorite fruits and vegetables of the season? What inspires you the most this time of year? I want to hear your story!

By Yana WineCountryLife

A trip to Bodie ghost-town

California state is a really nice place to travel to. The nature is amazing! You can find there so many different types like desert, mountains, ocean shore, big trees and more. But also, California is reach of history. And one of the historical jewels is Bodie ghost town.


It's hidden in deserted Sierra Nevada mountain range, and it used to be a pretty much big gold-mining town where population was nearly 10 thousand people once. For those times, it was a really big town. Well... You can find facts about Bodie on Wikipedia.



I've been in Bodie before, and at that time, I promised myself to come there again. Despite of tourists visiting the place, I always feel loneliness and abandonment of Bodie. It feels like only howling winds and an occasional ghosts live in this town. I'm not sure about the second ones, but winds are really frequent guests there. Roads to this historic state park are open only in summer time, and Bodie is covered with snow and silence on winter.



Unfortunately, only small part of the town survived the time, but interiors remain are as they were left and stocked with goods.


This trip, we were really lucky! It was a day of Bodie. Volonteers arrived from all over the country, dressed up in old clothes, and pretended they are real Bodie residents.




Real old A-1 Ford cars filled up Bodie's streets


Some buildings such as casino and old saloon was open to public. I felt like we jumped through the time to the old days and dived into that simple and difficult life in deserted Bodie where hot and dry in summer and cold and snowy in winter.




So when you travel to California, save a couple of days to visit eastern Sierra Nevada and Bodie historical state part. Feel the history breath on your own; absorb the years. Believe me, you won't regret!

Story by Irina (IrinaPhotography)

Trip to Death Valley

Do you like to travel? Do you like to explore new places where you want to go back again and again? If you answer "yes", you would understand me :) One of the places where I want to go again and again is Death Valley National Park. So today I would like a story about my last trip to this gorgeous place. You can click any image to get a little bit bigger size.

In general, Death Valley is the hottest, driest, and the lowest place in Northern America. The lowest point is 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. This white crust on the picture is salt.

Death Valley National Park is huge. To visit all points of interest is almost unreal in one day. To get familiar with all easy to reach points (I mean the points that you can reach on paved roads), you'll need at least 2-3 days. And I'm not mentioning the places that are reachable by high clearance or even 4-wheel-drive vehicles only. :) So can you imagine the size of the park now? :)

Death Vally always have been attracting for me. I'd heard and read a lot of articles and stories even before I visited this place first time. The park always was for me as such a mysterious place with the scary name. But believe me, nothing scary there besides very hot and dry weather. Look at those beautiful landscapes. See how vast are they!

This park is a real pearl on California's map. There are you can find a lot of different formations. There are huge multi-colored mountains, big crust of salt, sand dunes, craters... The only one thing that is not frequently seen is water.

Ubehebe Crater. It appeared as a result of large steam explosions

Zabriskie point is attractive because of the interesting hills shape. Seems like huge water streams washed them out. Well... maybe they did after ice age.

There are at least couple dunes in the valley. When you get there, you really feel you are in a desert. Sand is everywhere.

Also, I think roads in the park are quite interesting. Some of them are straight like a ribbon from ridge to ridge, and they start waving only in mountains.

Death Valley is also famous as historical place. It was quite developed mining place during California Gold Rush. There are a lot of abandoned mines and small ghost towns around.

When you are planning to visit California, make Death Valley as a destination point. You'll never regret... believe me!

Story by Irina (IrinaPhotography)