When you think “Irish”, certain images are bound to come to mind. We see a tall glass of whiskey laced coffee topped with cream, emerald hills,
pots of gold, leprechauns, four leaf clovers, Lucky Charms, pink stars, yellow moons….. wine?
Sure – Napa is rich in wine history and Irish immigrants. Think Fitzpatrick, O’Brien, Brown, Dillon, Sullivan, Taylor Family, Twomey – that’s just a wee sampling of the Irish owned wineries in Napa Valley.But I sort of wanted to get away from wine this time. I wanted to cut through the blarney. How’s that for a segue?
There is a lot of history about this Stone, which is part of the Blarney Castle in Ireland. Biblical characters used the stone- Moses, Jacob, David, maybe it was even the stone that was rolled away on the third day! It eventually made its way back to Ireland. My favorite story was that Elizabeth I was also queen over Ireland- Queen Bess wanted all the land owners to sign their land over to her, but she’d let them continue to act as landlord. The Lord of Blarney, with wit and good humor, would send notes to her pledging his support, but never really signing over his land. It finally dawned on her that he was flattering her, she threw down his last letter and in frustration claimed “Oh! He’s just giving me a lot more blarney!!!” If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in Ireland – kiss the Stone and you too will be imparted with eloquent speech and the ability to sling the bull.
Napa too has a stone – thousands of folks visit it every year. Oh, that’s just blarney- more like hundreds, from our tour! It’s the amazing communal grinding stone that the Wappo Indians used. You can see where the village squaws sat or stood for hours grinding acorns to make the meal that would sustain their families through the cold and wet winter months. Tiny starter mortars crown the top of the stone, probably from some little kid sitting on top of the stone helping her mom out. And wow – look at Spike – 
he uses the mortars for fresh rain water when he needs a drink! The deep holes are shaped like porous cones where the pestle ground the meal for thousands of years. Come on the Segway Napa Beyond Wine Tour and I’ll take you there! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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