Our Napa Valley Proposal - August 28, 2009 When I woke up on August 24th and got downstairs to my desk, there was a purple note card on my desk and it said “Lara, Purple=Grapes=NAPA!!  Last vacation before school starts.  Got cheap last minute tickets!! Love You, Deniz.”  I was totally surprised and thought it was just a “Deniz thing” to do by booking a last minute surprise trip for us.  We had a 5:30pm flight on Thursday but it was delayed about 3 hours.  Usually Deniz would get annoyed with something like that but he was very laid back about the whole thing.  He also usually obsesses about getting upgrades for us to sit in First Class and he wasn’t doing that either.  I still didn’t think anything of it.  When we finally boarded the plane, he was boarding when First Class boards.  He ended up telling me that he upgraded us with frequent flier miles to First Class tickets since it was such a good deal and he didn’t want to have an uncomfortable flight all the way to San Francisco.  I also just thought that was a “Deniz thing” to do.  We landed in San Francisco late Thursday night.  He booked a hotel room for us at the Embassy Suites in Napa Valley.  We checked in and went right to bed.  The next morning we woke up early and started getting ready and planning our day.  Deniz was on his computer looking up wineries and seeing when we could go for tours or tastings.  We decided to go to Grgich Hills winery first for a tour and tasting at 10:30am.  Then Deniz told me that the Robert Mondavi Winery was offering a 90 minute tour, a different tour than what we had previously done.   So, I told him that it sounded good to me!  I was getting dressed and Deniz asked me if I was going to wear that dress that I brought during the day.  I told him no, and that I was saving it for dinner.  I ended up wearing the dress because he made me feel bad by saying, “can’t we just look nice for one day!?!” At the time I didn’t understand the obsession with me wearing the dress that day.    We did our tour and tasting at Grgich Hills winery and then had some time to fill so we stopped at the Folie à Deux Winery and did a short tasting there.  We arrived at the Robert Mondavi winery and checked in for our tour.  We met our tour guide (the same guide we had at our first Mondavi tour/tasting, which was just a coincidence) and he gave us an idea of what our tour would be.  He told us he would drive us out to some of the oldest vineyards that Mondavi has and then head back inside for a special tasting.  He picked us up in his Tahoe at the front of the winery and I asked Deniz, “did you know it was just going to be the two of us?” and he said, “no, I had no idea.”  So our guide took us out to into the vineyard to walk around.  We went to the I-Block section of the vineyard, which has some of the oldest vines in Napa Valley.  He popped open a bottle of I Block, To Kalon Vineyard, Fume Blanc, which is made from 61 year old vines and just a great bottle of wine!  Still, I was clueless and just thought this was an expensive tour.  We walked around a little bit more and then he took us back to the winery and inside to finish up the tour and to do our special tasting.  We went down to one of the wine cellars where Deniz and I had been before.  Our guide told us to go ahead and go into the tasting room that was set up for us because he forgot something and he’d meet us in there.  There was a big room with glass walls in the wine cellar right next to all of these wine barrels.  We walked over to the room and it was amazing!  It was decorated with flowers and rose petals.   Even after walking in the room and seeing the set up I was still clueless!  I even asked Deniz as we were setting our stuff down, “I wonder if they do special dinners or events here?”  By the time I turned around Deniz was right in front of me holding this bottle of wine.  He looked serious so I was just confused.  At that moment, I finally realized what was happening.  He started talking, still holding this bottle of wine in front of him.  He told me that this whole thing had been planned and they put everything together for us.  He started to get emotional while he was talking to me and I started to cry.  I was absolutely shocked that this was happening!  He showed me the bottle of wine that he was holding.  It was a 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve that he had Mrs. Mondavi, the wine makers wife, decorate with her artwork and a message for me.  It said, “Lara, Will you be my happily ever after? ”  At that point he told me he had to do this “the right way” and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!!  Through my tears I said yes!   He showed me the ring and it took my breath away!  I was so shocked by everything that I put out the wrong hand to put the engagement ring on!  Once the ring was on my hand I think I just kept saying “I can’t believe this is happening!!”  We were both very excited and just enjoyed our moment.  The tour guide eventually came back and made sure I said yes.  Then he started popping open some of their reserve wines and great bottles that they don’t usually open up.  Deniz really enjoyed our tasting and I enjoyed staring at my ring the whole time!  Once we were done with the tasting we bought a lot of wine and joined their wine club in the excitement.  I ran outside while I was on the phone with my mom and yelled “I’m engaged!!” and everyone in the store laughed.  I was so excited I didn’t care who heard me.  We made all of our phone calls and updated our facebook profiles to let everyone know the exciting news!  It was such a wonderful and special moment and one that Deniz and I will never forget.