A few wineries + tips when you're visiting Napa

Nick and I are slowly starting to become Napa experts...well...not really. But we are trying! I think when you go to Napa everyone has their favorite places to recommend you and it can be overwhelming. There's so much good wine to drink, so many good views to take in, and so much food to eat. So let me add a few more places to your potential list, plus a tip or two about how I book tastings when we have people coming to visit us.

First off, when you say you're going wine tasting in California anyone who knows wine country will usually first as you, "are you going to Napa or Sonoma?" There are actually two counties that span wine country; and anyone will tell you that Napa is expensive. Sonoma has many amazing wineries, so if you're worried about price don't think you'll be missing out by not visiting Napa. Smaller tasting fees, if there even is one, and most times they waive tastings if you buy a bottle make it great for a budget. I have friends who rarely go to Napa anymore because of this. We have yet to go to Sonoma because we are making our way through the massive list of places on our list in Napa first (plus it's easier for us to get there).

So how do I plan the spots we visit? Generally, depending on time, we try to hit 2-3 a day. One in the morning, stop for lunch, then two more in the afternoon. Because we live South of Napa County and have always stayed in downtown Napa when we've visited, we usually go to the spot furthest North first then make our way South. There's two main roads in Napa (Highway 29/St. Helena Highway and Silverado Trail) that run parallel to each other. 29 gets packed with cars as the day goes on, so I also try to pick places there earlier in the day and then elsewhere later. I also always make sure there is at least one winery on or off of Silverado because the views on that drive are spectacular. Really, it's gorgeous no matter where you are, but it's less developed.

And as I said, always stop for lunch. When you go to a tasting, you usually drink between 1 1/2 - 3 glasses of wine depending on how many varieties to taste and how much the server pours for you. You will be drunk and it will happen fast. Lunch is necessary not only to help slow you down and sober you up, but to pad your stomach so you're not a mess in the afternoon. We usually eat in St. Helena because there are many wineries we like near there and there's some really cool olive oil and vinegar tasting rooms in the downtown area too.

Lastly, the time of year is also important. If you *must* see grapes on the wine, the summer is the time to go, July through early September to be exact. But be prepared to deal with crowds and sometimes it can be HOT. Sitting outside dying and drinking red wine really isn't fun. But you will see a lot of green and there's always summer wines to taste. The off season on the other hand has less traffic, cooler (and unfortunately sometimes rainy) weather, and the vines look like twigs. But you get more personalized service and better deals. So there's pros and cons to each situation.


Here's a few words about some of the places we've been to that we really like:

Casa Nuestra - We liked the wine here, but of all the places on this list it's probably at the bottom (that's not to say it's not good, we've been to about a dozen places at this point, so that's like 5 out of 12), but it's a really cool vineyard. They waive tasting fees if you buy a bottle, tastings are private, by appointment only, and are outside. There's goats and the scenery is gorgeous. Eco friendly too. A really cool place considering many other rooms are busy, high tech, and can be inattentive. (Also dog friendly.)

Trefethen - Our favorite wine ever. We'd join a wine club here if we could. I literally like everything they have. Whites, reds, it doesn't matter. It's all amazing and the main guy who runs the tasting room is really great too. When my family came to visit we took them here and they were raving about how their wine was the best out of all the places we visited. 5 out of 5 of us can't all be wrong. (Also dog friendly.)

Duckhorn - A friend's girlfriend recommended this place to us. It is EXPENSIVE, but the wines are nothing short of amazing. The tasting room is in an old victorian on a quiet country road with beautiful scenery. Against our better judgment we splurged and bought a bottle to open on our 15th anniversary. It might have been the best decision we made that trip.

Cuvaison - A French style winery, Cuvaison has the best Chardonnay ever. Really. I'm not lying. My friend Jen left with two bottles she liked it so much. I've been eying mine for awhile now but am afraid to open it because it's too good to drink on my own. The guy who did the tasting with us was super friendly and we all left extremely drunk, which I'm sure made him happy considering the amount of wine we got. (Also dog friendly.)

Yet another Napa Entry- Two very different tasting rooms

I feel like I should add a disclaimer to the following entry. Please excuse how disjointed and short it is. My brain is completely fried right now. I've been trying to work on this all week but because of some really difficult tests (and a dog with an upset stomach) I am exhausted and can barely string two words together in normal conversation, let alone a blog. Sorry if it's a little dry!

-----

One of the really nice things about going to Napa was the town itself. It's a decent size with lots of cute little places to check out (like that cupcake place, tons of restaurants, and boutique shops). The Saturday we walked around we armed ourselves with a wine tasting card ($35 for 10 cent tastings at 12 different tasting rooms) and tried to visit as many places as possible. We were out of the inn from about 11am until about 6 and didn't even get to see everything. We went to half of the tasting rooms, and I have to admit we were pretty sloshed by the end of the evening. I'm glad I remembered that the tasting card doesn't expire until the end of the year and stopped us from visiting all the rooms in one day (which some people who obviously had a much better tolerance than either Nick or I).

Of all the rooms we visited our very first stop, Wineries of Napa Valley, was our favorite. The server was extremely friendly and knowledgeable. Between the two tasting sessions we chose and the free glasses we got with the card, we already had 12 wines to try but we were pointed in the direction of several other wines (all from local wineries) that were amazing. We ended up purchasing a dessert wine that we're saving Easter to serve after dinner with cheese (I know, we're so snobby!). We definitely plan to go back next time we are in town and since it's dog friendly we'll even bring Charlie.

One of the last tasting rooms we stopped off was Uncorked at Oxbow. We were warned that the later it gets in Napa, the more busy the rooms get. Considering we were still out right before dinner on a Saturday night it doesn't surprise me that there were a lot of couples, girls, and groups out for a pre-dinner drink. Uncorked had a more laid back crowd and that reflected the feel of the tasting room itself. While we were exhausted and hungry, and in all honesty a little cranky, it was still worth the visit. Uncorked features local musicians and has some instruments set up for various events they have, so it's got a little bit of a folky-rock-n-roll feel to it. I know that's something my family will appreciate when we take them there this summer.

Artesa Winery

When Nick and I started planning out our anniversary trip my friend, Brooke, kept going on and on about her favorite winery, Artesa. I have to be honest, I normally don't follow up with recommendations that people give me. I like to do research myself and go based on what I think Nick and I will like. I know that's really stubborn and rude, but I've noticed that most people say, "Oh, I really love this place," rather than think about whether or not you will like it. But with Artesa, enough people recommended it (and Brooke was practically in a frenzy over it), that I figured we would give it a shot. I am extremely glad that I listened to someone else for a change, because we really loved both the property and wine at Artesa.

The property itself is set on top of a hill far off the main road. Driving there you pass many small mom and pop places and long rows of vines. Even though Artesa is one of the more popular spots, it really makes you feel like you're in the heart of wine country off to find some special treasure. Then the actual winery is atop a few staircases. It reminded me of climbing to the top of a Mayan pyramid (not that I've ever done that, but it had the same shape to it). Except there were gorgeous fountains and green yards. The one downside was that you were not allowed on the grass. A popular thing to do in Napa is to buy a bottle of wine and have a picnic somewhere on the grounds of the winery, and it would have been amazing to lunch next to this:


and look at this:


But unfortunately that was out of the question. There is an area near one of the fountains that you can sit at, though. And if you go before noon you will have some peace and quiet while you sit and stare out at the valley.

As for the wine, it was the only winery we bought two bottles at, and we had to try really hard to narrow it down to just those two. The prices were in the middle range of most of the places we went to with most bottles from around $20-$40, but also going up much higher. I generally do not like red wine, but even I found two bottles that I liked. And Nick found a bottle of white that he didn't think was half bad either. Unfortunately the woman who was our pourer was a little curt and rude (Nick and I are extremely friendly people and can chat up anyone, but this woman just frowned at us or gave us a blank expression most of the time), but she still gave us several extra tastes of things that were not on the tasting menu.

The building the winery is in is very chic and modern (which fits with the rest of the property), and has a few private tasting rooms (although they are closed off by glass so you can see inside). Aside from the two wine bars, there are also a few small tables to sit down at if there is no space at the bar. The gift shop offers a lot more than most wineries do. Wine paraphernalia, art, chocolate, etc. There is also a resident artist, Gordon Huether, who displays his smaller works as well as large sculptures outside. As a tip, if you go to his gallery is downtown Napa and mention you plan to go to Artesa they may give you a two for one tasting coupon.

All in all we really liked Artesa, and despite the chilly service, we plan to go back any time we're in town and take the family too.

Review: Azzuro Pizzeria

Growing up in the NYC metro area, pizza is it's own 5th food group (bagels are the 6th). When I went away to college all the pizza up there was horrible. It was either too much like Domino's or too much like Ellio's. And having had some of the best pizza within walking, bike riding, or driving distance from my house, I'm a little spoiled as to what good pizza should taste like. I would come home from school and basically eat bagels and pizza for 3 days straight. Now that I'm in California I feel the same way. When we were home for Christmas, I had pizza 3 times, and bagels twice in a 10 day period. Pizza here just isn't the same.

But, even though I generally hate the pizza I've tried here, Azzuro Pizzeria in Napa more than satisfied my pizza craving and has given me some hope that there just might be some good pizza places on the West Coast. Thin crispy pizza with a fluffly not overly cooked crust and great sauce and toppings. Could a NYer ask for anything less?

Nick got the traditional pie (which tasted just like a NY pizza) and I got the squash pie which was essentially a white pizza (minus the garlic) and had butternut squash on top. Both were amazingly good, large for a personal size pizza (but they were so good we forced ourselves to finish them), and reasonably priced.

For a displaced NYer looking for a slice of home, it's definitely worth going to for your fix.

Celadon: A Worthwhile Splurge

Just sitting here and thinking about Celadon is making me hungry. We went to Celadon in Napa on our first night in town and considered it our official anniversary dinner so we splurged a little bit. I was kind of nervous at first, but honestly, the food was so amazing it was well worth it.

We started off with an appetizer of calamari which had a sweet chipotle glaze drizzled on top. I've eaten calamari so many times I usually hate to order it, but we were told it was their signature dish (and Nick was frothing at the mouth just thinking about it) so we got it. And holy moly, it might have been the best calamari ever. Only rivaled by the one we ate at Cook (another wine country restaurant).

Because the restaurant uses "happy meat" we got to order whatever we wanted off the menu. Needless to say we both got meat (and kinds that we would normally not eat at home). For dinner I ordered duck breast with sweet potato gnocchi. It was amazing; a perfect mix of Sweet and Savory flavors. After just about every bite I said "oh my god this is so good." And I ate the ENTIRE thing. Nick ordered roasted leg of lamb with couscous. A dear family member of mine used to make Mediterranean food and I've never had food as good as hers, but Nick's dish was amazing. Right up there with hers. The meat was so tender, at first Nick didn't understand why he didn't get a heavy duty steak knife like I did, but when he put his pork in it and it completely fell apart he just smiled and gobbled it up.

For dessert Nick ordered tiramasu and I got macadamia crusted goat cheese with port poached figs on crostini. We ate every last bite, regardless of how much we both wanted to explode. Obviously we hated everything.

I think I've found my favorite California restaurant.

Napa meets San Fran: The Inn on First

In celebration for our anniversary last week, Nick and I went to Napa. Just like when we went to Deer Hill Inn a few years ago, we decided to go to a hotel that was part of the Select Registry. There's a couple of places in California wine country, but we picked the Inn on First, a completely Green inn, because the food on the website looked amazing and they had a really good price for winter (which is the off season).

From the moment we booked the vacation I was really excited. Granted, celebrating my anniversary in Napa had a little bit to do with it, but the inn keeper had a lot more. Jamie emailed me right away with my reservation email which included tons of extras the inn offered and recommendations about local wineries, restaurants, and things to do. I saved the email and when we got closer to our getaway, I found that list really helpful as I tried to find a places to have dinner or to visit. We followed through on a couple of the things on the list and were really glad we did. Jamie continued to make great recommendations and take the time out to sit down and chat with us at least once every day we were there. It was a really nice touch to be able to have such personalized service.

The inn is made up of two main buildings. The main house, which is an old Victorian. The upstairs has several rooms and then downstairs has a lounge and the dining room. Both of which always have beverages and treats waiting. The other building has more rooms. Our room was in the house and actually a lot bigger than the website made it look. We had an extremely comfortable bed, a fireplace, a jacuzzi tub big enough for two, plus a separate bathroom. We also had a small bottle of champagne and truffles waiting for us. Considering we booked what we thought was one of the "cheap" rooms, there was nothing cheap about it.

Breakfast was included and each morning there was a selection of cold things (granola, yogurt, fruit, etc.) and a different hot main course. Each of the three breakfasts we ate were AMAZING. Homemade flat bread with caramelized onions, rosemary potatoes, and a fried egg; homemade focaccia with assorted veggies; scramble egg omelet corn dog (which was really corn dog breading with eggs, prosciutto, and gruyere cheese). They must have known I was coming. Everything was amazing, and the website has even more amazing looking things. Nick and I kept talking about Deer Hill and how amazing the food was there and comparing the two inns. While the feel is very different (mountain cozy warm comfort inn versus chic California airy inn), we concluded that it was nice to know there was somewhere on the West coast that had amazing food and would be a great place to run away to if we needed to relax.

All in all it was a really great stay and we would definitely (and will probably) stay there again. My family is coming in August to celebrate my brother's 21st birthday and after showing my mom the inn she suggested we go for a night or two. I hope we do, and considering the inn is dog friendly we may even bring Charlie next time!

Ok, now just a few more pictures from the website:

2 Cupcake Places: East & West

Specialty cupcakes are definitely a huge trend right now (although some have been saying that it will be replaced by Whoopie pies soon). They're probably so popular because it reminds you of being a kid, having birthday parties at school, and being able to eat at least 5 with no stomach ache or extra pounds. I still love cupcakes and have seen so many amazing recipes lately, but sometimes it's just more fun to find a little shop and buy a ton of all different ones to try.

This past weekend Nick and I went to Napa for our anniversary. We spent Saturday walking around downtown, checking out the shops and visiting tasting rooms. In our travels we came across the most amazing idea for a store (and I can think of at least two of my friends who would find their heaven if they ever visited). Sift Cucakes, which serves the best cupcakes I have EVER tasted, has a small boutique clothing shop attached. Think Tori Burch meets BCBG, with amazing cupcakes. They have a few more locations (as per the website), and I'm so depressed none of them are near me. I have been to quite a few cupcake places, but Sift is by far the best. While there I tried a Samoa (yes, like the Girl Scout cookie). Vanilla with chocolate ganache in the center, caramel flavored frosting, with coconut on top. It sounds like it would be too sweet, but it wasn't. A perfect blends of all the flavors and had I not still had 3 hours of walking ahead of me, and more room in my stomach I would have bought more.

<---- From their Facebook...Doesn't that look amazing?!


One of the other places I've been, back East, that I really like is Flour and Sun Bakery, in Pleasantville, New York. I visited a couple of years ago to celebrate my birthday with a friend who's birthday is only a few days apart from mine. We each picked out several different kinds to try and some to take home. The menu rotates and just to give you an idea of what's on the menu today, Rocky Road, Chocolate Rocky Road, Loop-d-Loop (looks like a Hostess cake, so you can probably guess what that would taste like), Gingersnap, and Pistachio. I've also tried the banana peanut butter one, and that was amazing.

Here's a look at their Smores one. Soooo good.

Beringer, the Disneyworld of Napa

Nick and I have now lived in California for almost 4 months. We are both really into wine, and I come from a long line of winos. And so, embarrassingly enough, just this weekend we finally made it to wine country for the first time. I've only been one time before, and Nick had never gone. When I went last year with my friend, Katrina, we went to the Beringer Estate. After doing a search online they seemed to have the most extensive tours and we wanted to pick a spot that seemed like it had a lot going on. And after experiencing their 30 minutes tour I knew I had to bring Nick back, so this Saturday (despite the dreary looking weather) that's where we headed.

Unfortunately, due to traffic we couldn't get to the winery on time for our tour, so we pushed back to the next one offered and spent a couple hours walking around downtown St. Helena first. The town itself is only a 5 or so blocks long and 2-3 blocks wide. We window shopped all the artsy fartsy stores and antique shops and did some olive oil and vinegar tasting at St. Helena Olive Oil Company and Olivier. Besides some amazing olive oil and vinegar, there was also mustards, tapanades, BBQ sauces, pasta sauces, and a whole host of other things. We ended up buying one or two things from each store (there were so many delicious things we tried, that was a real compromise on our parts). Once we were done there we popped back in the car for a 2 minute drive up the road to Beringer.

Tickets in hand we walked up to the old winery (which also has the gift shop) and tasted some mulled wine while we waited and chatted with the women who worked in the shop. Then our tour guide met us and she took us into the caves . The reason I wanted to take Nick on this tour is because it's very informative. He is a lover of knowledge and specific facts and before we go back to Napa to really have the full experience, I wanted to be able to take him some place where he could learn about the science of the wine industry. We were shown old presses and told about the process of making wine as well as the history of the Beringer family. We got to taste a wine straight out of the barrel (it had only been in there a couple months so it didn't taste much like wine) and were shown the different kinds of vines and explained how the growing season worked as well.

Once we were done in the gardens, we were taken to the Rhine house (which is a huge mansion on the estate built by one of the Beringer brothers):

We had a special room for a private sit down tasting where we learned about the different things to look for in a wine (and why people swirl, smell, swoosh, etc.). Then we tried 4 different varieties, including a special reserve that cost $115 a bottle. I don't like red wine, but I now understand the value of a good bottle because even I thought it was amazing.

Unfortunately, a piece of cheese, a bread stick, and a cracker, was not enough to keep us sober. So after 6 different kinds of wine (which was probably 3-4 glasses) in two hours, we needed to sit for awhile and sober up. We sat in the gardens and watched a gorgeous sunset before we went back into town to have dinner at Cook.

There weren't many restaurant choices within the downtown area (although later when I looked online there are sooooo many within the area). A few really nice ones, a few in the middle, and a few on the more casual end. We opted for Cook because the menu looked delicious. It was a quaint restaurant that served continental food with some French influences. The food was delicious, although the gnocchi with gorgonzola I got was a little bit of a rip off as the plate had barely any food. We were counting on having some leftovers (since we ordered some fried calamari as an appetizer), but I ended up having to eat some of Nick's dinner (which was a whole chicken with polenta, asparagus, some kind of fruit, and other things) to be satisfied. We didn't have any wine, considering the amount we had just drank. For dessert we ordered panna cotta and a date tart. As usual, we picked a restaurant that had locally/ethically grown/raised products and the food was amazing.

Here's some food from their website:







All in all it was a very successful first trip to wine country. Not that I wasn't before, but I am really really looking forward to going back for our anniversary now.