(photo by Ursa Davis) |
We had rented a place just south of Sonoma, which was a cute little 2 bedroom cottage placed on a working farm. There were lambs, and baby doll sheep, and pygmy goats just outside our door. There was also a spice garden for visitors to use, but unfortunately we could not take advantage of that as that we traveled during the winter. One thing that made the farm setting so interesting was that it was a constant reminder of the fresh, quality ingredients that were being served at all the restaurants that we ate at on the trip, and I'll get more into that later, but suffice to say that the farm was a wonderful backdrop for the trip.
The Sites
Let's face it, I know myself. As a person, I have a strong tendency to gorge my on whatever ideas, or experiences are the order of my day. When I need some new music I will schedule a trip to a 3 day music festival and watch twenty consecutive concerts. When I found the joy of birding, it became an all consuming passion for about a year and a half. That is my nature, so while my love of wine never really goes away, I do, from time to time, feel the need to taste, try, and explore new wines. And so it was time for Ursa and I to head to wine country.
(photo by Ursa Davis) |
Over the week that we were in Napa Valley we visited so many wineries that it would not do to try and review them all here. I will instead just pick a few of my favorites.
(photo by Ursa Davis) |
(photo by Ursa Davis) |
(photo by Ursa Davis) |
We also found a disproportionate number of dessert wines. Based on how often we use them we had only planned to pick up maybe one, but found ourselves hauling three home. One such find was at Orin Swift who had a Port that we simply could not resist and another was at James Cole who had made a Merlot Ice Wine that was very unique. Merlot is a very bold grape and they had used it in their ice wine to deaden some of the overwhelming sweetness, it was delicious.
The Food
What makes California such a fantastic place to visit is the food. When a chef has the absolute freshest, high quality ingredients, it does not take much to produce a great meal. Napa Valley is a foodie Disneyland that I compare, somewhat, to Paris' cafes in that you don't really need to plan your day around where to eat as that virtually everywhere you stop will have outstanding food.
On the advice from a friend we had dinner at Tra Vigne which I am glad that we did. It did, however, become a good news/bad news situation. The good news was that we started with the Mozzarella Cheese "al Minuto" and the bad news was that it was so good that I vaguely remember the rest of the meal. It was such a simple dish of fresh mozzarella, made in house, on a grilled bruschetta, drizzled with a locally made olive oil and some decorative salt.It was the very picture of elegant simplicity, and was so unspeakably delicious that it caused me to forget parts my childhood. Yes, it was THAT god damned good.
Summery
Napa Valley turned out to be just what we hoped for and what we needed, a great place to relax, and recharge. A place where wine and food are viewed as a form of rt, and the mesmerizing landscape is dotted with elegant vineyard estates, and country farms alike. It is a lovely place to visit. But I will say this: when compared to southern California's wine country, Napa has the edge in high end, budget busting luxury and better restaurants, and Paso Robles has the edge in laid back atmosphere and being less presumptuous. For my money, while I preferred the pace in the south.
(photo by Ursa Davis) |
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