Click To Enlarge
If you missed all of the awesome food, wine and scenery from our trip to Napa and Sonoma last week, make sure to check out the complete coverage.
Seriously, the Napa area is like the Mecca for foodies. Definitely someplace you should make a pilgrimage to at least once in your life.
Last week That’s Nerdalicious took a trip to wine country and paid a visit to The Hess Collection winery. If you love good wine and contemporary art, this is the place to be in Napa.
As I mentioned in the previous article, taking photos of the art wasn’t permitted on site—but Hess was kind enough to respond by sending us some beautiful shots of the museum interior. Check out the gallery after the break for photos and information.
By the end of our trip to wine country, we had pretty much had our fill of fancy food and fine wines so we decided to shift gears a bit and make a visit to Lokal in Sonoma for some “European soul food”.
The tasting at Clos Pegase winery in Calistoga featured some decent, inexpensive wines—but it’s the winery itself that makes it worth a visit. Founder Jan Shrem has put together an intriguing mix of fine art and fine wine that includes the architectural beauty of the estate and 20th century sculptures dotted throughout the vineyard grounds. We even found found an artist at work in a room just off the tasting area.
Founded in 1857, Buena Vista Carneros is the oldest continually operating winery in California—and it’s worth a visit for the historic significance, beauty and excellent Chardonnay / Pinot Noir.
I’ve loved all the meals we have had here in the Napa Valley, but Bistro Don Giovanni delivered with both the meal and the ambiance.
If you are a wine lover and you haven’t seen the movie Bottle Shock, I suggest firing up your Netflix account and adding it to your Watch Instantly queue.
The movie (somewhat loosely) tells the story behind owner Jim Barrett and Chateau Montelena’s shocking victory in the historic “Judgement of Paris” wine tasting competition in 1976. In a blind taste test, judges awarded Montelena’s 1973 Chardonnay vintage first prize over the French field in whites (California also took first in the reds category with the 1973 Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon vintage), and helped catapult Napa into the forefront of the winemaking world in the process.
With this in mind, we made a pilgrimage out to the Chateau, and found that the winery itself is beautiful—and they still make a damn fine chardonnay.
Stopped by the Yountville Deli for a quick lunch and grabbed a Muffaletta (Molinari dry salami, mortadella, Provolone cheese, Sonoma Jimtown Olive Spread on a French sweet roll) and a Mason (Roasted turkey, Monterey Jack cheese and pesto spread with lettuce, tomato and mayo on a French sweet roll). Both sandwiches were good, and the prices are reasonable. A good place to stop by after filling up at wineries all morning. Plus I got a free cookie for checking in on Yelp. Score!
I love art even more than I love food and booze, which is why I had to make a stop at the Hess Collection winery in Napa. Not only do they make some awesome estate wines, owner Donald Hess is also a prolific art collector.
Works from his vast collection can be found throughout the world, but there is a small gallery of impressive contemporary work that can be viewed for free on the estate.
Celebrity chef Michael Chiarello’s Bottega restaurant in Yountville has been getting rave reviews since it opened in 2008, so I popped in for lunch to give it a shot. I’m glad I did.
If you do go, I highly recommend getting the Polenta Under Glass as a starter. The taste is creamy, rich and cheesy. It’s easy to understand why its one of their signature dishes.
As a main course, we had the Toasted Trade Spice Fulton Valley Chicken Breast with sweet corn and potato velutata, arugula and shaved corn salad with sherry vinegar pan sauce. The meat was exceptional and the sherry vinegar pan sauce added a fantastic tang to the dish.
