Napa Report: The Wine

It's the reason we went to Napa. To taste. To learn. To experience. Every winery does things a bit differently - whether it be the height of the vines, the time of day they pick the grapes, or the type of barrel the wine is aged in. Thankfully, The Pope's contacts allowed us to experience an array of wineries: from the small, hands-on crafting at Opus One (where the above picture was taken) to the larger production facilities like Beaulieu Vineyard.

For those who have yet to visit Wine Country, a little background. Just like every winemaking process differs, so do each winery's tasting and tour offerings. A majority simply offer walk-in tastings in their rooms: there is a bar, and for $5-$25 you are poured 4-6 tastings of the current vintages. Others offer similar tastings but by appointment only. Then there are the "industry" tours and tastings which are setup by wine purveyors for their customers. Because The Pope is kind of a big deal in the NOLA wine world, he had a few of these "VIP" tours setup for us.

Beaulieu (or "BV") was our hands-down favorite winery. We go to do a lot of cool stuff, such as...

Barrel tasting in the wine cellar. These wines had not yet matured enough for bottling, but they tasted fine to me - straight out of the barrel. The wines we sampled came from specific clones of vines, which over time have proved to produce the best grapes. Note - if you see any wine which says it comes from Clones 4, 6, or 337, then it's probably going to be good.

After a tour of the production process, we had lunch at the Rutherford House - which is a private residence located on the vineyard. Above is the view from the driveway. How would you like to wake up to that every morning? The house had recently undergone an extensive renovation, which included the addition of cameras in the kitchen and flat screen TVs in the dining rooms so that diners can communicate with the private chef while he is preparing their meal. No, I am not making that up.

Speaking of food, we did not have a private chef, but we did have a great lunch catered by Napa Valley Grille. Flat iron steak with more sauteed mushrooms, marinated chicken, grilled yukon gold potatoes, and (the crowd favorite) a salad of mixed greens, goat cheese, grapes, and a cabernet sauvignon vinaigrette.

It was hard to top BV, but each tasting and tour is different. For example, Sterling Vineyards is located on top of a mountain. So how do they avoid sending visitors walking or driving up the narrow road to the tasting room? Why, a gondola lift, of course. Here is a picture from above, complete with the shadow of our passenger cabin.

Duckhorn Vineyards was definitely the "hippest" winery we visited. The tastings are sitdown, (everywhere else we visited was standup at the bar), they played music in the tasting room, and the house has a wraparound porch which allows you to fully take in the scenery. Above is a snack which was being served: turkey, stuffing, and cranberries. Sort of an all-in-one Thanksgiving appetizer.

We visited quite a few other wineries - St. Supery, Acacia, Provenance (which is where we stayed), and V. Sattui to name a few. Honestly, if you do the same standard walk-up-to-the-bar tasting every time, I could see that becoming quite monotonous and boring. My suggestion would be to do some research and visit wineries which offer unique experiences. If you can somehow score an industry tour, then do it. Besides the inclusion of a more extensive and in-depth tour, the industry tastings also include samples of the "reserve" wines which, I must say, are exponentially better than those with larger case production quantities. Problem is: the reserve wines are hard to come-by. Most of the reserve wines are available only through distributors, and even then the case numbers are so few that they are only sold to those vendors who move a large volume of the higher production wines. Thus, we tasted a lot of wines which we could only purchase at the vineyard. And so...

We made sure to take home as much as we could afford. There were quite a few judging looks as we pushed this luggage cart through the hotel lobby. I am not sure why.

Napa Report: The (Other) Food

From our experience, it's evident that the people of Napa Valley all have two common interests: great food and great wine. Wherever we went, whomever we met would undoubtedly ask two questions: (1) "Where else are you tasting?" and (2) "Where are you having dinner?" As much as I love food (and as many hours of research I put in deciding where to eat), the wine tastings were undoubtedly the highlights of the trip. And so, I have decided to save "the best for last." But the food was not bad either.

There is one factor which defines Napa cuisine: seasonal ingredients. The menus are constantly evolving in order to utilize whichever products are at their peak at whatever particular time of year. It makes perfect sense: cook what's best... less frozen or preserved products... use local ingredients. Kind of makes me ashamed to see crawfish on New Orleans menus year round. But I guess that tourists who visit our city want to sample our indigenous cuisine no matter what time of year they are here, and they don't care if those crawfish tails come from China.

But I digress. Our second dinner was at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena, which had a very laid back atmosphere and was a welcome downshift from The French Laundry the night before.

The Folk Singer started with this Caprese salad enhanced with sliced prosciutto. Not the most exciting or inventive dish, but the augmentation of sundried tomatoes instead of fresh is an indication of exactly what I mentioned earlier: a commitment to seasonal ingredients. The chef is took note that tomatoes are not exactly at their peak in late November and made the adjustments accordingly.

My main course was labeled a "Mushroom Tamale," but this one was definitely not made by Manuel. Grits replaced the masa, and the dumplings was wrapped in swiss chard instead of a corn husk. I have no idea why I ordered this, but it probably had something to do with a guilty conscience from the 1/2 dozen croissants I ate from Bouchon Bakery for breakfast - delivered courtesy of the Deli King & Queen. (Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of those breads. You just need to trust me that they were nearly as good as any pastry I ate during the 2 months I spent in France.)

This rocky road sundae was comprised of all of my favorite sweet ingredients: caramel, chocolate, ice cream, peanuts, and whipped cream.

But, as you can see, The Pope liked it more than I did.

Our last dinner was at Bistro Don Giovanni, a great Italian eatery which came recommended by a friend of The Folk Singer. The restaurant sported a wood burning oven, which enticed me into ordering a pizza.

This was probably one of the better pizzas which I have had in quite a long time. A thin, crispy crust, minimal sauce, a fair amount of fresh mozzarella, sauteed morels, and crispy lardon.

Our final meal was Sunday brunch at Boon Fly Cafe. This tiny restaurant, which is tucked away inside the rather upscale Carneros Inn, replicates a neighborhood cafe, the type of place where I like to eat brunch -think Elizabeth's in the Bywater or Surrey's. Surprisingly, the Napa area has only a few restaurants which have a focused brunch menu, but Boon Fly was exactly what I was looking for. That's not to say that I indulged in typical brunch or breakfast fare...

That would be a kobe beef burger topped with thickly sliced bacon and two fried eggs. Probably not the healthiest way to start your day, but there was no cheese on it so that made me feel better about myself.

Napa Report: "The Laundry"

Today marks the beginning of a three part series recounting the shenanigans of my recent trip to Napa Valley. The area has, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. The people were some of the most hospitable that I have encountered in all of my travels - we New Orleanians could most certainly use a lesson or two from the Napa Valley residents on how to make tourists feel welcome. And the food was fantastic.

We dined at The French Laundry on our first night in town - thinking that we would be in the best shape since we would not be coming in after a long day of tastings. (Plus that was the first day which we could get a reservation and we were not willing to endure another 45 minute session of hitting the redial button.) We quickly learned that people in-the-know refer to the The French Laundry as "The Laundry" - sort of like how locals used to say "Chris's" as opposed to "Ruth's Chris." Apparently it's the cool thing to do.

I waited till the second course to garner up the courage to ask if pictures were prohibited, so I missed the two amuse bouches and the first course, "Oysters and Pearls," which is one of the mainstays on TFL's constantly changing menu. The second amuse was the salmon ice cream cone - finely chopped smoked salmon placed atop a cracker like cone filled with red onion creme fraiche - and I could have eaten 100 of those.

We had 9 courses plus the two amuses, and some pictures came out better than the others. Here are my favorites:

There were two butters on the table: one salted and one unsalted (or sweet cream). One of the butters - and I can't remember which - is made specifically for Thomas Keller by a dairy farmer in Vermont. The salted butter in the silver ramekin was so amazing that The Pope ate it straight off the knife. No, I am not joking.

This was one of the choices for the fish course: Crispy Madara Cod Milt with Green Yuzu. I don't think that anyone knew that they were ordering deep fried cod sperm, and that's probably a good thing because they would have likely been turned off and missed out on the incredibly light and flavorful texture of the dish.

This was the finest piece of beef that I have ever put in my mouth. The cut, called a "calotte," is actually the cap of the ribeye. The knife sliced through the meat with only the slightest pressure. The accompanying purple cabbage and brisket dumpling with horseradish creme fraiche bursted with flavor.

I almost forgot: a surprise awaited us inside the menus when we arrived. A $150 white truffle supplemental course. Your choice of handmade pasta or risotto covered in shaved white truffles. The course included much pomp and circumstance - with the truffles arriving in a jewelry box and then shaved directly onto the plate. Unfortunately, none of us could justify adding 60% to the bill for one course. But we still got this picture.

At the end of the meal, each of the ladies were sent home with this box of mignardises (handmade chocolates) and a package of the best shortbread cookies which I have ever tasted - The Folk Singer believes in sharing.

This was just a snapshot of our 3.5 hour meal at "The Laundry." There were many other courses, and The Folk Singer had an entire different meal because she ordered the Tasting of Vegetables. And, of course, a few bottles of wine. Surprisingly though, TFL does not serve liquor. We discovered this fact after The Pope attempted to order a pre-dinner cocktail, and I thought that there was a significant chance that he might have called off the entire meal because there would be no Grand Marnier (aka "holy water") as a digestif. But he sucked it up and was a team player.

TFL is great, but it is quite a long production which you need to be mentally and physically prepared for. The meal hits everyone one of your senses and tastebuds, and quite honestly is rather exhausting. It's a meal which I had never experienced before. The attention to detail is something which (at least in my experience) is not found in many restaurants. And the raw ingredients are beyond reproach.

Finest meal of my life? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Probably not - I would like to try Bouchon on my next trip. But am I glad that we went? Without a doubt.