northern california has some serious temperature swings. yesterday started in the low 40s and ended up in the mid 70s. we managed to get in a run in the morning before we left for wine country and the hills around kris & jen's house nearly killed me. this morning, my calves are thanking me as i hobble around...
driving into napa was interesting as we saw winery after winery after winery, many of which we recognized, some of which we didn't. it got me very excited for the coming week.
we stopped at the oakville grocery for lunch since it's a landmark in gourmet grocery land, but i don't think either of us are dying to go back. kevin wanted a blt w/ avocado, which sounds really good (and easy to recreate), but they were out of bacon (one of the deadly sins as far as kevbo is concerned). he kept muttering about their lack of pork product.... i got a mozz tomato and basil sandwich, which wasn't bad (considering the time of year), but it's just not tomato season. and i'm really not a fan of super-crusty bread since it cuts up the roof of my mouth. too much information, i know. anyway, the place was also packed. and it was monday, so i can only imagine the mayhem during a weekend. as our nephew griffin would say, "i understand, no thank you." oakville grocery, check.
we were a little early for our tour of the caves at schramsberg, so we detoured up at calistoga to check out old faithful, the california geyser. for the bargain price of $14 (including a $2 AAA discount), we were granted admission. all i can say is what a waste of money. the geyser erupted every 5 minutes or so with a maximum height of 20 feet. it's been many years since our family trip to yellowstone, but wikipedia assures me that those eruptions were well over 100 feet. kevin was extreme
ly disappointed that we had come to the "fake" old faithful, so we'
ll have to go see the real one at some point. the entire tourist trap would have been much better if the fainting goats we saw actually fainted. it was sort of a side show attraction--apparently these goats get frightened and fall over as a defense mechanism. we tried our best to scare them, but no luck.
schramsberg was very cool, as promised. there are over 2m bottles of sparkling wine stored in the caves and it was truly amazing to see. i'll add pictures once i get home and get the camera cord, but there's one expanse of cave where it's just bottles as far as the eye can see. they're stacked on on top of the other, and there are 40 rows deep--absolutely astonishing. they are one of the few wineries who riddle the bottles by hand. granted, they only hand-riddle the reserve bottles, but there is one dude--ramon the riddler.
riddling is basically rotating the bottles in a rack over a series of days and weeks, increa
sing the angle of the bottle so that the line of yeast collects at the bottom and neck of the bottle and can be removed. you have to rotate the bottles very quickly so that the yeast doesn't get all mixed up with the good wine. ramon is the man--he can riddle 8000 bottles an hour if he puts his mind to it. kevin & i couldn't see the demonstration, so ramon gave us a private lesson, which was very cool. he's a cute little guy and very proud of what he does. he's somewhat of a rockstar among the staff. once the riddling process is complete, the yeast somehow gets flash-frozen (i didn't follow all of this), and pulled out of the neck in a frozen block that shoots out at 70 mph and takes a tablespoon and a half of good bubbly with it.
we tasted 4 of their wines in a candlelit cave. i've now decided that i must eat by candlelight in a wine cave. i don't think it will be on this trip, but i've added it to my list. there were about 12 of us on the tour and the guide fancied himself a comedian and kept telling us inappropriate stories about his sex life (or lack thereof). there was a couple from the ATL there, married 25 years and in their mid 50s--i thought the woman was going to have a stroke. she kept trying to laugh nervously, but i knew she was about to freak out. it was highly entertaining to watch. luckily, he kept feeding us wine -- 2 reserve bottles that go for about $90 each, a rose, and their mass-produced sparkling. i, of course, liked the reserve bottles the best.
schramsberg also produces j. davies cab. from what we gathered, hardly any of it is made, but kevin and i are convinced we've had it before. since we likely didn't get it at the mclean total wine, it must have been through a wine club or at a restaurant. we never quite got to the bottom of it, but since i joined the wine club ($100/quarter for about $150 worth of wine), we will have another bottle come october. another highlight - i got a hat that has a frog drinking a bottle of champagne on it. it will be fabulous for the boat.
dinner was at john ash in sonoma. sonoma and napa people have this inherent rivalry going, which is also entertaining. we tried something new for dinner-- ordering 2 half bottles of wine to go with the wide variety of food we ordered. our favorite dishes were at the beginning.
the amuse bouche (pre-hors d'œuvre 1-bite dish compliments of the chef) was a creamy parsnip soup, which was absolutely delish. appetizers were oysters with a trio of sauces (hogwash, pomegranate granite, and cocktail sauce) and a duck confit with homemade tagliatelle pasta. the hogwash sauce was our favorite -- made with tequila, shallots, and some other things. the duck melted in our mouths. on the wine, we cheated a little bit and had krug, a french champagne, but also ordered a pinot noir from papapietro perry, a sonoma winery we're supposed to see on thursday.
this morning, i'm going to run through a trail in the vineyard adjacent to our hotel while kevin checks out the fitness patio (literally a shack by the spa with sliding glass doors and a few errant pieces of equipment and weights). we're heading to ladera at noon (we have had their wine as part of our wine club. we opened one on xmas eve and loved it) and stags leap (my favorite) today. dinner will be at the greystone restuarant at the cia (culinary institute of america) tonight. i'm hoping it's like top chef...
driving into napa was interesting as we saw winery after winery after winery, many of which we recognized, some of which we didn't. it got me very excited for the coming week.
we stopped at the oakville grocery for lunch since it's a landmark in gourmet grocery land, but i don't think either of us are dying to go back. kevin wanted a blt w/ avocado, which sounds really good (and easy to recreate), but they were out of bacon (one of the deadly sins as far as kevbo is concerned). he kept muttering about their lack of pork product.... i got a mozz tomato and basil sandwich, which wasn't bad (considering the time of year), but it's just not tomato season. and i'm really not a fan of super-crusty bread since it cuts up the roof of my mouth. too much information, i know. anyway, the place was also packed. and it was monday, so i can only imagine the mayhem during a weekend. as our nephew griffin would say, "i understand, no thank you." oakville grocery, check.
we were a little early for our tour of the caves at schramsberg, so we detoured up at calistoga to check out old faithful, the california geyser. for the bargain price of $14 (including a $2 AAA discount), we were granted admission. all i can say is what a waste of money. the geyser erupted every 5 minutes or so with a maximum height of 20 feet. it's been many years since our family trip to yellowstone, but wikipedia assures me that those eruptions were well over 100 feet. kevin was extreme
ly disappointed that we had come to the "fake" old faithful, so we'
ll have to go see the real one at some point. the entire tourist trap would have been much better if the fainting goats we saw actually fainted. it was sort of a side show attraction--apparently these goats get frightened and fall over as a defense mechanism. we tried our best to scare them, but no luck.schramsberg was very cool, as promised. there are over 2m bottles of sparkling wine stored in the caves and it was truly amazing to see. i'll add pictures once i get home and get the camera cord, but there's one expanse of cave where it's just bottles as far as the eye can see. they're stacked on on top of the other, and there are 40 rows deep--absolutely astonishing. they are one of the few wineries who riddle the bottles by hand. granted, they only hand-riddle the reserve bottles, but there is one dude--ramon the riddler.
riddling is basically rotating the bottles in a rack over a series of days and weeks, increa
sing the angle of the bottle so that the line of yeast collects at the bottom and neck of the bottle and can be removed. you have to rotate the bottles very quickly so that the yeast doesn't get all mixed up with the good wine. ramon is the man--he can riddle 8000 bottles an hour if he puts his mind to it. kevin & i couldn't see the demonstration, so ramon gave us a private lesson, which was very cool. he's a cute little guy and very proud of what he does. he's somewhat of a rockstar among the staff. once the riddling process is complete, the yeast somehow gets flash-frozen (i didn't follow all of this), and pulled out of the neck in a frozen block that shoots out at 70 mph and takes a tablespoon and a half of good bubbly with it.we tasted 4 of their wines in a candlelit cave. i've now decided that i must eat by candlelight in a wine cave. i don't think it will be on this trip, but i've added it to my list. there were about 12 of us on the tour and the guide fancied himself a comedian and kept telling us inappropriate stories about his sex life (or lack thereof). there was a couple from the ATL there, married 25 years and in their mid 50s--i thought the woman was going to have a stroke. she kept trying to laugh nervously, but i knew she was about to freak out. it was highly entertaining to watch. luckily, he kept feeding us wine -- 2 reserve bottles that go for about $90 each, a rose, and their mass-produced sparkling. i, of course, liked the reserve bottles the best.
schramsberg also produces j. davies cab. from what we gathered, hardly any of it is made, but kevin and i are convinced we've had it before. since we likely didn't get it at the mclean total wine, it must have been through a wine club or at a restaurant. we never quite got to the bottom of it, but since i joined the wine club ($100/quarter for about $150 worth of wine), we will have another bottle come october. another highlight - i got a hat that has a frog drinking a bottle of champagne on it. it will be fabulous for the boat.
dinner was at john ash in sonoma. sonoma and napa people have this inherent rivalry going, which is also entertaining. we tried something new for dinner-- ordering 2 half bottles of wine to go with the wide variety of food we ordered. our favorite dishes were at the beginning.
the amuse bouche (pre-hors d'œuvre 1-bite dish compliments of the chef) was a creamy parsnip soup, which was absolutely delish. appetizers were oysters with a trio of sauces (hogwash, pomegranate granite, and cocktail sauce) and a duck confit with homemade tagliatelle pasta. the hogwash sauce was our favorite -- made with tequila, shallots, and some other things. the duck melted in our mouths. on the wine, we cheated a little bit and had krug, a french champagne, but also ordered a pinot noir from papapietro perry, a sonoma winery we're supposed to see on thursday.
this morning, i'm going to run through a trail in the vineyard adjacent to our hotel while kevin checks out the fitness patio (literally a shack by the spa with sliding glass doors and a few errant pieces of equipment and weights). we're heading to ladera at noon (we have had their wine as part of our wine club. we opened one on xmas eve and loved it) and stags leap (my favorite) today. dinner will be at the greystone restuarant at the cia (culinary institute of america) tonight. i'm hoping it's like top chef...
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