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Visiting Napa Valley? 9 Wineries to Try

by on August 31, 2010

The view from Cuvaison's Carneros Tasting Room in the southernmost corner of Napa Valley.

Every Tuesday is Travel Tip Day

Today: 9 Wineries to Try in Napa Valley

A friend of a friend is going to Napa Valley in a few weeks and is looking for recommendations.

We are, in fact, visiting California Wine Country this weekend, but Sonoma County rather than Napa.  (We’ll save the Sonoma vs. Napa comparisons for another post.)

Regardless, we love travel and wine questions because they make us curious. If we were going to Napa this weekend — rather than Sonoma — what wineries would we want to visit? 

We’d start with places we’ve enjoyed during past visits. We’d look for our favorite wines from Napa.  We’d ask for advice:  from Glenn, a friend who’s a California wine insider and the winemaker/owner of  Puccioni Vineyards; and from Carlos, from Wine Country Limousines.   Finally, a quick Twitter search to see what sparked our interest.

So, we did all of these.  And we came up with a list of 9 wineries that we’d like to visit if we were going to Napa.  Of note, most tastings require advanced reservations; links to wine websites often require you to enter your birthdate.

9 Wineries to try in Napa Valley:

1.  For sparkling wine, start with a favorite French name.  Taittinger became our preferred champagne during visit last fall to its cellars in Reims, France.   Domaine Carneros  is Taittinger’s Napa location.  We’d like to see how the tour compares to the historic one in Reims.  Domaine Carneros is located on Hwy 12/121 before you get to Napa – and what better way to start a day than to sip fine sparkling wine on the terrace of a beautiful chateau?  Read about other wineries for sparkling wines in Karla Erovick’s recent article: Napa & Sonoma’s best sparkling wine tastings & tours.

2.  Visit the legacy of the man that put Napa on the global wine map.  You can’t go to Napa without visiting Robert Mondavi.  In 1962, at age 49, Mondavi made his first trip to Europe, visiting the wineries of Bordeaux and Burgundy.  He came back to California with a vision that Napa Valley could produce wines to compete with the world’s finest.  In 1966, he founded the Robert Mondavi Winery, one of the first in the Napa Valley to welcome visitors for tours, events, concerts and tastings.     

3.  A tram ride over Napa Valley.  Visitors to Sterling Vineyards experience stunning views of Napa Valley from the aerial tram ride to the winery, perched 300 feet above the town of Calistoga. The winery’s white stucco architecture reminds one of Mykonos, the Greek island where Sterling founder Peter Newton once lived.  The $25 admission includes the tram ride, a self-guided tour with motion-activated televisions providing detailed explanations, tasting of five wines and a souvenir glass.  

4.  A Napa Valley Pinot Noir   As fans of Pinot Noir, we’d like to taste Etude Carneros Pinot Noir.   Etude Winemaker Jon Priest and viticulturalist Franci Ashton make highly rated Carneros Pinot Noir, plus Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Merlot. Comprehensive Reserve Room tastings are scheduled at 10 am, and 1 or 3 pm for $25 per person. On Friday – Sunday, the winery offers food & wine pairings with 6 wines and 3 bites for $35 per person. 

5.  A “Ghost Winery” The few remaining early Napa Valley wineries that were in existence between 1860 and 1900 are called “Ghost Wineries”. The T.L. Grigsby-Occidental Winery located on the Regusci Ranch is one example of a well-preserved Ghost Winery. Regusci Winery is open, by appointment only, for tours and tastings. Its estate wines include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay.

Nickel & Nickel single vineyard wines.

6.  If you don’t mind paying $50 for a tasting, take the Cabernet Terroir Tour at Nickel & Nickel.   Established by the partners of Far Niente, Nickel & Nickel produces 100 percent varietal, single-vineyard wines from some of the most coveted vineyards in the Napa and Sonoma valleys.  The Terroir Tour includes five same-vintage Napa Valley Cabernets, each from distinct single-vineyard sub-appellations, paired with seasonal artisanal cheeses.

7.  A family winery operation.  Producing 5,000 cases a year, Dutch Henry Winery specializes in small lot wines including Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and Sauvignon. Dutch Henry wines are crafted by owner-winemaker Scott Chafen.  The winery’s collection of “critters“ makes us want to visit.

8.  The Joy of Wine.  Irma Rombauer’s The Joy of Cooking is a favorite in our kitchen, and we’ve always liked Rombauer wines. (The cookbook author was the great aunt of Koerner Rombauer, the founder of Rombauer Vineyards.)  In addition to wine tasting, Rombauer Vineyards offers a self-guided stroll through well-kept gardens.  

 

The Carneros Tasting Room at Cuvaison.

9.  A new tasting room for a well-liked Chardonnay 

 More than 10 years ago, Cuvaison  in Calistoga was one of our favorite Napa Valley tastings. Now the winery has a Carneros tasting room in South Napa Valley, characterized by fog and cool breezes from the San Pablo Bay.  Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Merlot are said to thrive here. 

We enjoy wine and exploring the world’s wine-producing regions.  What about you? What Napa Valley wineries would you visit?      Please share in comments.

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Another good reason to visit New Orleans: The New Orleans School of Cooking

by on August 29, 2010
Instructor chef Anne demostrates shrimp creole at The New Orleans School of Cooking

Instructor chef Anne demostrates shrimp creole at The New Orleans School of Cooking

If you’ve visited New Orleans, you probably enjoy the food as much as we do. While walking around the French Quarter, the smell of freshly-made pralines lured us into The New Orleans School of Cooking  and Louisiana General Store at 524 St. Louis Street. We left with Joe’s Stuff seasoning and other Creole and Cajun cooking supplies.

On our recent visit to New Orleans, I decided to take a cooking class at the school.  I wanted to see if the instructors could really teach me – not a chef — to make shrimp creole and pralines during a two and a half hour class.  I read there was eating involved – so if I didn’t learn to cook — not all would be lost.

Located in a renovated molasses warehouse in the French Quarter, The New Orleans School of Cooking  focuses on the unique food and culture of Louisiana and New Orleans.

My class was taught by Chef Anne Leonhard, a native New Orleanian, former kindergarten teacher, and licensed tour guide.  She uses her talents from all of those occupations to provide an entertaining, informative and fun history of New Orleans and its food while demonstrating how to make the food.

Bread pudding and whiskey sauce is one of four food recipes demostrated and sampled at The New Orleans School of Cooking

Anne shared New Orleans food influences from the German immigrants of 1721 who brought sausage making to New Orleans to the Spanish who arrived from the Canary Islands, bringing paella and peppers.  Sicilian peasants influenced the cuisine with wine, eggplants and “red gravy” – known elsewhere as tomato sauce. And Chef Paul Prudhomme “invented Cajun food” when he blacked undesirable red fish with cayenne pepper in a cast iron skillet

The school offers open classes daily from 10 am -12:30 pm, with rotating menus of four different items. See schedule here.   I attended on Thursday, with the recipes including Corn & Crab Bisque, Shrimp creole, bread pudding and pralines.

The cooking lesson includes local Abita beer or root beer

The $27 per person cost includes the cooking demonstration, a full meal, coffee and tea, local Abita Beer or Root Beer and recipes for all dishes demonstrated.

The New Orleans School of Cooking also offers 2-hour classes on Fridays and Saturdays from 2pm-4pm featuring 3 food items for $22 per person.

From the recipes provided, if students make the recipes at home, send a photo to the school of their dish, they can get a “diploma.”

Here’s my shrimp creole – delicious, if not quite the same at having it in New Orleans.

My attempt at Shrimp Creole at home, following the recipe and teaching of The New Orleans School of Cooking

I’ve also tried to recreate the corn and crab bisque, and some fall or winter day will try the pralines and/or bread pudding with whiskey sauce.

Five years after Katrina, New Orleans tourism has not completely recovered.  Taking a class at The New Orleans School of Cooking is just one of many reasons to visit New Orleans.

If you can’t visit in person, you can buy ingredients from the school online.

Other related New Orleans Posts:

Have you visited New Orleans?  What’s did you enjoy most about the city?  Please post in comments.

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5 Favorite Casual Dining Spots in San Francisco

by on August 28, 2010

San Francisco is a food lover's mecca. Here we share our 5 favorite casual dining spots. (Photo by Marion Engelke)

There is no shortage of trendy new places to dine in San Francisco.  It’s a food-lovers mecca: chefs have one of the world’s best supplies of locally-grown food.  Restaurants that aren’t good simply do not survive.   

When we lived in San Francisco 10 years ago, we ate out frequently. We had five favorite casual dining spots – places to go again and again rather than cook.  All five of them are still going strong today and are on our “must visit list” every time we visit San Francisco.      

Here’s our 5 casual dining favorites in San Francisco:    

1.  Yank Sing  Carts piled high with dim sum never stop passing by your table, tempting you to try more dishes.  There are more than 100 different items – steamer baskets filled with every kind of dumpling, pork buns, sautéed vegetables, crab claws – are just a few favorites.  In and near the Financial District, both locations are high-energy spots perfect for lunch or Sunday brunch.  Generally there’s a wait to get a table, but the dim sum is worth the wait.  

 2.   Henry’s Hunan Restaurant  Located near Levi’s Plaza at 924 Sansome Street (between Broadway & Vallejo), Hunan was a favorite lunch spot when we both worked in the area.  Upon arriving in the city now, it’s usually our first stop: for a “fix” of shrimp chow mien and VJ’s special – chicken with cabbage in black bean sauce. A slide of meat pie comes with lunch specials – if not at lunch, split a whole meat pie.  The smoked meat dishes are terrific.  Established in 1974, there are now five locations of Henry’s Hunan Restaurant in San Francisco.  

Zarzuela features Spanish tapas and friendly waiters at the corner of Hyde and Union Streets.

3.   Zarzuela   This was our neighborhood restaurant at the corner of Hyde and Union where there is a cable car stop.  Zarzuela offers Spanish tapas as good as in Barcelona, with extraordinary waiters like Arturo, Polo and Carlos. There are no reservations, so go early, check with the Andy to get your name on the list. Leave your cell phone # and then go have a glass of wine down the street at Bacchus Wine Bar. Andy will call you when your table is ready.  The menu features small dishes of hot and cold tapas, large plates, and paella plus there are daily specials.  Some of our favorite dishes: gambas al ajillo  (sizzling shrimp with garlic), Padrí³n  peppers (most are mild, you never know which one will be hot)  chorizo, goat cheese baked in tomato sauce, seafood salad, tortilla Espaí±ola, and whatever special chef Lucas has created that day.  All should be enjoyed with the house-made sangria or bottle of Spanish wine. Salute!  

4.   Swenson’s Ice Cream  On the opposite corner of Union & Hyde  from Zarzuela is the original Swensen’s Ice Cream store, opened in 1948 by Earle Swensen.  Lite Turtle Almond Fudge – nothing about it tastes lite – then there’s sticky chewy chocolate, a black & white shake and pints and quarts to go. If there’s a red star on the back of your receipt, and get $5 free.  

5.  Sodini’s Green Valley Restaurant  A North Beach favorite, with friendly greetings at the bar by Anna or owner Mark.  Many nights dinner was two appetizers: crispy calamari with two dipping sauces, and crunchy bruschetta with tomato basil topping, all complimented with a couple of glasses of wine at the bar.  For a meal, all of the entrees start with a huge Italian salad with garlicky house dressing.  The prawn penne pasta in cream sauce will fill you up and leave you needing to walk a couple of nearby hills.        

 

Walking the steep hills of Jones street will work up your appetite.

What is your favorite casual dining spot in San Francisco?   We’d like to check it out on our next visit.     Please share in comments. 

 All  photos by Marion & Michael Engelke.

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