And now we finally get to the serious business of drinking some wine. We started our wine tasting journey in the town of St Helena which was a cool little town with a great downtown area.
 |
| (photo by Ursa Davis) |
Our first winery was Beringer Winery which was absolutely gorgeous. The winery oldest winery in continuous use in Napa Valley. It's original winery building was built in 1876 and open for the harvest of 1877, and it's hand dug tunnels into the hillside were completed by 1880. The rock that the tunnels are made of keeps a perfect temperature year round. The main house, which is the stunning centerpiece of the estate, was completed in 1884, and is a gorgeous 17 room mansion. Our tour was very nice, and we got to taste wine which was still aging, straight from the cask. Our favorite was their dessert wine, 2007 Nightingale which was able to avoid the trap that most dessert wines fall into of being hyper-sweet and heavy, this had a much more refined flavor.
 |
| (photo by Ursa Davis) |
After leaving Beringer, our next stop was Casa Nuestra Winery. Both Ursa and I have always preferred these smaller vineyards to the large estates. They always have an atmosphere that is more fun, and friendly and just an all around better experience. When you find something that you really like there is more of that feeling of having discovered a diamond in the rough, which appeals to the hipster in me. To compare how good the wine at Casa Nuestra was to the other wineries that we visited, this was the only place that we bought multiple bottles from, and that should say enough. Their 2012 Verdelho was especially good.
From Casa Nuestra it was off to Charles Krug winery, which is part of the Peter Mondavi family wineries. We had a delightful conversation with our hostess during the tasting, who poured us very generous portions. Of all the wines we sampled today, Charles Krug's 2012 Sauvignon Blanc was the single best, and not by a small margin either. That was a really spectacular wine.
 |
| (photo by Ursa Davis) |
After that it was time for dinner and we headed over to Tra Vigne on a recommendation from a friend. And what a stellar recommendation it was! The food was wonderful, I had the duck leg risotto, and Ursa had the butternut squash ravioli. But the real gold star of the meal was the appetizer. The simplest of dishes, featuring home made mozzarella on bread, drizzled with olive oil and a little salt and viola! you have maybe the most memorable dish that I'v had in California. When you have great, fresh ingredients, you don't have to do anything flashy.
No comments:
Post a Comment