A Power Napa

We took a trip to Napa with our friends Chris and Amanda Campo. We had never done the "wine thing" before so we were excited to take a leisurely trip up there. Special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for watching the girls and making it happen.

The trip started wonderfully as I surprised the Campos by upgrading all of us to First Class using miles. They were elated when we told them in the car on the way to the airport.

After landing in Oakland in the afternoon we took the easy drive up to Yountville, a small town just north of Napa City (but still within Napa Valley). Even though Yountville is tiny and has just one main street, that main street is loaded with world class restaurants and is a destination for foodies. 

In fact, that was a surprise to us. Of course we knew Napa was huge on wine, what we didn't know was that the food was just as big. Everyone was always asking us, "Where are you having dinner tonight/tomorrow?" And people would always talk about this restaurant by this chef, and that chef opened this place. As a food guy, that was a major win.

The most famous of places is called the French Laundry. It is a prix fix with 9 courses, and all the dishes change each night. Plus, no ingredient is repeated throughout any course. All that for a cool $270 per person. We said thanks but no thanks.

Sav and Amanda at Bottega

So after checking in at our hotel, the Napa Valley Lodge, we took a leisurely stroll to our first restaurant, Bottega. It is an Italian restaurant (woo-hoo!) and is so popular that we waited 45 minutes even with a reservation. But we made the most of it by sitting on their patio and sipping wine while having some hors d'oeuvres. 

We decided to go family style which was a great decision as we were able to taste several different dishes, each one delightful.

Mud baths!

The next day we split up, the girls went to the spa while the guys went golfing. The golf group played Hiddenbrooke, a nice spot 30 minutes south of our hotel. It was windy, but fun. The girls did mud baths, massages, and facials. They said the mud baths were like "floating on clouds" and they loved it.

Then we had lunch at Mustard's Grill. Amazing. Lots of terrific dishes that were scrumptious. 

Later that afternoon we met up with my college friend, Stephanie Demasi.

Wine tasting with Stephanie

Stephanie is the GM of a Napa winery called Juslyn Vineyards. What I didn't know was that Juslyn is a boutique winery with bottles in excess of $100 per. Stephanie treated us to a private tasting with her and her boyfriend at her tasting house called Ma(i)sonry. It was a very cool place with lots of art filling a beautiful interior of stone.

Stephanie freely poured her many wines as we chatted about Napa with her and her boyfriend, Brian. It was cool to learn about Napa from locals, and the wine was terrific. We each drank about 5 or 6 glasses and we were feeling good by the time we left a few hours later.

We went to Ciccio for dinner, a local favorite. It was Italian themed as well, and they were known for their handmade pizza. It was really busy and really good. 

The next day was Saturday, time for our wine tour. After the girls got coffee and morning treats at the uber famous Bouchon Bakery, our private tour guide, James from Flex Wine Tours, picked us up. James is a sommelier so he knows his stuff when it comes to wine. We had told James we didn't really know what we wanted and that we trusted him to take us to some cool places.

It is a good thing we did.

James scheduled 4 wineries for us that day so we headed out. The first stop was ZD Wines. They were very good, but we could tell there would be more to come. James himself said it was a good warmup. That it was.

Ish explains the wines

Next was Spring Mountain Vineyard. Boom! This place was awesome. The grounds were gorgeous and we sipped wine in the vineyard itself while our guide, Ish, enlightened us through the different types and vintages. Ish was smart and funny as he told us about the history of the vineyard and the valley itself. And the wines were terrific (my favorite of our whole trip was the Spring Mountain 2008 Cabernet). We made a few purchases, shot some pics, and headed off. 

We then went to lunch at Gott's Roadside Grill. After so much upity wining and dining, this was a spectacular change of pace: a good old fashioned California burgers and shakes drive in. These may have been the best burgers we'd ever tasted.

Then we went to Reverie. All of the wineries James took us to were boutique wineries, meaning they

A dining table in the Reverie wine cave

produced only a small amount of cases each year (which meant they took only the best grapes, ergo got the best wine). But Reverie was the boutique-est producing just a few thousand cases per year. You had to go through another winery's property just to get to it.

Our host, Guillermo, took us into their wine cave right away. It was so cool as we saw all the barrels and we recalled our trip to the Scotland Whisky Distilleries. They even had a dining table in the cave. How cool would dinner there be???

We then went outside to their Circle Tree Grove. There is a group of trees that make a perfect circle, and they kept the sun out making it wonderfully cool. We could have stayed in there a long time. Then we tasted and these wines were the favorites for Savannah, Amanda, and Chris. They were outstanding. Another few purchases were made.

Sipping wine on the patio

Last was Madrigal Family Winery. The biggest winery we would see, yet still small in comparison to the ones everyone recognizes. These too were great, though at this point we were so full of wine that some of the last ones were difficult to put down. But the views from the patio of the mountains amidst the setting sun were lovely. Yet more purchases happened.

That night we went to Bistro Jeanty for dinner. It is a very popular French place. We had also heard the food was heavy. Ding. That it was. On our first night, the Bœuf Bourguignon and Coq au Vin would have been awesome. After several days of gluttonous food and drink, it knocked us out. Which was too bad since it was yummy. We decided next time we would do it first. 

The next day was our day to go home. It was also the day of the AFC Championship where the Broncos would host the Patriots. We knew when we booked months in advance that the Broncos may be playing in that game, so we booked a flight that left just after the game would finish. It worked out as we were able to watch the game from an Oakland airport bar. There were lots of Broncos fans in the bar and it was cool to see them win and make their way to the Super Bowl (we will try and forget what they did there).

It was another terrific trip, and our first with our great friends the Campos. There will be more.

Napa Trip