food, personal, travel

Travel : Napa Wine Trip – 2012

August 6, 2012

I haven’t been really taking breaks over the past several years since I’ve gotten so busy with work. But every single year I make it an exception to travel with some of my friends to Napa Valley for a little break to visit new wineries, taste some good food, revisit NorCal to get a taste of the cooler weather, and to rejuvenate myself and prepare for the wedding season.

This is our list of wineries/resturants this year:

Joseph Phelps
Long Meadow Ranch Winery
Caymus
Terra Valentine
Oenotri Restaurant
Brix Restaurant
O’Shaughnessy

We started off the first day at Joseph Phelps. The weather was a little gloomy that day and cooler than what we remembered from previous years which is a little uncharacteristic this time of the year. But it doesn’t take away from that breathtaking view and the beautiful scenery there.

We then took a short break at Dean & Deluca for a quick snack before heading over to our next stop at Long Meadow Ranch Winery.

We were seated at the tasting room prepared for us at Long Meadow’s Ranch where we had a choice between “Potted Pig” with toast and house-made mustard, and Oysters on half shell with mignonette. We all really loved both the dishes and they paired wonderfully with their wine.

We stopped by Caymus winery and found a couple of wines sold only exclusively there… we somehow managed to gain 2 in our group heading to the next stop, lost one guy who started sleeping while sipping wine, and one of us started showing her true colors.

We then drove up a little further up to Spring Mountain Road in St Helena to the the only winery this year that we have previously visited. I’ve purchased more than a case from this one and only winery in Napa so far – Terra Valentine. I love wine with a good nose as well as a smooth and linger finish and every one of their wine fits that profile very well. What’s best about the experience is they expertly pairs their wine with cheeses, almonds, crackers, and chocolate to allow you to mix and match on your own to find your taste and preference.

They also have planted lavender and rosemary all around their estate which really enhances the whole experience when you walk around with the riesling where they usually start you off with.

Before I could take a picture this happened to our margherita pizza… =)

And then on Day-2, we head out to one of the highlights of last year’s trip to Brix for another round of their awesome Sunday Brunch.

This is our very stop at O’Shaughnessey. The drive was a little adventurous to be honest because it’s quite some distance away from the main strip of major wineries sitting on Howell Mountain in Angwin. We absolutely love their contemporary architecture and approach in conduction with the natural elements there, and oh boy their wine cave and the owner’s wine collection is an absolute treat. Too bad we missed out on the release on their cabs. Their yearly release is on September 1st but we’re there just a few weeks too early and they ran out of all their cabs. I’m sure we’ll be back again next time around.