California Wine Country - Day 3

Goodbye Sonoma County, Hello Napa Valley!

Destination 2: Yountville, CA

On our third trip to Napa Valley, we stayed in Yountville and fell in love with the area and thus planned to return for our five year anniversary - http://www.yountville.com/. Yountville offers visitors hotels or B&B's, amazing restaurants (French Laundry, Ad Hoc, Redd, Bistro Jeanty, Bouchon, Brix, etc.), wine tasting and shopping. Yountville is located towards the southern end of the Napa Valley between Route 29 and the Silverado Trail. It provides easy access to either main route through the Napa Valley area.

If you wish to stay in northern Napa Valley, you may want to check out Calistoga or St. Helena. While we have never stayed in Calistoga, we would consider it in the future. For now, we opt to stay in Yountville over St. Helena.

We left Belle de Jour B&B after a wonderful breakfast, decidedly our favorite, and drove to Napa Valley to start a new day of touring and to celebrate our anniversary. We decided that we wanted to have a fun day and not rush from winery to winery, but take our time to enjoy each visit.

Our first stop involved a tour and tasting at Cakebread Cellars - http://www.cakebread.com/.

I selected Cakebread because I wanted to try their Chardonnay based on reputation. It's a little pricey in the stores, so I wanted to take advantage of it while on vacation (and bring a bottle home).

We found out that Cakebread offers cooking classes as well - http://www.cakebread.com/calendar/cooking_classes.cfm. Hopefully we'll catch one next time around!

This is a snapshot of the outdoor kitchen at Cakebread. It was awesome with a work area at least 20' long. The cottage is for visiting chefs and the cooking classes I believe.

They have a nice portfolio of wines - white and red. If you reserve a spot on the tour and tasting, they walk you around the property and take you to a nice, private tasting room with a great view of the vineyard. We recommend stopping for a visit at Cakebread Cellars.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the tour and tasting at Cakebread, we decided to stop for lunch at Taylor's Refresher off of highway 29 - http://www.taylorsrefresher.com/. It is well known for it's burgers and shakes/malts. Yes, it is fast food, but it's worth a stop. You walk up to the windows, place your order, and eat outside at the picnic tables. Plus, what's better than a little grease to help soak up the wine. :-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our second stop was at Freemark Abbey - http://www.freemarkabbey.com/index.cfm. It was undergoing renovations, so we tasted the wine in the temporary location. Even though we didn't purchase any wine, we left thinking it would be fun to visit again once the renovations were complete.

Our third stop was to Duckhorn Vineyards for a tour and tasting - http://www.duckhorn.com/. You need to make reservations in advance, but the main building for visitors is quite nice and offers a tasting room full of windows with a wonderfully big porch reminiscent of a plantation front porch. The tasting room for individuals participating on the tour was also very nice.

The tour concluded with a tasting of five red wines and five cheeses. Here is a list of the cheeses and wines that we enjoyed:

• Petite Agour with an estate grown Merlot 2005


• Ros with an estate grown Merlot 2005


• GranQueso with Three Palms Merlot 2005 - the GranQueso was our favorite!


• Midnight Moon with Howell Mountain Red Wine 2004


• Silver Mountain Cheddar with Estate Grown Cabernet 2004


• Decoy & Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 - in tasting room (we bought these two)

We enjoyed this visit in part because we were paired up with a fellow wolverine and a party of 10 who provided some entertainment and laughter for the rest of us in the group.

After our tour and tasting at Duckhorn, we headed down to Yountville to check into our B&B - The Bordeaux House - http://bordeauxhouse.reachlocal.net/. This is a nice, quaint B&B. It has several rooms to choose from with different amenities and is walking distance from restaurants and shopping. It is next door to Thomas Keller's famous restaurant, The French Laundry.

While The French Laundry has an amazing reputation, it is quite pricey and offers food for the seasoned palate (my opinion), so Dave and I opted to eat at Thomas Keller's more affordable version called Ad Hoc - http://www.adhocrestaurant.com/story.php.

The folks at Ad Hoc set the menu each day and serve it family style to guests. Given that it is a set menu, Dave and I were a little leery when we saw the menu for the evening we were dining there because it had prosciutto (not a favorite of Dave's) and bay scallops (not of favorite of mine).




However, the food was AMAZING!! If I lived in Yountville, I would go broke eating at Ad Hoc on a routine basis. They serve a four course meal, which includes an appetizer, main dish, cheese dish and dessert. This is what we ate:

• Appetizer: Melon and Prosciutto Salad - combined with cucumbers, balsamic vinegar and olive. The dish was amazing and light. The balsamic vinegar was not overly tart, but added a subtle sweetness that complimented the melon and prosciutto. We cleaned the plate, which says something since we aren't huge prosciutto fans.
• Main Course: Fulton Valley Chicken Cutlets with Seafood Pasta - cutlets served with squash, onions, tomato sauce and pasta with shrimp, scallops, and mussels. The seafood pasta was an adventure for me as I tend to stay away from this type of dish. However, I tried it and enjoyed it tremendously. The flavor combination is indescribable, but delicious and not heavy. I will admit, I let Dave have the majority of mussels - just couldn't handle more than two.
• Cheese Course: Sierra Mt. Tomme with peach jam and toasted palladin - excellent! The palladin had a sweetness to it that combined so well with the peach jam and the cheese. All three were tasty on their own, but wonderful together.
• Dessert: Pecan tarts - yum!!! I love dessert and this just put Dave and I over the edge. It was had a wonderful balance of sweetness and nuttiness. Dave isn't a huge pecan fan, but his plate was clean in not time at all.
• Wine selection: Schramsberg Rose Sparkling Wine

If it isn't obvious, we would highly recommend eating at Ad Hoc, especially since it is much more affordable than the French Laundry and delicious. The service was friendly and laid back too. This was one of the best meals I've had and I look forward to eating there again one day.

After dinner, we leisurely strolled back to our B&B as we were so pleasantly full. A great end to our first full day in Napa Valley.