Posted By Drew on 07-01-2009 02:30 PM

I'm going to Napa, damnit!!!

 

If you've seen any of my threads in the past, you've probably noticed that I LOVE the RRV/Dry Creek Valley area.  I try and hit the area every time I'm home, doing the same old routine - day tripping it up and doing a tasting at Rafanelli, Swan and a couple of others and then lunch at Rochioli, looking out over the vineyards.  It's iincredibly convenient, as I'm usually  picking up wine from the 2 R's and I don't need to deal with traffic, busses, tourists, trams, etc.  Plus, I like the more down home, folksy feel of tasting in something that didn't cost $300M to build.

 

I've decided to throw in the towel and do Napa.  Well, by "doing Napa,"  I mean I'm headed up on a Friday morning, looking to do lunch somewhere, looking for a cheap hotel and then headed back Saturday afternoon.  Forcing factor is I have a friend's graduation in the area, so dinner plans are likely set, although me bringing Matt is throwing a wrench in things. I'm leaving my wife at home (there goes the D.D.) and it's going to be a brothers Kotowski adventure. 

 

Questions for the board:

• Is Cindy's the place to go for lunch?  I love low-key stuff with GREAT food.  I'm the guy that used to drive 80 mins for a pulled pork platter in Lexington, NC twice a month.  That said, I'm in Napa and I'm really wondering if meatloaf is the quintessential Napa experience :-D
• What wineries should I hit?  Qualifiers - I don't want to hit 10 wineries; I'd rather relax and talk to people.  Also, I'm not actively picking up new lists and, more than likely, won't buy more than a bottle or two at any place I stop.  I have no problems bringing a "Thank You" bottle to a tasting, but that's about it.  Next year?  God willing, different story :-D
• Recs on a cheap place to crash?  I recognize everything is relative, but I'm not looking to spend the night at a Vintner's Inn quality place.  As long as they "leave a light on" for me and there aren't any bugs, I'm great.  Cookie on the pillow is a bonus.  A relatively inexpensive taxi ride from the CIA is a big plus.
• Recs on breakfast?
• Finally - I'm happy to meet up with anyone; I'm a sucker for stuff like that as many of you know :-D 

Date is Friday, August 7th with some spillover into Saturday the 8th.  I have an 8th grade reunion (don't ask me about this) that night, so I need to be relatively sober and back in San Jose by ~ 6:00.

 

Thanks in advance for your replies!

1. No, Cindy's is A place to go.  Cindy's meatloaf is great, but I think most people prefer dinner there.  In keeping with the inexpensive theme, I'd recommend Taylor's refresher.  Ahi burger is one of my favorites, along with sweet potato fries.

I am off on Fridays, let me know where you want to go outside of SE and we can most likely make it happen. El Bonita in St. Helena is pretty well priced, as is the Chateau Hotel down in Napa on Solano. Lunch/Dinner let me know and we can hit it up. It would be good to see you again.

Drew, I just took a look and you are going to have one heck of a time finding anything "affordable" on August 7. El Bonita is $189 that night. A lot of hotels require 2 night minimums during the high season of August-October. I would recommend rescheduling your Jr High reunion :-)

Thanks for the recs!

LOL @ reschedule. My life gets scheduled for me... Dad's bday is on 8/3, mine is 8/11, have the reunion, graduation and a mountain climbing trip in the Sierras to bag a peak we've been trying to hit for 10 years now.

Bonita should be fine. Will give them a call this w/e, once my credit cards get here. Yeah, somebody stole my number yesterday... been that kind of a week!

@Jason - will ping on Facebook. Less concerned about big names vs. a memorable experience.

@Randy - totally forgot about the Pavie! Wonder if Tlaquepaque has a corkage policy? :-P

As always, I'll pack some Vivace down in the luggage. Salumi is probably out this trip, as it'll be a week before I get to Napa. Starting to get excited!

I wind up sounding a bit like a broken record with the reco, but you can't go wrong heading up Howell Mnt., for the day, hitting up Neal, Outpost, even Herb Lamb. Also, a visit to Lewelling is always a treat.

Oh, one more - I haven't visited yet, but Thomas Rivers Brown has moved most of his operations up to Black Sears, on Howell Mnt. He says up here you can taste just about anything, from Schrader, to Maybach, Tamber Bey, etc, etc. Would certainly be worth trying to arrange a visit - let me know if you're interested and I can put you and Thomas in touch.

What peak in the Sierra?

Silver Mountain and Highland Peak.  Just off Ebbett's Pass, between Bear Valley and Markleeville.  First trip we hiked all the way in and I was about 500 ft down from the peak of Silver Mtn when the sky got really, really dark.  Looked around a bit and made an executive decision to get the $#%^ off the mountain.  Sure enough, thunder, lightning and giant-pea sized hail were 20 mins out.   Not a good place ot be in a storm.  Second trip back, Matt decided to break in his jungle boots...  We got a good 6 miles in and he ended up with silver dollar-sized blisters on the back of his feet.  Thank god for duct tape.  Needless to say, we spent the night on a ledge overlooking the valley and hiked out the next day.

Just a bit too far from my neighborhood to meet you on top with a bottle and proper stemware.

I'm traveling up there with two other couples next Sunday for one evening. Any suggestions on places to stay close to st helena/Calistoga that would have three rooms to rent for a reasonable cost? The other couples are looking to keep the price around $120/night.

Interestingly enough, we will be renting a house while up there for one night. It is near Calistoga. This might sound odd, but are there any concierge/personal chefs that one can hire for a night? This house has a complete kitchen, and it would be really cool to have someone cook for us. I suspect there are some chefs up there that are looking for extra work. I also have no idea how much such an event would cost. Any suggestions?

Posted By Drew on 07-02-2009 10:23 AM
Thanks for the recs!

LOL @ reschedule. My life gets scheduled for me... Dad's bday is on 8/3, mine is 8/11, have the reunion, graduation and a mountain climbing trip in the Sierras to bag a peak we've been trying to hit for 10 years now.

Just a pet peeve of mine, but there is only one - the Sierra range. There are many peaks, but only one Sierra :)

Schedule coming together. Looks like names + memorable experience, so am doing cartwheels :-D

Posted By Randy Wigginton on 07-12-2009 07:44 PM
Interestingly enough, we will be renting a house while up there for one night. It is near Calistoga. This might sound odd, but are there any concierge/personal chefs that one can hire for a night? This house has a complete kitchen, and it would be really cool to have someone cook for us. I suspect there are some chefs up there that are looking for extra work. I also have no idea how much such an event would cost. Any suggestions?

Sounds like a Bob and Stacey question.

Just returned from about 26 hours in Napa land. First winery: BV. Not because of the wines, but because I am Founder's club member, and the party of 6 was trying to avoid extra expenses. (One member of the group had just been laid off the day prior) So, we tended towards wineries owned by Diageo. The wines were adequate, not inspired. The 20056 GdL was good but overpriced. I was intrigued enough by the clone 337 to purchase a bottle, which I will open soon and post tasting notes on.

Next winery: Provenance (yes, Diageo again). The 2005 Provenance Las Amigas Merlot was the clear star. That was it for Sunday; we picked up some groceries at Sunshine market and made dinner for ourselves. The steaks went quite well with 2005 Match :-)

Monday morning, after a quick pastry at Model Bakery, we hit Sherwin Family Vineyards. What a gorgeous winery! This visit was the highlight of the day for a couple folks, who wanted to move into the winery! Beautiful area, great wine... what can I say, it was great.

Next up: Pride Mountain Vineyards. Pride was the single busiest winery I saw. Clearly they are doing something right!! We did tastings and a brief Cave visit.

Next: Taylor's 'fresher. The lines seem somewhat shorter than in past visits, but not notably so. The food was great, and the average cost per person was $12 including drinks. Not bad!

Next up, the single most amazing visit of many visits to napa... Graeser Winery. This winery is on Petrified Forest Road, and has a big sign saying "Best of the bay! KRON TV 4". I always like to try somewhere new each visit, and this winery was the "newbie" this trip.

Driving up the gravel road, I got the feeling this winery did not receive many visitors. When we got to the winery, there was an old man with a wine glass sitting out on the patio. We went into the tasting room where we discovered that he is the winemaker/operator of the winery. Tastings are $15, with the fee waived upon purchase of a bottle. So, for the 6 of us we went for 3 tastings, each couple sharing a tasting.

The first wine poured was a semillon. I'm not sure of the vintage; all I know is that I would not voluntarily drink a bottle of this unless forced to by unreasonable pressure. Next was a Sangiovese, that was a mess. Next a Merlot that had no varietal characteristics; it was red, that was all you could be sure of. Next a Cab Franc, then the "couer leone", a bordeaux blend. The Couer Leone (sp?) was the least objectionable. At this point, the old man turned us over to the new marketing director for a "tour of the house".

The marketing director has been with the winery for a couple of months; previously he was a marketing director for Warner Brothers. He walked us over the house, which was originally built by a Dr Richard Cole. The house looks like there could be 100 stories in every corner. It is very old, original wood work everywhere. Unfortunately, Jim did not know much of anything about the house. for example, there is a door on a second floor that opens onto nothing; it must be the first question to anyone seeing it, "Why is there a door on the second floor that opens onto nothing?" His answer? "Hmm, I don't know, but that's a good question".

The highlight of the "house tour" came when one of the women in the tour needed to use the restroom. Apparently the house is occupied by the old man and his significant other. The restroom had been used.. and not flushed. um, gross.

At this point we wander back to the "tasting room" where the old man takes us down to the "cellar" for a cave tasting. Basically, it was a room under the building, and the aromas were not the pleasant one usually associated with a winery cellar; this was more must and mold than oak & fermentation. Surprisingly, the first wine sampled was a 2005 Merlot that was not bad; it had good fruit, reasonable structure. So we asked when this wine was going to be bottled. His answer? "When I have money for the glass and cork". Hmmm. Next we tasted a different 2005 Merlot, that had something wrong. I'm not sure whether it was brett or something else, but it was clearly off and I just wanted to escape. Next, he told us about a party recently for a group of vietnamese; he talked about how terrible it was that children were part of the group and then he slurred Vietnamese in several ways. Hello? Openly racist to drop in visitors? From the silicon valley, where the vietnamese are an integral and vital part of the culture? Not very wise.

Finally, he brought us upstairs for a port that was adequate. After that we escaped.

There were so many things wrong at this tasting I could write for another hour. The "marketing director" came from Burbank/hollywood; he should return. He had no passion for wine or the property. No idea why he is there, other than to get paid. I am not a great "people person", but I guarantee I could make the tours 1000x more interesting.

Next, the old man, Richard. I can accept quirkiness, but outright racism is completely unacceptable. Also, trying to talk about wine there was no passion... one would expect the winemaker to say things like "Oh, this year the weather has been xxx", or "the block of merlot was planted in xxx" or similar.

In summary, stay away from this winery at all costs until ownership changes. I suspect that economics will force a change sooner rather than later. This is embarrassing to the entire napa valley.

Interesting, that winery has sent me a few e-mails to taste and I wasn't really interested. Maybe I should forward them this and tell them not to bother me anymore. ;)