Betsy, Stacey and I are up early and head out for a little walk and exploration. Looking for coffee, we head down to Sweetie Pie’s, and pick up coffee, tea for Bets, and a couple of much-touted sweet buns and apple turnovers (having heard stories of mom’s love for Eva’s turnovers). We check out the hood and walk back. When we realize that we missed the market, we decide to swing by the hotel to pick up mom and Lee and go to check that out. I decide to go with Betsy to the gym (my body is already feeling worse after a day here than after 3 weeks in Italy and France!) while everyone else heads to the market. She and I spend an hour or so there, then head back. When I run into Stacey and mom, they are gushing about the fresh breakfast tacos and italian profiteroles they’ve just gobbled up. I’ll have to check those out tomorrow.
Shower, collect my stuff and we hit the road north again. First stop is Round Pond Estate in Rutherford, where we are scheduled for an olive oil tasting and picnic lunch. It’s raining, boo-hoo, so no lunch in the orchard. We arrive at a stately building, almost a chateau, and meet with our host. Some of us trip over the home-crafted bottles of olive oil, orange and lemon syrup on our way in:
We have a tour and listen to a history of the orchard and vineyard – so many are run by families who have second to even fifth generations running them.
Then we head out to the garden. On one side grow vegetables and herbs that go well with red wine, and on the other, that go with white. What convenient harvesting! Stacey, Bets and i go up and down the rows tasting the various tomatoes and unanimously agree that the black cherry tomatoes are by far the best. In the garden:
Then we head in to learn about their wine-making, passing the giant vats that hold freshly picked grapes:
We then are seated at a large, round table with two other couples, with a splendid view of the gardens. There are 2 small blue glasses, like micro-mini snifters, each fille with a different olive oil. We hear the difference between each and taste.
And the photographer does the same:
Spanish, Italian, Meyer lemon and orange-flavored oils slip down our throats and we chat about their fruitiness and peppery afterbite like we’re the pros from Dover! This is followed by a wine tasting, and Stacey and I give the sniff tests to see what we think. All of this is prelude to a lovely Tuscan-style lunch with cured meats, cheeses (and incredibly creamy and yummy roquefort, words I never thought I’d put together), fruits and salad. My plate:
Dessert is (of course) and olive oil pound cake, over which we drizzle lemon syrup. A lot of groaning, smiles and glad-to-meet yous as we depart.
Our next appointment isn’t for another hour-ish, so we use the time to stop at the Peju winery, which Stacey has visited before. It’s so beautiful, with gardens, statues and fountains. A discussion begins about how much, if any, money, do these wineries actually make? Inside, they are out of the merlot fudge sauce that Stacey was raving about, so we take the time to walk through the art gallery, the self-guided tour that explains the wine-making process from beginning to end (very helpful and informative), and into the tasting room where Lee and Betsy are partaking and debating what to buy. Quite a cookbook selection and although I really wanted a James Beard award-winning Asian cookbook to be the one, it actually ended up that I loved one from Thomas Keller and his Ad Hoc restaurant (and immediately texted Matty to tell him it’s on my Hannukah list!).
Time for the next stop, so we pile back into the car and head out to Del Dotto (one person referred to it as Del Blotto) winery, where we are scheduled for a wine thieving in their cave. As we enter this ornate building,
very boticelli-style decor, opera music fills the rooms, complete with pillars, angels painted on ceilings, and heavy curtains.
We find our guide Matt, or rather, he finds us, and we join a group of about five other people for our experience. Our guide first shares the history of the winery (gentleman made oodles of money in real estate, then decided to open a winery). He also brags about how their winery has the most highest rated wines of any in the country, etc etc. We decide later that he is much more of a salesman than oenophile.
We pass through a set of heavy curtains and enter a long, dark “cave”, about one hundred feet long, lined with wine barrels, the ceilings and floors built from stone. Every 25 feet or so hung large, crystal chandeliers, as well as curtain-protected recessed areas on each side of the long hallway.
These small areas held some of the rarer blends.
So, Matt chatted with the group to find out what types of wines we prefer so the tastings would be pleasing. Every one carried their own glass, and he carried a long (about 20 inches), curved glass tube, about 4 or 5 inches in circumference (kind of like a fat, glass, curved turkey baster) that he would insert into the cork hole at the tope of the barrel, let sit for a couple minutes, then top with his hand, remove and release a few swallows into each person’s glass.
It took a few dunks to get enough tastes for everyone in the group. Then he would discuss how to drink wine, when and why to swirl or roll, and everyone tasted and nodded their heads. There were little slips to pull if you were interested in buying (like at Toys ‘r Us) and we headed up and down the cave until everyone (except Stacey and I) had had about 10 tastes each. Mom was really good about sipping, then tossing remains into the bucket.
Lee got the most tipsy.
We left the cave and gathered around a little table where the last tasting of port was enjoyed with chocolate, cheese, meat and some awesome breadsticks (our favorite tasting of the whole event!).
Mom purchased some wine and we headed out. It was only about 5:30, so we drove into St. Helena, where I looked wistfully down the road to the site of my Hoffman experience, and then stuck our heads into a few stores, including one with olive oil, flavored vinegar and tapenade tastings.
As the clock closed in on 6:30, we headed over to Redd for dinner. But first, a quick stop at the Sunshine market to scoop up some of those great breadsticks. We sample the sea salt, olive and cheddar. Then over to our next food-fest. Finally, a winner for me! Very minimalist decor, but excellent food. I started with diver scallops sitting on garbanzo cream and caper foam, Stacey had the same, Betsy went for tuna tartare and mom for fried green tomatoes. But the winner in my book was Lee’s soup of the day: fresh sweet corn topped with some succotash and who knows what else. Mmmmmm. I had lamb ragu on homemade linguine, Stacey and mom duck confit and foie gras meatballs for the main course. Lee and Betsy had different dishes of grilled chicken, and I must say that Lee’s was the most beautiful:
The happy diner:
and then comes the dessert menu. Full, but if the desserts are anything like dinner…I order two, of course, the chocolate and peanut butter beignets with bitter caramel ice cream and the butterscotch pudding (he swears it’s not too sweet). Not really crazy about the pudding (and he was right, it wasn’t too sweet, but the toffe chunks and chocolate pretzels in it are), but the beignets are awesome. See how the chocolate filling squirts out when you take a bite?
So full, happy and tired, we share a few laughs
pile into the mobile and head back home. Gotta get up early to meet our chef at the market, so it’s good night after a game a cribbage with Stacey.