A day in California Wine Country

Monday | 4 June 2007 | Calistoga, California: We had a very full day today and I have many photos to post, so I will leave most the dialog inside my head and write big captions, for those of you who read this the same way you read Playboy Magazine - for the pictures.

The morning started a bit chilly and cloudy, but I laced up my Nike's and walked my morning orders into the post office in downtown Calistoga. I took the long way back to clock my three miles, past many of the lovely homes on the pretty tree-shaded streets of this quaint little town. If you live here, I suppose you brush your teeth, shower, make coffee, water your lawn and flush your toilet with Calistoga water! Pretty cool!

Old Faithful, California-style

Our first tourist stop this morning was to see the Old Faithful Geyser - no, not that Old Faithful, but another regularly-erupting geyser here in Calistoga. At this time, the non-faithful geyser is usually erupting every twenty minutes... however, while we were here it was erupting every 90 seconds! Every thirty minutes or so, it did shoot up an impressive eruption, but every 90 seconds or so, it would just spit out a bunch of hot water and steam - about 10 feet high.

There is a charge ($8, pretty ridiculous if you think about it) to see the geyser - but they do throw in a free postcard. The attraction also has a few goats in a petting zoo and a few llamas and other exotic goats on the property. Of course, there is a gift shop.

After all this excitement, we took a drive up into the hills, just to sight-see a few roads we have not yet traveled and then made our way to St. Helena (via the Silverado Trail) to avoid all the congestion on the main drag through the wine country. Our destination: Taylor's Automatic Refresher in St. Helena.

Taylor's Automatic Refresher - the lunch crowd on Monday


Chocolate shake, espresso bean shake, Wisconsin Sourdough burger,
Sweet potato fries dusted in chili spice and served with a garlic dipping sauce
and a Blue Cheese Burger, $32.01 - pretty expensive fast food.


Dine outdoors on the nice lawn


Taylor's Automatic Refresher Drive-in in St. Helena, California

After that, we needed more walking! St. Helena is just the place for a nice stroll. Another pretty town in the Napa Valley, St. Helena has great shopping, restaurants and shady parks and tree-lined streets to wander. There are several olive oil shops in St. Helena and don't miss Woodhouse Chocolates.

We realized we had been in "the Napa" for two days and hadn't visited a winery. Horrors! Since we are keen on Italian wines, we thought it would be fun to visit the new Castello di Amoroso, just opened in April. No kidding, Daryl Sattui, a man with a passion for medieval architecture (doesn't everyone?) spent $35 million to build a 121,000 square foot Castello di Amoroso (Castle of Loving) in the California wine country. Sattui makes only Italian-style wines, so we stopped in, crossed the moat and had a look around.

Castello di Amoroso


View east from one of the turrets

 
The tower and a close up of a gargoyle

 
Guess who's coming to dinner? The Great Hall

 
Inner courtyard in front of the church


Jousting anyone? The Knights Room

It was late by the time we arrived to the Castle, so we didn't sign up for the last tour of the day. Instead, maybe because they weren't too busy, the greeter explained the "scenic route" to the wine tasting room. We just wandered around on our own and saw enough that we won't go back for the tour. I don't know why we spent all the money to go to Italy last year - this place looks exactly like Italy. And it should - almost everything in the castle came from Italy, including the craftsmen who constructed the joint. And the pinot grigio was pretty nice - we came home with a few bottles!

The bar at Tra Vigne

Keeping with the Italian theme, we had dinner at Tra Vigne (rough translation: amongst vineyards) in St. Helena. This pretty restaurant serves some of the finest food we have tasted in a while. Tra Vigne is owned by Michael Chiarello. Chiarello also operates the fabulous Napa Style catalog and hosts Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello on the Food Network. Every course was beautifully presented and the taste was out of this world. The building itself is gorgeous -  like an Italian villa - and the interior of the restaurant is cavernous, yet the tables remain intimate and the room is not noisy. We arrived just after 8 pm, with no reservation, but on a Monday evening there was no trouble getting a nice table.

We shared an appetizer: Pizzetta con aglio e cambozola: Wood oven baked
flatbread with roasted garlic, cambozola cheese and new press olive oil.


Arugula with roasted corn, soft pecorino and fresh oregano


Grilled artichoke hearts

I hope you know we do not actually eat all this food. We are good eaters, but there is no way we can finish everything we order. We are tasters. We are grazers. We order to taste what the chef has concocted. Tonight, I ordered an Italian pinot grigio with my chicken. Our waiter insisted I did not want that wine, but would much prefer a California Russian River Pinot Gris. No, I said, I would like the Italian. He insisted, and decided to bring me a taste of each. Oh, goodness. DT was rolling his eyes. The wines were brought forth and there was no contest. The waiter was shocked I could tell the difference and mumbled something under his breath about making a bet at a race track and promptly brought me the Italian. What ever happened to the customer always being right and bringing what the customer orders? Other than that one strange blip in the service, our waiters were fabulous and classically trained. A true delight.

Pollo alla Cammucia: Tuscan spiced spring chicken with braised escarole, golden beets and sorrel pesto


Bucatini con Brodetto di cozze: thick spaghetti with Mediterranean mussels, garlic, chilies, mint & basil

Tomorrow we head over to Sacramento for the NCAA Track & Field Championships and then home... so I will leave you here. Until my next update, I remain, your well-fed correspondent.

RV Park: Napa County Expo Fairgrounds - though not exactly fancy, this campground is easily the best-located for a wine country RV vacation.