Day 2 begins with breakfast and coffee at Lavender's. Then we headed north on highway 29 on our way to Sonoma County to the Peter Michael Winery. The thing that strikes you is how incredibly concentrated the vineyards are here in Napa Valley. In the 25 or so miles from Yountville to the Peter Michael Winery we drove by Elyse, Domain Chandon, Folie a Deux, Robert Mondovi, Cakebread, Silver Oak, Opus One, Nickel & Nickel, Turnbull, St Supery, Rubicon Estates, Franciscan, Hall, Louis M. Martini, Sutter Home, Beringer, Charles Krug, etc, etc. just to name a few of the many you would recognize and many more vineyards that I haven't heard of. These are just the ones along 29, a half a mile over on the other side of the valley is the Silverado Trail wth many more familiar vineyards. It is amazing. Solid grape vines and olive trees.
Just a quick note about our little adventure to the Peter Michael Winery. We had a 3 hour private guided tour of the vineyard and winery by our host Kevin Toomajian their hospitality and wine education manager. Only people on their mailing list can get a tour. The winery is not open to the public. Michael & Cheryl have been on the mailing list for several years. The winery is owned by Sir Peter Michael and Lady Margaret Michael from England. It is 605 acres that starts at the base of a mountain (500 ft) and the highest vineyard is 1900 ft. Caberne
t Sauvignon growing at the base and Chardonnay at the top. Their wines have been on allocation from their first vintage and they will probably always be on allocation. It was a breath taking view from the top vineyard looking down to the valley below. After touring the vines we were escorted to the tasting room to sample the wines.We sampled two estate Chardonnays, a Sauvignon Blanc and a Red Bordeaux Blend. I will have complete tasting notes when I get back. The wines were superb. All were silky smooth, complex and delicious. It made tasting other wines the rest of the day difficult.
Next we sample wines at the Bennett Lane Winery, eat luch in Calistoga at Brannon's then more tasting at the Frank Family winery followed by wine and cheese at Lavender and dinner at Ad Hoc.
Dinner at Ad Hoc is served family style and there is only one thing, several courses though. Ad Hoc is also a Thomas Keller venture. On Monday night dinner menu was a lovely romaine salad with pickled vegetables dressed with a little vinegar and oil with Russian dressing on the side. Next came the main course of Beef Stroganoff, not your everyday variety. In this case it was beef short ribs which had been braised for 48 hours, sue vied, over fresh pasta with morel and button mushrooms and fresh carrots with sauteed cauliflower. Then there was the cheese platter with local cheeses served with crisp toasted French bread and orange perserves...yummy. For dessert there was a warm apple crisp with amaretto ice cream. Nice dinning experience in a deliberately understated decor.
And then we waddled down the street for a night cap at Bistro Jeanty followed by a sound nights sleep.
We taste so much wine during the day that by the time we go to dinner we are on wine overload.
So we find that we are shipping most of wine purchases back to Texas...to be enjoyed later.
