Wine, Art and Food in the Napa Valley

Sunday, 10 April 2016 

On Sunday we got up early to go to the Hess Collection which is a winery and art gallery up in the Mount Veeder appellation. First we had a free tour of the winery, then had a look at the modern art. It wasn’t a huge collection, but really beautiful.

 

Then some wine tasting (of course). 

 

We originally wanted to have a meal at the famous three Michelin star restaurant French Laundry in Yountville, but it was a bit more than we wanted to pay (probably about USD$1,300 for dinner with matching wines). So we went to Bouchon Bistro, which is Thomas Keller's second restaurant in Yountville which was highly recommended by a number of people. The food was good but it lacked a certain je ne sais quoi in that the staff seemed to be more concerned about themselves rather than their customers – all in all it was ok, but could have been much better – lots of great food options in Napa so we won’t be rushing back here. 

Then up to the Howell Mountain appellation for another wine tasting, this time at the Cade Winery. Cade is one of the more modern wineries in Napa and owned by one of the Ghetty family and the former mayor of San Francisco. Beautiful modern building and wine caves. It was a beautiful location but it felt a bit forced, to the point that every single barrel in their barrel room was painted with the wine to hide the stains from the winemaking – never seen this anywhere before and it’s as if the aesthetics of the barrel room were more important than what was in the barrel itself. These people have lots and lots of money so it was something they are able to do, but something other wineries wouldn’t bother with. The wine was ok, but it was quite expensive to do the tasting there. With so many options in Napa there are probably better value options to check out. 

 

On the way home we passed another beautiful old winery just outside of St Helena, called Beringer. It was too late for any tasting, but we walked around the grounds. This is an historic estate and looked fabulous. So many wineries we could have spent much more time here – oh well, there’s always next time….