Today we left the wine region of the Sonoma Valley and headed over to California’s most famous wine growing area – Napa Valley. Napa is famous for producing some of the world’s best Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux Blends (here in California they generally call all Bordeaux blends simply ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ even if its blended with Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc etc – which is pretty confusing!).
With thousands of wineries in the Napa region it was really quite difficult to select just a couple to go to visit. Of course Trevor did his research and so we went to some of the finest vineyards in the valley. Our first winery, Mayacamas was in the Mount Veeder Appellation – one of the oldest wineries in the area. It even survived prohibition (how did they ever let that happen?) by producing "religious wine" for the Catholic church.
To get there we travelled over the top of the mountain through some beautiful oak forests – as it was early Spring, everything here is so green and lush – very magical.
Mayacamas is one of those wineries that just exudes elegance and classic charm. We had organised a personal tasting and tour of the vineyards which was close to the summit of Mt Veeder and lies in the crater of an extinct volcano. It’s famous for its Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay – the wines didn’t disappoint!
After Mayacamas we headed down to our next appointment, yet another very famous vineyard, Spring Mountain (in the Appellation of Spring Mountain). Spring Mountain was an awesome estate that was established in 1885. It had fabulous old buildings which also happens to be the location of the old TV soapie “Falcon Crest”.
It was very – grand! We had a tour of the property which had some of the most beautiful old world gardens around the estate and was set in the middle of very scenic rolling hills all covered in vines (of course!)
Then we went to our next Airbnb accommodation, which was a lovely farmhouse in the middle of the vineyards just outside of the town of Napa.
Then we went to our next Airbnb accommodation, which was a lovely farmhouse in the middle of the vineyards just outside of the town of Napa.
Before leaving Melbourne we had bought tickets to a special event at the Culinary Institute of America (Greystone) in a little town called St Helena.
25 wineries from the St Helena appellation and associated restaurants put on a food and wine matching competition called BASH (Beautiful Appellation St Helena). Each stand had a small morsel to go with their wine, and as participants we got to judge on the best matches. The food was really excellent, with some of the best restaurants in the area participating, along with some beautiful Bordeaux blend (and some other) wines. It was really a great evening. Some of the food included: lamb tartine with foie gras mousse; and cocoa crusted venison loin to name just a few – a very pleasant evening was had by all. We voted for two food and wine matches which ended up winning the competition (first and second place).
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