Written by Josh Schaffer
For our honeymoon, my newly minted wife and myself settled on a five day trip to Napa Valley. Earlier in the year we had spent almost 3 weeks traveling across Eastern Europe, which was both incredible and a shock to our coffers. We figured staying in the US and not flying anywhere would save us money. We were wrong. Later, I’d chalk this up to both ignorance and the overwhelming allure of Napa’s incredible food and wine.
[singlepic id=254 w=270 h=190 float=left] Before dates were scheduled or hotels were booked my wife had one priority – a reservation at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry. Given what we’d read, booking it was surprisingly simple with one caveat – you must book 2 months to the calendar day. With alarms set we called first thing AM and got a reservation for 9:15 pm 2 months down the line. Damn.
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Cut to honeymoon. We’re in Napa. We booked a very nice room at the Verasa Westin Napa, blocks from the Oxbow Public Market. Our first night we arrived late and decided to get a meal at their Bank Cafe and Bar, which shares a kitchen with the Michelin star rated La Toque. We had pan roasted trout and an amazing cheese plate, along with a couple Old Fashioned’s (yes, it’s wine country, but after a six hour drive we craved something stronger). The servers we’re great and the food was incredible. This would become a common occurrence.
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[singlepic id=253 w=270 h=190 float=left] The next morning we walked over to the Oxbow Public Market. Over the next few days we’d try La Crepe!, C Casa (amazing tacos – particularly their skirt steak, lamb and mahi mahi varieties), Gott’s Roadside (awesome bleu cheese burger with a toasted egg bun and garlic or sweet potato fries), Ritual Coffee and a few others – all of them fantastic. I highly recommend making a stop here while in Napa.
For our first day of wine tasting we hit up Stag’s Leap Wine Cellar and Opus One wineries (go big or go home, right?). Stag’s Leap (along with Chateau Montelena) was initially put on the map when their Cabernet Sauvignon won the 1976 Judgement of Paris. Our server was very friendly with healthy pours. I’ll say right now I have a bias towards Cabs so we went big and tried their estate and single-vinyard collection of an ’09 Cask 23, ’05 S.L.V and ’09 Fay Cabernet’s along with the ’10 Arcadia Chardonnay. The Cask 23 was simply incredible but sadly out of our price range for a bottle so we settled on a bottle of the Fay. No bad choices here. Everything was great.
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[singlepic id=249 w=270 h=190 float=left] Heading further up the 29 (For the most part everything is either here or along the Silverado Trail that runs parallel) our next stop was Opus One. A joint venture between Robert Mondavi and Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, Opus One has a rich pedigree. We had made reservations far in advance as they do not take walk-ins and a pour is $40. Not exactly cheap, but hey, it’s a honeymoon. The place itself looks like a hybrid of a Greek temple and Adena mound (5 points if you know that reference).
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I’m not sure whether this was typical or they were just being nice, but along with a pour of the ’09, they also gave us a sample of the ’07. Both extremely smooth with nice tannins on the finish. Though pricey, I’d say it was worth it. Especially if you come on a nice day and go outside to their viewing area that overlooks the vineyard. We ended up purchasing a bottle of their Opus One “Overture”, a lesser priced blend of their different vintages.
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[singlepic id=255 w=270 h=190 float=left]Later that night we took up a suggestion from a friend to try Michael Chiarello’s Bottega. This might have been one of the best surprises of the trip. Our dinner included Pan Roasted Potato Gnocchi, Smoked and Braised shortribs with polenta and a not to be missed Ricotta Zeppole (doughnuts with a praline cream). Later on our trip we’d continually hear from locals how this was one of their favorite spots.