A comfortable return - Napa 2019

In August, Kris and I realized that we had taken 0 vacation this year and that if we didn't schedule something soon, we would both end the year by 'donating' several weeks back to our employers. Cue booking two weeks in France. In the middle of all of the work for planning that trip, Kris announced that he found a stupidly cheap flight to SFO - Did we want to spend a week in Napa? A trip that practically plans itself? Yes please!

Kris booked us into our favorite hotel - the Wydown in St. Helena. It's a cute little boutique hotel right on the 'main' drag in town. Another prime feature is it's proximity to the delicious Model bakery that I frequently gush about. Kris also discovered that the CIA at Greystone offers a three day bootcamp cooking class, so he booked is in for that. We then promptly forgot to do anything else for this trip until two weeks ago.

Ahh well. So, we started off yesterday morning at 4:30am for pre-dawn flight. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we had a row to ourselves on the flight, so that was a good start. We landed at SFO at 10am and were greeted by a thick marine layer rolling over the hills. Undaunted, we picked up the rental car and headed into the Valley.

We stopped by Contimo Provisions, a little food window at CIA Copia we had discovered when we were out a couple of years ago for Bottlerock. Amazing sandwiches as always! We proceeded over to Oxbow for a cuppa and to wander around (ie to keep busy enough that we didn't fall asleep in the car.) Kris found a bottle of Pliny the Elder - a beer of mythical reputation, so our first bottle purchase in Napa is a beer. ;) I am pleased that Ritual Coffee is as great as always. They seem to focus on Central and South American coffees which I prefer to African/Ethiopian beans.

Exhausting our options at Oxbow, we headed across the river to downtown. Kris pointed out Bounty Hunter Wine and Spirits, so we popped in for a quick flight before our first tasting appointment of the trip. Bounty Hunter has a cute Western vibe and does tastes and flights of some pretty hard to source bottles. It was kind of funny thought to see them highlighting their selection of Kentucky bourbon.

Our tasting appointment was a Frias Family. While their vineyard is on Spring Mountain, their tasting room is in Napa. Founded in '77, they are apparently the first Hispanic owned winery in the Valley. They do a tiny production and grow only Cab (although they do source some Syrah and Cab grapes from other growers.) These guys are doing some amazing juice! Every wine Louis poured was better than the last. We ended  up picking up 6 bottles here.

We applied our learnings from previous trips and asked Louis for tips about other places we should visit while we're here. He obliged with recos for several wineries (one of which we've been trying to get into for years...) and restaurants. We're hoping on the one winery that with a 'personal' introduction, we may have better luck getting an appointment.

Dinner was at Torc. Overall, the meal was great. However, they sent out a pasta dish that was in both of our opinions criminally overcooked. The chef then implied that Kris didn't know how pasta worked (this was a shaped pasta that they apparently made fresh - it came out as water logged mush. The shape was falling apart on the plate.) The whole interaction was a sour note in an otherwise lovely meal.