when foodies honeymoon: day four

well, we woke up extremely well rested, after having accidentally slept for 15 or so hours.

& we were off for an early lunch at mustard’s grill, a little place that looks so unassuming from the road.  we drove past it several times & may not have stopped, if not for a recommendation from a local.

inside, we were greeted by this:

photo - Never!

{photo credit}

that’s right.  an entire binder full of wines.  i can only imagine you’re given a binder like this in heaven.  although, i’m not sure the statement on the front is correct, because there can never be too much wine.

of course we got a bottle.{well that complicates things}

we decided on onion rings with housemade tomato-apple ketchup, because we saw another table get them.{photo credit}

they looked fabulous & were piled at least a foot high.

in the meantime, the wine director brought out our bottle.  we got to talking with him, where we’re from, why we were there, blah, blah, blah & a few minutes later, while we were enjoying those mile high onion rings (tomato-apple ketchup could fix all the wrong in the world) he brought out a signed & personalized copy of cindy pawlcyn’s “appetizers” book!

patrick, if you ever find this blog & read this post ::waves hello:: we LOVE the book!  thank you!

some fried rabbit for the mister, pumpkin ravioli for me, a guinness ice cream sundae for both of us, and we were on to the next adventure.

& where did we go???{photo credit}

sparkling!  bubbles!  yesssss!

the tour will set you back $40 a person, but it’s very cool & well worth the $$ to see behind the scenes of the best sparkling wine outside of france.  (it’s not called champagne, unless it’s from champagne, but this is all made the traditional way)  they’ve been served at white house state dinners since the 70s, except for that unfortunate one where president obama chose a sparkling from virginia.

there are miles of underground caves, with bottles lined as far as the eye can see.{leave me here-i’ll drink my way out, bottles of bubbles, caves with bottles of bubbles, hundreds more bottles of bubbles, riddling racks with bubbles}{shramsberg tasting}

& then they bring you to a gorgeous tasting room, get you good & tipsy & ask if you’d like to join the schramsberg club to receive quarterly shipments of their heavenly bubbles right. to. your. front door.  so, yeah…we’re members.

then a quick stop at chateau montelena.just to check out where bottle shock had been filmed, since we had just seen it.

& then up to artesa before closing.  the wines, nothing spectacular, but the views were breathtaking & well worth the trip.{artesa inside & out}

they had all kinds of fountains & sculptures & the lighting inside was incredible.  the winery itself is even built into the hillside.

& because i like you guys, i’ll even share this.my husband thinks it’s hilarious.

alright.  i guess it is a little funny.

that night, we had a late dinner reservation at thomas keller’s bouchon.  i had been really, really looking forward to it, since chef keller is world renown & his french laundry restaurant, just down the street from bouchon, is often called an experience not to be missed.  we thought long & hard about going to the french laundry, but ultimately decided against the $240/person (without wine!!!!!!!) prix fixe menu & thought we might enjoy a taste of keller in a more relaxed atmosphere.

well, it was disappointing to say the least.  the staff was good, the atmosphere reminded me of paris, but the best part of our meal was probably the wine.  the dessert wasn’t bad, but we were both pretty disappointed overall.  the food was not at all memorable…we’ve cooked better things ourselves at home.  i expected more from a chef of his caliber.

kind of a sad way to wrap up our last night in napa.

This entry was posted in drinks, restaurants & places we ♥, travel, wine and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to when foodies honeymoon: day four

  1. Nicole says:

    Sorry to hear about your Bouchon experience. Did you try Keller’s Ad Hoc while you were there? My husband and I went this past April and loved it. Four courses, menu changes daily, nothing to order except your drinks.

    • admin says:

      i think ad hoc would have been a better choice, but we didn’t make it there! we’ll have to on our next trip!

Comments are closed.