Wayfaring Wine Country: Mustard Season

A weekend in Napa Valley and Sonoma Part IV

Japan has romantic cherry blossoms, Holland has rainbow fields of tulips, and Napa Valley has wild mustard flowers. We had the luck of catching the peak of mustard season in Napa Valley on our recent trip and we were captivated by the beauty of the wine country landscape covered in a lovely layer of yellow wild flowers. Many travel guides will say that September during the autumn grape harvest is the best time to visit Napa Valley, but I think enjoying the springtime beauty of the valley on a warm weekend in mid February was such a treat and definitely one of my favorite experiences! Though the grapevines were bare, the hills were lush after the winter rains and interspersed between the vineyard trellises was a fine carpet of the sunny yellow blooms.

Early in the morning, we sleepily packed our things, had a quick breakfast, checked out of our hotel in Napa Valley and headed out to Sonoma County to catch our Safari West tour. As we were driving along Highway 29 just north of Yountville, we spotted a vast open meadow covered in wild mustard, stretching from the roadside to the farmhouses and hills in the distance. We pulled over and found ourselves knee-deep in the field of wildflowers. In the chilly and crisp morning air, everything was calm and quiet with just the occasional car passing by and the sound of resounding bird calls. Fresh dew glistened on the flowers swaying gently in the wind under the canopy of a bright blue sky. It was magical. A rare sort of peaceful picturesque moment that makes you want to hold your breath for fear that it would somehow disturb the tranquil beauty of it all.

I later learned of the Napa Valley Mustard Festival, which celebrates the mustard season through various food, wine, and art events bringing vibrancy to the valley during the "off-season" winter months. Sadly, the festival, after 17 years, was recently canceled due to the difficult economic times. I do hope they bring it back someday! I absolutely loved Napa Valley during mustard season!

Old Fashioned Corn Bread

On our trip to Napa Valley last month, we visited Bale Grist Mill Historic State Park near St. Helena. It was an absolutely beautiful stroll through the woods to reach the historic site where early settlers would gather to have their grain ground to flour by the water-powered mill. We brought home a bag of organic stone-ground cornmeal produced at the mill and I tried out a recipe to make old fashioned cornbread!

"The slow turning of the old grind stones and the dampness of the mill's site gave the meal a special quality for making cornbread, yellowbread, shortening bread and spoon bread. 
As old timers put it, "When meal comes to you that way, like the heated underside of a settin' hen, it bakes bread that makes city bread taste like cardboard." " -- Bale Grist Mill CA State Park Information

When I opened the bag of cornmeal, I could see what they meant-- the texture of the cornmeal was so soft and plush, but not overly fine or chalky the way traditional white flour can be. One cup of cornmeal made a whole loaf that lasted us for weeks: it made for a great lunch with a soup and salad, a yummy side for dinner, and even a quick breakfast that we could just heat up in the mornings and have with a glass of milk!

Adapted from Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread on allrecipes.com
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 all-purpose cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (I did not have buttermilk so I used lemon juice and regular skim milk, described in the directions)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8.5 inch loaf pan.
2. Heat the butter in a bowl in the microwave briefly. Remove from the microwave when a small solid of butter still remains and stir to completely melt. 
3. *I did not have buttermilk so I used lemon juice with skim milk instead* Buttermilk is not butter and milk; rather it is milk that has been slightly curdled with acid, giving it a thicker consistency. The ratio to substituting with regular milk is generally 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to every 1 cup of milk. Stir and let the mixture sit for 10 minutes. 
4. Combine the buttermilk with baking soda and watch for a slight bubbling. This shows that the baking soda is still fresh and that the bread will rise sufficiently. 
5. Add the eggs, butter, and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until well blended. Pour in the buttermilk and baking soda mixture. Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. 
6. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

There you have it, fluffy and fragrant cornbread! Yum!

Wayfaring Wine Country: St. Helena

A weekend in Napa Valley and Sonoma Part III

There was no better way to walk off a day of wine tasting than along a short lush trail to a beautiful historic mill in the soft golden glow of the afternoon sunlight. Bale Grist Mill was once the gathering place for early Napa valley settlers who would bring their corn and grain to grind into flour. The Bale Grist Mill, originally built in 1846, was completely water-powered and is still functioning today.

We arrived at the park near closing time and were a bit bummed that the tours and milling demonstrations for the day were already over, but they still let walk around for a self-guided tour. The staff at the mill were dressed in period-costumes and they also sold organic cornmeal, flour, and polenta that were actually ground by the mill. I loved the sound of the water pouring from waterwheel as it turned and the patches of moss growing all around the mill. It was really a unique piece of history in a beautiful setting.

We had planned dinner in St. Helena and had some time to walk around the main street before our reservation. There were lots of cute little boutique shops selling interesting gourmet food items, soaps, and even artwork made from bugs! We enjoyed dinner at Market, which was one of our favorite meals of the trip (but we pretty much didn't have any bad meals, food was just delicious everywhere). The menu was simple but all the courses were done very well with fresh ingredients and were beautifully plated. You know how sometimes you read an item on the menu and it sounds so good but then the actual dish falls short? At Market, the dishes taste exactly how you would expect them to, in good way: perfectly delicious, just the way you had imagined it. We turned in for the evening pretty soon afterwards with blissful food coma....

Wayfaring Wine Country: Along the Wine Trail

A weekend in Napa Valley and Sonoma Part II 

There are two main routes that run through the heart of Napa wine country: Highway 29 and Silverado trail. We chose highway 29 because it is closer to the wineries we wanted to visit and the small towns along the way like Yountville and St. Helena. It was also apparently the more popular route with most visitors of Napa as there was actually quite a bit of traffic along the way. Imagine our disappointment given that we were trying to escape from the endless LA traffic back home. There's nothing like being stuck in traffic while on vacation...

But for some reason I didn't mind too much. Maybe it was because I wasn't the one driving (My super-husband drove nearly 1000 miles altogether on this trip), but probably more-so because of the beautiful scenery along the road. I mean, how upset can you be when you are staring at this outside your window?

First, we stopped in Yountville  to grab macarons (my favorite!) from Bouchon Bakery. Yountville is so pretty, clean, and well manicured-- yet retains a quaint rustic charm. Setup like a little resort town for foodies, we spotted a number of Michelin star restaurants all within a couple blocks of each other. Since it was so crowded outside the bakery, we decided to take our little treats over to enjoy out on the lawn of V Marketplace across the street. One unexpected highlight of V Markeyplace, other than the pretty plaza and fountain, were the public restrooms (sadly?). There was one around almost every corner and they were all very nice and clean.

Our first winery stop was at V. Sattui, a family winery with roots in Italian winemaking dating back to San Francisco in the late 1880s. The grounds were lovely but boy, was it crowded. We wanted to picnic on the grounds since they served barbecue out on the lawn every Saturday but the line was crazy! They have two tasting rooms, but we found that the "overflow" tasting room on the upper level of the estate was less crowded and had better ambiance than the busy main tasting room near the marketplace. We chose to split a tasting since the  pours were actually quite generous. In fact, we ended up splitting tastings at every winery we visited on the trip-- it's a great way to save money and taste more wines for "light weight" drinkers like us.  We tasted some of my favorite wines of the trip here (it's no wonder they have been voted Winery of the Year three years in a row!) and I discovered I absolutely adore rosé. We took home a bottle of my favorite rosé that tasted fruity, delicious, with a hint of strawberries! Aside from the wonderful wine, our sommelier was very friendly and knowledgeable with his wine recommendations and offered his tips on food pairing with each wine we sampled. 

Then we headed north to the wine castle, Castillo di Amorosa. We missed the turn-off to the winery on our first pass since you can't actually see the castle from the main road-- you have to enter through a gate and up a steep driveway.The picturesque Italian castle is perched at the top of the hill and surrounded by vineyards. They even had a handful of random livestock roaming the grounds (I counted two roosters, a sheep, and a goat). Of course there were some elements that felt a little cheesy-- like were visiting Napa's Disneyland, but what does one expect from a 13th century Tuscan-style castle built right in the heart of California? The entrance fee, which included wine tasting was $18 a person...a bit steep but we considered it a form of crowd control (it was busy here too but not nearly as crazy as V. Sattui) and made for gorgeous pictures! As we explored the castle's winding towers, hidden chambers, and courtyard there were times when I looked out over the castle's stone walls and felt like I was really in Europe (of course I can only imagine....hopefully later this year I will be able to compare it to the real thing).

With over 400 wineries in Napa Valley, I know we've only barely scratched the surface of Napa's vinicultural scene. A great resource for touring wineries on a budget that I found while researching for this trip is the Napa Tourist Guide Coupons. You can find discounts here for most popular wineries as well as many off-the-beaten-path destinations. I wish we had time to explore them all!

Wayfaring Wine Country: Downtown Napa

A Weekend in Napa Valley and Sonoma, Part I

Napa valley is such a beautiful place. After a few days driving along winding country roads lined with vineyards and tall oak trees, hiking through lush forest trails, and of course wining and dining through charming towns full of local culinary delights, Napa has really captured my heart.

We made the long six-and-a-half hour drive up north Friday afternoon. After stopping for dinner along the way, it was completely dark by the time we reached our hotel in downtown Napa. We couldn't make out much of the town except for the glowing neon signs of a target and fast food restaurants across the street from our hotel (which turned out to be super convenient!).

The next morning we crossed the Napa river into the main part of town for breakfast. I wish I had a chance to take a picture of the riverfront, because our first impression of downtown Napa was this:

I found this picture in an interesting article titled "Will Crowds Flock to Napa's New Disney-like Wine World?" Which were our thoughts exactly. It looked pristine and well-built but somehow had a somewhat contrived feel. As we drove a few blocks more into town however, I was relieved to find the more historic and quaint side of downtown Napa. The streets had simple obvious names like "Church St." (where a church was around the block) and "School St." (in front of a school). We had breakfast at Alexis' Baking Company and sat outside to enjoy the sunny weather. I immediately noticed the beautiful Victorian architecture surrounding the area and even spotted an adorable eccentrically painted home that reminded me of Carl and Ellie's house from Up! (one of my favorite movies). We researched some of the nearby homes on our phones while we enjoyed brunch (the magic of smart phones these days), and found out that some of the nearby buildings were from the early 1900s and had long histories of being covered back-and-forth between homes and boutique office buildings.

After breakfast we crossed the Napa river again to Oxbow Public Market on the other side. Pretty much a miniature version of the San Francisco's Ferry Building or New York's Chelsea Market. It was small but had a few pretty interesting shops: we sampled some flavored olive oil, took a sniff of some exotic and unusual spices (there were like fifty different varieties of salt alone), and admired some very pretty looking cupcakes.

We didn't spend much time in downtown Napa as we were eager head out of town to start exploring the wine trail, but if we had more time I definitely would have liked to take a stroll around the neighborhood just to see what other interesting architectural history we could find. Downtown Napa is full of hidden charm, once you look past the overworked facade.