after dinner sneeze

t says: It’s been about a year since our last Napa trip and g and I were looking forward to a revisit of wine country as well as visiting kp in SF. We made up our list of wineries and tasting rooms to visit, booked our virgin America flights, and off we went … after a several hour delay leaving philly …

We started off day 1 with some quiche and donut from Bouchon Bakery. The quiche was second only to some of Talula’s Daily’s creations, while the donut was a little too butter-laden for us..

But we did think it was cute that hey gave you a donut AND a donut hole!

We then went to Maisonry – a great place for rapid-fire tasting in a serene setting. The ’10s and ’11s we tasted were very lean and green – it was going to be a tough time for wineries to pry money out is my wallet this trip! Oh and there was a dude hawking his late harvest Sauterne-style wine (and Trader Joe cheese) – quite good for the amount of sweetness it had (g and I tend to avoid sweet wines). But if it’s going to be $75 for a half-bottle, it better make me cry with how good it is.

Lunch was courtesy of Reddwood, a new addition to Yountville, and right next door (kinda) from Maisonry! It had some kickass food, from a delish chopped salad …

… to a crazy burrata (which inspired g to say: you know there is nothing better than burrata and bread …)….

… To meatballs and greens …

Newton was our first winery visit this trip and the winery was beautiful, with nice gardens and sweeping views of rows and rows of vine. The wines, themselves were pretty good – g liked the ’09 Puzzle – but I wasn’t convinced that any were worth the price tag so I held out – two wine stops and no wines purchased! A new record!

We went to Bottega for dinner. g was initially embarrassed to take pictures, but when this hamachi came out, I told her I was overruling her and did as I pleased …

. The pastas were out of control, too! g did a version of carbonara and I had the sweet corn pasta with squab ragout. Quite a great meal (and WAY better than Bouchon).