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jbelmont
California
3106 Posts |
 Posted - 10/26/2010 : 9:08:04 PM
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My September 2010 trip to Northern California included a hike in Yosemite, a walking tour of mid-town Sacramento, a visit to Ukiah, and then Wine country.
Wine country is an ill-defined part of California where wine is grown. Napa and Sonoma counties are both roughly an hour North of San Francisco, and are generally thought of as the epicenter of wine country. However, many other areas have a plethora of vineyards to boast of. Mendocino county further north has very unique wines and a cooler, greener climate with many vineyards using Italian grapes such as Primativo, Barbera, and others. San Mateo, and Santa Cruz also have vineyards, and then Yuba, and other central valley areas have famous vineyards too such as Sutter.
I'm not well versed in Northern California wines. Down South where I live -- if you order by the glass, we get only some mediocre bottles from various cliche commercialized vineyards, but we don't get much idea of how good the boutique vineyards are. On a previous trip, I stopped in Sonoma and sampled an ounce or two of some really unique wines. Each one had different "notes" and a different style. We never get these ones by the glass back in Los Angeles. Each wine was great. One had cranberry tones, while another had black pepper, and others were wonderful and personalized too.
On this trip, I stayed in Napa city proper and wanted to see the city in detail. I had dinner at a chop shop. They had fish, pork chops, lamb chops and nice cuts of beef. I had a salmon with asparagus. But, I didn't like the wine. Then, for desert, I had a whisky flavored bread pudding. That made the trip. I remember having bread pudding for the first time in New Orleans. That is the desert of deserts.
The next day I went to a cool coffee place downtown and had my usual mocha. The barrista (server) joked that someone earlier had ordered the Frank Sumatra. I liked the joke and said, thanks a latte. I love coffee jokes and the ambiance of a good coffee house. I wanted to see the other coffee places while it was still early, so I walked down to the tourist part of town down by the river. They had many French restaurants with dishes that didn't appeal to me. Lots of "Petit Plats" and things with cheese which I find distasteful. I love the sophitication of the French, but generally don't like the particular ingredients they choose. My dream is to find a Chinese restaurant run by French people -- that would work (no cheese for one thing). One host gave me a quick tour of his place. Then, I stopped by the famous, Napa General Store, which is anything but a general store. Its an eatery, tourist trap, and gift shop. They had coffee, Ye Olde Clam Chowder, and sandwhiches. It was a lovely place. Then, there was a bakery cafe which was on my list of cafes. I tried a cranberry apricot pastry, and it made my day. Time was running short, so it was off to Muir woods for a hike.
Since I had resolved to improve my spiritual condition (because of the dream in my Yosemite part 2 blog - please read it), I stopped by the Zen center in Marin county for two hours. Great food and fine wine have their appeal, but there is nothing like a stroll in the Zen center. It feels like its nestled in the hills of Japan, and you are enticed by the subtle aromas of eucalyptus and various flowers that they grow. The atmosphere emanates .... Stillness... Living in a chaotic environment like Los Angeles makes people always in a hurry. So, there is nothing better, than calming down and working on being centered in an environment with stillness. I never understood how such a wonderful vibration could be transmitted to a place. Maybe it was the monk from Japan who lived there in the 70's who instilled this stillness into the multi-acred estate. In any case, there is no greater pleasure, than a slow walk down the winding one lane road, past the trees in the valley, leading to the meditation room. I'm always perplexed why its always empty except for me. Its a gift from god, people should use it. Actually, the Zen folks don't believe in God; they believe in finding your true self. But, I argue, that the enlightenment ( Satori ) they always refer to can only come from God, and your connection to god. Apart from my idealistic differences with them, I'll give them credit for having an excellent spiritual technique, and the achievement of stillness. Even the Hindu meditation groups with their sophisticated Guru's and tried and true spiritual techniques can not compare to the Zen followers in terms of achieving stillness. I meditated and did spiritual cleaning for two hours. A bit, much, but it was over due. Then, it was off to hiking a few minutes away in Muir Woods.
Muir woods is an ancient redwood grove in Marin county. Beautiful redwood trees tower above you and its moist and a bit dark since you are well shaded from the sun. Its Gods gift to human-kind, so I try to visit there whenever I'm in the area. Its actually a family tradition as my grandmother -- a former resident of San Francisco proclaimed that Muir Woods was one of her favorite places, second only to Yosemite. I enjoyed a wonderful healing hike in the woods. I got slightly lost as their are no navigation guides when the trails split, but my intuition didn't fail me, so I made it back on time. The trail went up for 45 minutes, then left down some steep wooden stairs, and then back through the main part of the park which has a boardwalk that goes through the most famous of the redwood groves. You can see a cross section of a tree that goes back 1200 years ago. It was rejuvinating being in those woods, and time was ticking to explore Napa for dinner. I made the 65 minute commute back to Napa, and had a list of places to go to.
Dinner for me was what I had been dreaming about. A French oriented town, with a Chinese restaurant. I wondered if the food would have the subtlety of the French, but with Chinese ingredients. I had a very unique Taiwanese dish - tea sauce beef. Nobody else has it -- unless you go to Taipei. It was a nice dish with subtle tea flavors. I enjoyed it, but it didn't wow me. Then, off to the various wine bars on my list. I was walking from the hotel, so I didn't have to drive. I tried a famous wine tasting place that was also a rib place. I found the wines to be too sweet, and not to my liking. But, the locals were nice, and we enjoyed some great conversation. Then, I went back to the chop shop for desert and tasted a "Big" wine there. I only had a small portion of the big wine, and it was very robust. A cabernet loaded with flavor. After that, I went to Zuzu's for some Tempranillo. The staff there are great, and next time I'll dine there and have Paiella or some other specialty. I told the bar tender that all the wines I had were too sweet. He explained that the heat of Napa brings out too much sugar in the wines, and thats why they were too sweet. My experience with Sonoma wines was completely different. After that it got late, so it was back to the hotel.
The next day, I did a driving tour of the residential areas of Napa. I went to Whole Foods and no visit to a place is complete without it. I kid you not, but 30% of the whole enormous store was the wine section, and there was a full time staff member who's job was to supervise wine tasting.
So, my Napa trip was fun, but the wine was surprisingly not that great. It was the pastries and desert that won me over -- not the food, and not the wine, of which Napa is famous for. And I'm on a diet, so once I have tasted the goodies once, thats the first and last time. I look forward to my next visit, but I'll probably go to Sonoma, not Napa since their offerings appeal to me more.
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Jeremy's trip to wine country.
