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Discover Napa Valley
Think of quality of life, with spas and wellness, stunning places to stay, and food and wine - and head north of San Francisco
By: Mary Gostelow
California's entire wine areas are not only into the grape but into the food that goes with it - the 15th annual Napa Valley Mustard Festival, for instance, runs February 2 - March 29 2008, www.mustardfestival.org.
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Sponsored by, among others, American Airlines and Lexus, the festival benefits local charities. Among the many events is a black tie awards night - who will succeed the 2007 People's Choice Chef, Vincent Nattress, of Meadowood Napa Valley?
Purely on behalf of WOW.travel, I returned to the valleys for a weekend of food, wine and, as it turned out, spa treatments. First stop was a fabulous 'bed and breakfast', Gaige House in Glen Ellen. Built by the Gaige family in the 1890s as their butcher's shop (they lived overhead, apparently), it is now owned by two Hong Kong connoisseurs, David Chang and Goodwin Gaw, and managed by Thompson Hotels. Of the 23 rooms, I thoroughly recommend 17, a Japanese-style villa with solid granite egg-shaped soaking tub, an inner-courtyard Japanese garden, and a private garden to the rushing Sonoma Creek about ten yards away. Your gas-fuelled log-look fire works by a remote-control zapper. Villa 17 is nearest to the main house, which has a series of residential-style parlors, and some bedrooms upstairs. Two minutes' walk brought me to main lodge, where more fires warmed the two big reception rooms (where surely in the past Mr Gaige and cut and sold his prime ribs?).
It was time for the nightly complimentary wine-tasting, today hosted by local vintner Chris Loxton, an Australian nuclear scientist who now prefers the Glen Ellen lifestyle, www.loxtonwines.com. He was showing a 2006 Parmelee-Hill Chardonnay that he makes from grapes from Steve and Ned Hill in Carneros; a 2005 Hillside Zinfandel from Sonoma County, where he has used reverse osmosis to take the alcohol down to its present 14.2%; a 2005 Shiraz from Sonoma Valley, and a 2004 Hillside Syrah from Sonoma County that he matures first for 20 months in French oak and then a further 16 months in the bottle.
The Gaige House team, led by Karyl Bridgewater and Yaniv Natanov, have a whole list of local restaurants. I really liked the informality and good basic food at no-reservation Fig Café, only seven minutes' walk away (try their quick-fried calamari with lemon), www.thegirlandthefig.com. Breakfast at Gaige House, however, is truly memorable - and it must seem like another world to traditionalists used only, say, to a croissant or bowl of cereal. Chef Charles Holmes, whose background includes training with one of my favorite culinarians, Gary Danko, comes daily with a brigade of crisp-white clad disciples to prepare set menus, offered at 8.30, 9.30 and 10 o'clock. There is no choice. You might get one of his signatures, say Artichoke and Pistachio Blini with Home Smoked Salmon, Asparagus and Saffron Cream. I was across in the main parlor by eight o'clock, to check emails, and I found a supply of excellent juice and pump coffee already out, with copies of today's New York Times and the San Francisco Examiner - which I have just discovered is owned by Philip Amschutz, whose wide portfolio includes the LA Galaxy soccer team, with David Beckham, and London's O2 Dome. At 8.30 I go through to a room at the rear of the main house for my time of breakfast, to find tables set with white linens and small flower displays. You help yourself to more excellent just-squeezed juice and coffee from the sideboard. I can see into the kitchen, where Holmes and three assistants are preparing little bites. Today I am first brought a full-size soup dish which has a thimble-size mound of organic sweetened yogurt with a little cake, the same size - like the Bordeaux canalé cakes. In front of this are four tiny segments, two each orange and pink grapefruit, and three blueberries. There is a short wait, the dish is removed and I am brought the next course, this time an enormous flat white plate which holds about half a cup of julienne of carrot salad topped by two slivers of parmesan, and to one side is a squiggle of what apparently is white raisin purée. Fortunately I had managed to ask the major domo - a man who looked like a retired headmaster - if he had any 'bread': he came back with three of the thinnest slices of baguette you have ever seen, in a linen-lined basked, with a long Japanese plate that had a matching bowl on it with a walnut-sized scoop of whipped butter. I ate all this in three quick mouthfuls, and then I had to leave as I had a facial, which meant I missed out on the finale, which apparently was eggs with shrimp and bacon and goodness knows what else.
And oh yes, the facial, it was heaven. The third floor attic of Gaige House has been skilfully turned into a spa room, with four beds separated by a ceiling-high screen (photo). It is very calm, very clean, very attractive. It uses an outside contractor, Rose Creek Massage, who had sent along Natasha. Despite the fact she looked as if she should still have been in grade school she was a skilful operator, using ayurvedic oils from Sundari. After that I had another shower, shampooed-my hair to de-ayurvedic it, and slowly drove around the valleys.
There is something really special about driving in an American automatic car, rolling gently from one vineyard to another. You pass such legendary names as Franciscan, Mondavi, Trefethen, Sequoia. I noticed Nickel & Nickel is extending its building to almost twice its current size. Some areas look better than at my last visit. Others, noticeably Boyes Hot Spring north of Sonoma, look pretty run down.
At the junction of Highway 29 and the Oakville Crossroad is the Oakville Grocery, which has been purveying since 1881. Sorry, I think it should be pensioned off. Its car park is four times the size I remember, there were at least four times too many people in the store itself (at 2.15pm), the mostly-Mexican staff were chatting among themselves rather than serving and the clientele, clamoring for lunchtime sandwiches rather than gourmet foods, were more like a football crowd, www.oakvillegrocery.com. I noticed two mammoth-stretch white limos parked, one a Hummer. What kind of person would rent such a gas guzzler to go and fight-in-a-crowd for a mammoth sandwich, I wondered.
Disillusioned, I headed north to Dean & DeLuca, just south of St Helena. My spirits lifted immediately. Here was a true temple of food, staffed by well-groomed enthusiasts who really wanted to share their passion for the products. Want a gelato or sorbet? Fiorello's home-made range includes roasted peanut fudge. What about tea? As well as Dean & DeLuca's own, you have Mariage Frères, and Hédiard, both from France, and from England there is Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire blend, and organic from Harrisons & Crosfield. I found the first proper American jams I had seen (the commercial ones are generally much too sweet), big preserving pots of Clearbook Farms preserves and there were giant vanilla cupcakes and individual lemon brûlée tarts. Today's sandwiches include ham and frisée, on rosemary levain, and labeled examples of all breads types were put out so you know what you are getting. They have an attractive steak-grill-rotisserie restaurant, Press, next door,
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www.presssthelena.com. Well done, Dean & DeLuca - though apparently there is competition now that Whole Foods, the magnet for intelligent gourmets, has just opened up in downtown Napa, www.wholefoodsmarket.com.
And just as the previous night had been at a contender for one of the most memorable luxury 'bed and breakfasts' worldwide, so tonight was to be special too. Meadowood is being so refreshed and refined, botoxed and elevated that once all the enhancements are finished it could well be one of the modern-luxury lifestyle resorts, anywhere. Thank you Bill Harlan, who put the resort together in the first place, way back in 1975, and Charles Banks, the new co-owner (who also co-owns one of my favorite wines, Screaming Eagle, but that is another story). And thank you, legendary former Four Seasons Stan Bromley, overseeing the renovations, and onsite General Manager, Alain Negueloua, for making it all happen.
Everyone but guests is first name at the new Meadowood, by the way. Negueloua is Alain to all his lovely staff, who amazingly all seemed to remember my family name and pronounce it correctly. Brandon was ready, without being asked, to drive me down to dinner that night. When Brandon drove me back to Hillside Estate Suite 92 after dinner, again without being asked he suggested he rebuild my real log fire, which he did expertly. It is this kind of place (in the morning, room service called to ask if I wanted a yoga mat - how did they know? - and when the gym opened at 6.30 am, on the dot, the manager there was smiling and alert, and offered me one of the perfect fruits from wood wine boxes that made such suitable holders). Another such empty wine box had awaited me in suite 92, on arrival, with two kinds of citrus, two of apples, two of pears, and a handwritten note from the chef - yes, Vincent Nattress himself - explained which fruit was which.
Suite 92, the lower of a two-floor building constructed high on stilts, is reached by 61 steps down from the road. Howard Backen, who has designed many of the new Napa wineries, has gone for off-white walls and ceiling, with highlights of the walnut cream that is oh-so-2008. The four-post bed, with linen curtains, dominates the suite: lie in it, and looks straight ahead, or to your right, and you look over your private L-shaped terrace into lush treetops. The television arises out a low table, by remote control. Nothing must spoil your view. You have that real-log working fire, and, what a joy, a real breakfast nook, with two banquettes either side of a fixed table, and the refreshment area includes a toaster and coffee maker, both Cuisinart.
If you arrange it beforehand, have a tour of the neighboring Napa Valley Reserve private members' club, for enthusiasts from many parts of the globe who have adopted lines of vines, later have their own wine labels and enjoy each others' stimulating company at members' events. Napa Valley Reserve, by the way, is separate from the Meadowood Club, for local residents who want to use the facilities of the 85-room resort. There is so much to do at this 250-acre resort, like hiking or biking, tennis or croquet - with a pro who was once a line worker at General Motors. There is a fun pool for families and serious lap pool for others, and, not surprisingly, a first-class spa. If you are really fit, like me, book a deep tissue sports massage with the director, Kerry Brackett: wow, will my calves ever recover? She brought her equipment to my suite so I was able to tumble straight into bed after, to have a little rest, and I mean little as it was time for dinner.
One of the two dining venues, The Restaurant, has two Michelin stars, and reservations are very definitely required. New chef here is Christopher Kostow, and the sommelier, Rom Toulon, has over 950 wines - including Screaming Eagle vintages 1994 through to 2004, with the exception of year 2000 - on his list. There is a seven-course tasting menu, or a design-your-own prix fixe. My dinner - prepared by Kostow's predecessor, Joseph Humphrey - was King Richard Leeks with maitake mushrooms, pecans, aged sheep's milk cheese (paired with Pinot Noir Clos Pepe Vineyard Ojai, Santa Rita Hills 2004); Organic farro wheat-risotto with butternut squash, hedgehog mushrooms and Cabernet emulsion (Ch Musar Serge Hochar, Lebanon's Bekaa Valley 1995) and Wild striped bass roasted over fennel with sassafras, horseradish and fennel brandade (Petit Verdot V Viader Napa Valley 2003). When we left, the neighboring bar was full of people - just hoping, hoping, to get a table. This was one of the least-pretentious multi-Michelin experiences I remember, thanks to the simply genuine friendliness of all the staff.
The bed, which had both a thin cover and a thick duvet, with a walnut-cream cashmere throw nearby, had been tidied. There was tomorrow's Meadowood Journal news-sheet, with some cookies and a bookmark quoting Plato: wise men talk because they have something to say, fools talk because they have to say something.
My breakfast was simple, by choice. Private dining arrived at the allotted hour, with a big covered basked that could have come straight from that divine Gosford Park 'English country house' movie by Robert Altman. My breakfast-nook table was set up with white china, white linens, great juice in a plain tumbler, coffee strong enough for anyone but winemaker Serge Hochar - the Lebanese like their coffee Turkish style. I ate looking out into the trees, musing that in a few months' time Meadowood would once again, as every year, be center of the wine universe. The 2007 auction brought in $9.8 million, including $1.1 million realized by a bid for three three-litre bottles of Stagliano Sangiovese, which happened to come with a luxury trip to both Napa Valley and Italy (the bidder was John Thompson, CEO of software company Symantec). Second-highest bid, by Joy Craft, owner of High Point Ventures investment - coincidentally, like Symantec, in Woodside, CA - was $500,000, for three three-litre bottles of Screaming Eagle, namely 2003, 2002 and 2001, plus a camping trip for eight to the winery. So what will happen at this year's auction, June 5-8, 2008, one wonders, www.napavintners.com? At least 800 enthusiasts will be at Meadowood to find out.
As I left the beautiful Meadowood luxury resort on the Sunday morning of my wine weekend, however, all was quiet. A basket of one kind of rosy red apples was by the reception desk, and a supply of bottled water stood in an ice bucket. Great hospitality, Meadowood, www.meadowood.com.
Meadowood Napa Valley, Napa&Sonoma, United States
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