Spend a week in Napa Valley

DAN LEVITT SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

One of the greatest places in the world to experience food and wine is the Napa Valley. California's storied wine region is best experienced with a glass of wine in your hand and a plate filled with fresh gastronomic creations. It is a paradise for the gourmand and the enophile.

During my childhood, our family often ventured down south to Northern California to visit my aunt. It was on one of these vacations that Napa Valley formed an indelible imprint and began my fascination and love for this region.

My first memory of visiting the Napa Valley was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge looking west over San Francisco Bay at the downtown skyline and the island of Alcatraz and wondering what adventures my aunt had planned. As we drove along the highway leaving the city, there was a gradual change of landscape and scenery as we approached our destination. The rolling hills were no longer covered with residential developments but with four-foot tall vines planted all in a row hugging the rolling hills.

I remember driving into the palm tree-filled parking lot of Christian Brothers Winery to tour the impressive Greystone Estate and watch my parents and aunt sip wine. This memory was racing through my mind this past winter as I visited Napa Valley with my wife and our newborn daughter. We spent an afternoon at the former Christian Brothers Winery, which is now the West Coast home of the Culinary Institute of America. Indulging in great food is easily done at the Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant. The creamy butternut squash soup with toasted pumpkin seed oil was a great starter and the warm frisee and smoked trout salad with whole grain mustard vinaigrette and crispy Yukon Gold potatoes was delectable.

Following a relaxing meal in the dazzling restaurant space, we walked over to the cooking studio for a demonstration by one of the chef instructors who shared his secrets with a classroom of food enthusiasts. The one-hour cooking class focused on the art of making a frittata. The highlight of the lecture was the opportunity to taste a piece of the delicious masterpiece.

Just a typical day off

An average day in the Napa Valley begins at breakfast with the other guests staying at your bed and breakfast who, sit across from you and compare notes of wine-tasting experiences and share the names of wineries and restaurants on their not-to-be-missed lists. As breakfast winds down, the host of the inn offers us assistance in planning our adventures for the day. By 10 a.m., we are headed out on our journey to taste the finest cabernet sauvignons and Zinfandels.

A great place to begin a Napa Valley experience is the Robert Mondavi Winery, which offers an educational tour beginning with an introduction to local and Mondavi family history. It also offers guests a visit to the vineyards, cellar and barrel room. The highlight is the tasting of wines paired with hors d'oeuvres. This vintner is a pioneer in the wine industry and the Mondavi family is actively involved in the business, with Robert's sons - who are now running the business – regularly on site. On our visit to the winery, we were introduced to Robert Mondavi's wife, Magrit, who was delighted to pose for a photograph with our daughter, Dahlia, and offered my wife and I a case of wine in exchange for Dahlia.

After parting from Magrit (but not our daughter), we headed across Highway 29 to sip some wine at Cakebread Cellars, which is renowned for oak-flavored chardonnays. The tasting was fun, from the Welshman filling our glasses to the group of Canadian lawyers who joined our tasting group, having left behind their litigious colleagues at a law conference in San Francisco to become Bacchlarians for a day.

A favorite lunch stop of ours is Cindy Pawlcyn's Mustard's, which is the quintessential Napa grill, with its mix of local specialties like onion rings with home-made, tomato-apple ketchup, gardener's pie with wild mushrooms, spring vegetables and potato-parmesan crust, or the catch of the day with garlic mashed potatoes. A sip of water with the midday meal is refreshing after a morning of wine tasting.

After lunch, we drove north through the towns of Yountville, Oakville, Rutherford and St. Helena, stopping just before the northern end of the valley at Schramsberg, a winery known for champagne. What makes this old winery unique are the two miles of underground caves where the tour guide explains the intricacies of the champenoise method. The afternoon concluded with a taste of the first American sparkling wine to be served in the White House. Don't leave without purchasing a bottle for a special occasion.

Our innkeepers welcomed us back from our day of food and wine with more food and wine. When the sun began to set over the western hills of the valley, our hosts made dinner reservations for us at Tra Vigne. The restaurant is located within an Italian village setting, with the focal point being a grand dining room with 30-foot vaulted ceilings and a hand-carved bar. The chef's creations, from antipasti to pastas, entrees and desserts, pay passionate homage to traditional Italian cookery. The restaurant offers an extensive wine list, although guests bringing in a bottle from Merryvale Winery next door benefit from a waived corkage fee.

When not wining, dining

After a few days of wining and dining, it is advisable to give your waistband and your wallet a rest. A great surprise is Taylor's Refresher, a 1950s-style burger stand off Highway 29 in St. Helena. The restaurant serves ordinary food in unexpected ways – seared ahi tuna burgers and thick espresso milk shakes. It's a great local spot.

Another new restaurant recently opened is Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, located in the heart of St. Helena. Owned by the same restaurateur as Mustard's, Cindy's is described by the owner as "a local joint, hip, casual and not fussy."

A visit to Napa Valley would not be complete without a midday picnic with freshly baked breads, some olives, local cheeses and of course a bottle of red. One of the most popular places for visitors to spend the afternoon is on the grounds of the V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena. Set among the vineyard and the stone Tuscan-style winery are two acres of beautiful and spacious picnic grounds.

The other side of valley

The Silverado Trail, on the other side of the valley, receives much less traffic from wine enthusiasts. One day, we drove down the trail to a new winery called Hagafen Cellars.

The winery is owned and operated by Irit and Ernie Weir. The tasting room and visitors centre opened in May 2002. Hagafen Cellars currently produces 8,000 cases of premium table wines each year.

As we entered the tasting room, Ernie Weir, a vitner, greeted us and began to pour wines for our private tasting. The walls of the intimate tasting room are filled with pictures of the numerous occasions at the White House where the wines have been served to visiting Israeli dignitaries.

During our wine tasting we asked the winemaker what makes kosher wine kosher? We learned that making kosher wine requires much more than hiring a rabbi to say a few prayers in the cellar. Under the strictest interpretation of kosher rules, only observant Jews may participate in the production and bottling of wine.

"Our small family winery competes successfully alongside other Napa Valley wineries at wine competitions and blind wine tastings. We are proud of our success and honored to be able to produce these fine wines according to Jewish dietary laws," said Weir. In addition to their commitment to producing the classic French premium varietals of chardonnay, pinot noir, syrah, sauvignon blanc, merlot and cabernet sauvignon, Hagafen Cellars also produces a sparkling wine, brut cuvée and an off-dry white Riesling.

One winery not to be missed is Niebaum-Coppola owned by the five-time Oscar-winning director Francis Ford-Coppola, whose winery has developed a solid reputation. The movie director purchased the massive stone Inglenook Chateau in 1995 which, in addition to distinctively appointed tasting rooms, vaulted stone cellars and a spectacular hand-carved staircase crowned by a jewel-like stained-glass window, includes a museum. Located on the second floor, the museum displays memorabilia from many of Coppola's films, including Vito Corleone's desk and a chair from The Godfather, as well as Coppola's five Oscars and numerous movie stills.

At the end of the week, we packed our bags and loaded up the rental car – now filled with our loot of recently purchased wines. We once again crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge, this time looking west toward the Pacific Ocean and began planning our next visit to this food and wine nirvana.

If you go to Napa

Getting there. By plane: Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, Northwest Airlines and United Airlines all offer direct flights from Vancouver to San Francisco. By car: Driving can be done in less than 16 hours, with a recommended overnight in southern Oregon or the Mt. Shasta area.

Where to stay. The Ink House Bed and Breakfast, St. Helena, www.inkhouse.com.

Where to eat. Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, 707-963-1200, 1327 Railroad Ave., St. Helena; Mustard's Grill, 707-944-2424, 7399 St. Helena Hwy., Yountville; Taylor's Refresher, 707-963-3486, 933 Main St., St. Helena; Tra Vigne Restaurant, 707-963-4444, 1050 Charter Oak Ave., St. Helena; Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant, the Culinary Institute of America, 2555 Main St., St. Helena.

Wineries. Cakebread Cellars, 800-588-0298, 8300 St. Helena Hwy., Rutherford; Merryvale Napa Valley, 707-963-7777, 1000 Main St., St. Helena; Robert Mondavi, 707-251-4333, 87801 St. Helena Hwy., Oakville; V. Sattui, 707-963-7774, 1111 White Lane, St. Helena; Schramsberg, 707-942-2414, 1400 Schramsberg Rd., Calistoga; Hagafen Cellars, Inc., 4160 Silverado Trail, Napa; Niebaum-Coppola Estate Vineyards & Winery, 1991 St. Helena Hwy., Rutherford.

Dan Levitt is director of operations, community development and fund-raising at Haro Park Centre.

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