Napa’s vertical integration reaches an even higher peak at the Farmstead in St. Helena. Part of the Long Meadow Ranch Winery, the restaurant grows its own produce, makes its own wine, honey and olive oil, and raises the livestock that eventually wind up on your plate in nouvelle California dishes like beef carpaccio with arugula, goat cheese, citrus, and toasted almonds or brick-cooked chicken with Rancho Gordo beans and salsa verde.
“We’re into big flavors,” says executive chef Stephen Barber. “It’s really simple, straightforward cooking. We don’t do a lot to the ingredients; we let them speak for themselves. I try to get the cooks involved as much as possible in the gardens and ranch. We have the advantage of being able to go out there and picking exactly what we need every day.” Born and raised in Kentucky, Barber has infused the menu with Southern touches like jambalaya (made with San Joaquin Delta crayfish), beef grillades with grits and Tabasco sauce, and Wild Turkey bourbon ice cream. “You need to eat about a quart to get a buzz,” he jokes of the latter.
Staying true to the country vibe, the Farmstead dining room is set inside an old barn decorated with antique ploughs and hay hooks, poultry feeders and other farm equipment. Catering to locals as well as visitors, its bar offers a weekday Growers’ Happy Hour that attracts a good crowd of local vintners, farmers, and ranch hands. Farmstead might not be your typical Napa Valley experience. But the atypical is what’s in these days. And the offbeat blend has been a huge hit: earlier this year, Long Meadow Ranch won a global award for innovative wine tourism.
Back at the Oakville tasting, hundreds of eager oenophiles continue to swirl, sniff, and sip the valley’s most celebrated wines, the journalists and buyers diligently taking notes on each glass, the nervous-looking vintners wondering if their latest creations are going to sink or swim among the wine world’s movers and shakers. Snarky remarks are the order of the day. “They’ve been raving about their 2010,” says a hipster wine writer. “But I think it’s way too young.”
“There are wines here that most people will never be able to afford,” one of the winemakers remarks. A neophyte among the cognoscenti, I tell him that I can’t really tell the difference between a fifty-dollar and five- hundred-dollar bottle of cabernet sauvignon. “There really isn’t much of a difference,” he confesses. “It’s all perception. And availability. That fact that you can afford a bottle of wine that no one else can get. Some winemakers are masters at creating that buzz.”
Maybe it’s all smoke and mirrors, a “collective illusion,” as one vintner I speak with puts it. But Napa continues to do it better than just about anyone else. And with so many people flocking to the valley each year to sample its wines, food, and bucolic setting, perhaps that’s all that counts.
THE DETAILS
Getting There
More than a dozen airlines, including Japan’s ANA and Korean Air, fly from Asia to San Francisco. The drive from San Francisco Airport to Napa takes about 70 minutes via the Bay Bridge and Berkeley, or 90 minutes via Marin County. You’ll need a car for touring the 48-kilometer-long valley; Highway 29 is the main artery, but for a less busy and more scenic alternative, try the Silverado Trail, which runs roughly parallel.
When to Go
The fall harvest is the ideal time to visit. White grapes are picked in late August and September, red grapes in October and early November. By Thanksgiving, the harvest is over and everyone in the local wine trade has gone on holiday. Summers in the valley are hot, crowded, and best avoided.
Where to Stay
Located on a 100-hectare estate on the outskirts of St. Helena, Meadowood (900 Meadowood Ln.; 1-877/963-3646;doubles from US$475) offers luxe lodgings and a full range of on-site activities. Whitewashed inside and out, the spacious bungalows are sprinkled through the woods and around the edge of the resort’s nine-hole golf course. Meadowood’s three-star restaurant provides one of northern California’s most sublime dining experiences.
Another plush option is Solage Calistoga (755 Silverado Trail, Calistoga; 1-855/942-7442;doubles from US$395), where the 1,800-square-meter spa’s Bathhouse offers an updated take on the local mud-bath tradition. And in Napa City, there’s the Andaz Napa Valley (1450 First St.; 1-707/ 687-1234; ; doubles from U$228), a year-old newcomer.
Where to Eat
Apart from Meadowood and the Farmstead (738 Main St., St. Helena; 1-707/963-4555), world-class dining awaits in Yountville at the legendary French Laundry (6640 Washington Ave.; 1-707/944-2380), as well as at nearby Bottega Ristorante (6525 Washington St.; 1-707/ 945-1050), the valley’s best Italian eatery. Here, chef and owner Michael Chiarello has created an intriguing and delectable menu that runs all the way from seafood delights like pesce crudo with hamachi tuna and wood-grilled octopus to Sonoma duck al forno with kumquats, ricotta gnocchi della nonna, and roasted truffled chicken breast.
The Thomas (813 Main St.; 1-707/226-7821) and its ground-floor Fagiani’s Bar, located in a wonderfully restored historic building on the riverfront, typify the renaissance of Napa City. Named after a boarding house which once occupied the three-story brick structure, the restaurant serves up a creative range of California cuisine.
On the run between wineries, pop into Gott’s Roadside (933 Main St., St. Helena; 1/707-963-3486) for a taste of old Americana. Classic cheeseburgers and hotdogs are the most popular items, but the menu is spangled with soups, salads, sandwiches, and New Age fast foods like the ahi tuna burger.
Where to Sip
Cade Winery
Worth visiting for its panoramic views of the Napa Valley alone. As with most Napa wineries, tastings are by appointment only (360 Howell Mountain Rd. South, Angwin; 1-707/965-2746).
Chateau Montelena
The winemaker that took first place at the 1976 blind tasting in Paris continues to turn out reds and whites of great distinction (1429 Tubbs Ln., Calistoga; 1-707/942-5105).
Frog’s Leap
Organic and bio-dynamic wines are the attraction here, along with a bucolic setting amid 52 hectares of vineyards in the heart of the valley (8815 Conn Creek Rd., Rutherford; 1-707/ 963-4704).
This article originally appeared in the October/November 2013 print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Napa Valley, Revisited”)
