Help me fill out my tasting plans in Napa Valley

[glutton]

I haven't been to Napa in more than a decade and it seems like a million wineries have opened since that last visit. (I also have money to spend this time, but that's neither her nor there.) I'm putting together a gameplan for our 2.5 days in Napa and was hoping you could offer some suggestions.

To start, I will say that we generally prefer small wineries. Our favorite wines tend to be not-so-big as those huge Cabs that some wineries in Napa produce. We like wines that are good alongside dinner. Examples would be Foxen, Qupe, and Cakebread. We also love sparkling wines and ciders. Dry-farmed wines, for whatever reason, tend to appeal to us, though I'm not sophisticated enough to make that an essential demand of any winery we visit.

For food, we generally don't like the huge, big-name restaurants. We love the more casual, hole-in-the-wall places. It's not because we're cheap, but more because we appreciate the authenticism that comes from a small kitchen producing good, honest food for a relatively small dining room.

Here's what's on tap already:

Wineries: Duckhorn, Paraduxx (hotel comps us a tasting at both), Schramsberg, Far Niente, Failla, Cakebread. We've got time for one or two more wineries. We're willing to pay for the tasting, if that's essential to find good wine and small crowds.

Food: We'll probably build a picnic from the Oxbow Market one day. We've got reservations at Ad Hoc for one night. I've got more research to do to come up with other places to eat. We used to live in California and terribly miss the good mexican food, so bonus points to anybody who offers a suggestion for a great mexican place.

Any help or insight you offer would be great. Thanks in advance.

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Ad Hoc
6476 Washington St., Yountville, CA 94599

Far Niente
1350 Acacia Drive, Oakville, CA

[JasmineG]

For Napa Mexican, here are a few good threads for you: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/464642 http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/659254 http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/479418

[glutton]

La Mixteca looks like a slam dunk -- it's on the list. We could easily eat there for lunch and dinner each day. Thank you very much...

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La Mixteca
2580 Jefferson St, Napa, CA 94558

[pleasuredome]

Try Grace's Table in Napa, Seattle Chef's--Great Food, small, off the beaten path staff and the food is awesome.
Casa @ Oxbow is great fresh Mexican but no frills
Wineries: Behrens and Hitchcock on Spring Mountain
McGilliams-family owned and a real local treat=Great inexpensive "value" winesSpring Mtn

[wolfe]

Summarized from one of the links of the tasting day of EN and KR.
La Mixteca
Chileajo de puerco (Simple red mole [literal:"Chile-garlic"] with pork spare riblets
Chileajo - stunningly good - just order it! If I was alone, I would have licked the plate clean - no joke. You get about 4 riblets awash in this absolutely sexy deep brick red sauce nuanced with clove and peppercorn.
Based on this I had it, I liked it.

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La Mixteca
2580 Jefferson St, Napa, CA 94558

[vulber]

while i understand the desire to go to small, family-run places, you're also goign to some top-notch wineries (especially duckhorn), i would pick up a bottle at one and then go somewhere with no corkage fee for dinner (i like fig cafe, i've also heard nothing but great stuff abotu rutherford grill)

[Melanie Wong]

Note that Fig Cafe is in Glen Ellen in the Sonoma Valley, not Napa Valley, and not that close of a drive to Duckhorn or the other wineries mentioned by the OP unless one tackles the steep and winding mountain roads.

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Fig Cafe
13690 Arnold Dr, Glen Ellen, CA 95442

Duckhorn Vineyards
1000 Lodi Ln St, Helena, CA

[glutton]

Our preference towards small wineries probably entirely revolves around an aversion to large, highly-orchestrated, and glitzy places. perhaps we're missing out on some wonderful wines or beautiful wineries if we harbor that preference. therefore, if you're thinking we're missing out on some good wines that are especially food-friendly, then by all means, pass along those suggestions. The most important thing is for us to find some good, food-friendly wines. That's not always been so easy in California, as the cabs have gotten bigger and bigger over the years.

[Missmoo]

I would recommend Miner or Saddleback vineyards near Silver Oak. Also Frank Family has some very nice sparkling wines, but it's up further, past St. Helena.

[glutton]

Beyond the wineries and restaurants, are there other foodie places I should be planning to visit in Napa? I know about Oxbow Market and we'll definitely go there. But are there other places that I should be thinking about? Olive oil producers, cheesemakers, and the like?

[wolfe]

Additional deli, Dean and Delucca. Really cute tasty little flowerpot chocolate cake and downtown Manhattan prices.
Round Pond for olive oil.
http://www.roundpond.com/index.cfm?me...

[myst]

This is just a small pull over on the side of the road type place (not fancy) but I love the wine (esp. Zin). www.milat.com and it would be quick and in the vicinity of your other choices. Sequoia Grove is also a pleasant stop.

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Milat Vineyards Winery
1091 Saint Helena Hwy S St, Helena, CA

Sequoia Grove Vineyards
8338 Saint Helena Hwy, Rutherford, CA

[glutton]

Here's what we ended up doing...

Wed afternoon (late arrival) - We stopped at Domaine Carneros (it was on the way) for a champagne flight. Pleasant spot, decent champagne, good service. We had dinner at La Mixteca, which was shutting down as we arrived just around 7PM, so it must have a bigger lunch crowd. I had the huarache with carne asada, which was fantastic. My wife had the fish tacos and they were very good, too.

Thursday -- We started off with Bouchon Bakery pastries (the hotel delivered them) and they were great. We took the tour at Schramsberg, which was outstanding -- great champagnes, great tour. We had lunch at Farmstead, which was really nice. We sat outside and had perfectly prepared meals. My "brick" chicken was executed perfectly. My wife's cobb salad was impeccable. Service was outstanding. In the afternoon, we went to Far Niente, who gave a nice tour and had good wines. It's probably the prettiest winery we saw, though the guide was a used car salesman. We then drove down to Rancho Gordo (is there anything not to love about what they sell and the farmers they buy from?) and the Oxbow Market. It was late in the afternoon, so maybe that explains it, but the Oxbow Market was not terribly inspiring. I liked Fatted Calf, but couldn't really get too excited about much else. Pica Pica looked good. We also stopped by teh Thursday night Napa farmers market, which is huge and has only a few farmers -- it's mostly prepared food and entertainment. It was packed and people were having a good time. Dinner was at Ad Hoc in Yountville, which was outstanding. They did a flank steak that I am still dreaming about.

Friday -- We started at Failla, which had wonderful, wonderful pinots. I hope their distribution expands out East. We then stopped at Duckhorn, which was fine, but we did not find the wines notable. They have a very pretty location and once their landscaping project is done, it will be beautiful. We then stopped at St. helena Olive Oil Company, which was pretty good. The "cuteness" of the store was disconcerting for the foodie in me, but they do sell nice olive oils. We then went to Cakebread, which we were really looking forward to, but found entirely disappointing. The tour guide was full of BS, the wines were served flippantly and at the wrong temperature, etc. We then had a late lunch at La Luna Market in Rutherford -- one of the best quesadillas I've ever had. (I lived in LA for years, so I'm a reasonably educated quesadilla consumer.) We putted around Yountville, saw Michael Chiarello getting ready for the Eat, Pray, Love movie junket (does his hair ever move?), etc. We sampled wines at Hope & Grace in Yountville, which were very nice. I liked their pinots and the riesling. We then had dinner at the bar at Bouchon, which was very good.

Saturday -- we made a quick trip to Paraduxx for a flight of wines and were pleasantly surprised. It was one of the nicer places to taste -- we sat outside under the trees. Granted, there was a loud bachelorette party off in the distance, but it did not bother us too much and the wines were good. Better than its sister winery, Duckhorn.

All in all, a great trip. Thanks to all for the recs.

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Rancho Gordo
1924 Yajome St, Napa, CA 94559

Ad Hoc
6476 Washington St., Yountville, CA 94599

Bouchon Bakery
6528 Washington St, Yountville, CA 94599

La Mixteca
2580 Jefferson St, Napa, CA 94558

Fatted Calf
644-C First Street, Napa, CA 94559

Far Niente
1350 Acacia Drive, Oakville, CA

Domaine Carneros
1240 Duhig Rd, Napa, CA

Bouchon
6534 Washington Street, Yountville, CA 94599

[JasmineG]

What a great report, thanks so much for it. Oxbow is pretty underwhelming in general, I'm not sure what it is, but it's never a place that I want to linger (even though I love the spice place).

[Dawgmommy]

Glad you had a good time. Re: the Thursday "Farmer's Market" in Napa, which is pretty much a mis-nomer. Think it's "officially" the Chef's Marekt. The real farmer's market is Sat morning at the parking lot by Oxbow. St Helena has a very nice farmers market on Fridays. It's behind the high school. I generally go to Fatted Calf and not much else at Oxbow. Their lamb is the best I ever had.

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Fatted Calf
644-C First Street, Napa, CA 94559

[glutton]

I forgot to mention that we did go to the St Helena Farmers Market. It was very nice. The spot is great because you get this gorgeous view of the mountains and vineyards as the morning fog burns off. The selection of fruits and vegetables was first class. Frog's Leap had some of the best white peaches I've ever tasted. There was another stand whose name I do not remember, but they had a huge variety of plums, pluots, and other stone fruits, most of heritage varieties. The baked goods at this market might also be the best I've seen at any market in the US (trust me, that's a lot of markets). I especially love the pretzel croissants at the German bakery.