I think the last time I visited Bistro Jeanty was some time in 2011. I remember it was an Napa outing with a group of friends that ended in the V. Sattui picnic area, scarfing down cheese and charcuterie while having riesling and an A. Fuente cigar.
11 years later, I am at Bistro Jeanty with a group of friends again for a long lunch and an afternoon in Yountville.
After lunch, I paid a visit to Domaine Chandon to see what was new. They’re doing a remodel right now for their 50th Anniversary next year. Chandon specializes in sparkling wine with some regular wines made with their grapes. They had some sparkling wines made with red wine which was new to me, which means Must Try!
Bistro Jeanty 6510 Washington Street Yountville, CA 94599 707-944-0103
Unlike my fren DSD, who took the plunge and moved to London on a UK working holiday visa (Why we dun get those here, I’ll never understand. Must be a union thing), I’ve been up to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that’s worth recording in photo or in words.
Over the next few weeks, here’s what’s up with me (as of 1 June): Fix my black car’s headlinerDone! Fix the washing machine (stupid electrical stuff)Done! Begin replacing windows in one of the buildingsSigned Paperwork to authorise work
Begin backyard renovation (a lot of weeds to pull)
Begin hunting for new used couch & chair
Begin cleaning out the garage
Explore bathroom remodel
Explore repainting the house
You will notice that NONE of these things involve travel, EQM or flirting with SQ girls. How boring! I did take a brief roadtrip to the Napa Valley and paid a return visit to the Silver Oak Winery. You will recall, last time I made the trip up there was for the February winter release party that was to be the last one there because they’re tearing down the old, fire damaged building. I found out on my recent visit that Silver Oak will continue to have release parties in Oakville. But the question is, how?
It has a purty parking lot though. Wonder how they’re going to pull it off?
I’ve recently realized that the Napa Valley, for all of its greatness (great wine, great food), CAN be overdone.
Two weekends ago, I did my annual pilgrimage to Silver Oak and surrounding wineries. This past Friday and Saturday (CNY eve, yes I know…) I did Napa all over again with my visiting from overseas friend. I can truthfully say that’s I’m knackered. Too much good wine, too much good food, too much CHOCKY (yes, S-A, it IS possible) that I’m actually craving something more ghetto, something more common.
Maybe like a chef salad? Or a Chicken McNugget? No, not THAT tired of good food yet…
Friday was a great day of wine and food. It started with Domaine Chandon. Champagne, whoops I mean “sparkling wine” and salmon. Not bad for the first snack of the day…
Lunch was at the Rutherford Grill along with a visit to BV. These two always go together. For over three hours!!
By the time we finished lunch, there was only time to hit one more winery before closing time. And that was V. Sattui again. Remember the adult ho-ho? Well, we bought one and mostly split it.
It was SOOO rich and filling that there was no dinner! That was a lot of chocolate…
Saturday we went to Copia for their annual “Death by Chocolate” event.
And yes, the title of the event was an accurate description. Besides the very long demonstration events where dessert cooks were making desserts (takes a very long time to do that), there was a tasting event from 1300-1500 on both floors. Every form of gourmet chocky and wine to complement it. So much that I’m actually swearing off sweets.
For a week.
Copia also has a fancy restaurant named after Julia Child. We had a small lunch.
Things in Napa usually shut down by 17:00 so it was back to SFO to wind up this visit. And if you live in The City, you know that traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge is crap going inbound. So we wound up watching the traffic roll in from the Headlands instead.
One of the advantages of living in San Francisco (The City) is that the Napa Valley is close by. VERY close by. 45 minutes (with no traffic) close by. That means that Wine Country events are within striking range from home. Which means, I wind up going to a lot of release parties…
Silver Oak had its 2002 Cabernet release party today. This will be the last release party at the current facility in Oakville as it was damaged just before last year’s release party and it was decided to build a new facility instead of rebuilding the old one. So my frens and I headed out at 0830 to Oakville.
A Silver Oak release party is when the winery releases a vintage for sale to the general public. Its also an excuse for food, autographs and US$20 bottomless glasses of the vintage being offered from 0900 to 1500.
Since the event runs from 0900 to 1500, there’s a small window of time to actually get here and enjoy yourself before the unkempt hordes arrive around 1200. You can also get free, close by parking if you get here early. We got here around 1000 and immediately began sampling the wine and provided snacks.
Prior to last year’s winery fire, the main building used to be open for viewing with food vendors inside, in addition to the ones outside. This year, there was just a handful of food vendors outside hawking chili, mini roast beef sandwiches and fruit cocktail along with the usual gift vendors.
A very interesting crowd gets here before 1100.
After the event, most people who are already here continue their Napa day by visiting other wineries. We visited Plumpjack, Heitz and ended the day at V. Sattui for a late lunch.
Plumpjack is down the street from Silver Oak and they were offering tastings of two wines and you keep the glass for US$10.00. The red was a 2004 cab that seemed pleasant enough for an everyday wine but had a strange aftertaste. It was a nice place for camwhoring tho.
New this year was a visit to the Heitz Winery. It has a swish tasting room that was recently built and they had a full FREE tasting of two cabs, a chardonnay and a kick ass port.
The nice thing about small wineries like Heitz is that you can discover some neat wines that you normally wouldn’t be able to try because they aren’t widely distributed. Also, the vineyard is usually behind the visitor’s center. Like so.
The end of the tasting day came at V. Sattui which is our traditional pit stop for food and still more wine.
You go inside and buy picnic sets and then you buy cheese and bread and wine and desserts. Then you go outside to the picnic area. Mind the signs and don’t stay that late because…
Then we went back in and bought more wine. I got two bottles of the Gamay Rouge and one of the Muscat. One of my frens bought a cases’ worth so we got the 10% discount! Cool!
As the day ended and the sun went down, it was a painful slog to get back to the City. Traffic. It took so long that I passed out when we left and sobered up by the time we hit Berkeley. Still 40 minutes away! It took a while to get home, but I wasn’t driving!
Silver Oak 915 Oakville Cross Rd Oakville, CA 94562
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