Day Trip to the Napa Valley - Food Pairing Seminar at Franciscan Winery - Barrel Tasting at Merryvale
Saturday May 9, 2003

We usually try and avoid the Napa Valley on weekends because of the crowds and traffic. Our main reason for traveling to the Napa Valley on this Saturday is to attend a food and wine-pairing event at the Franciscan Winery. The event features Cindy Pawlcyn, the chief and owner of the famous Mustard’s Restaurant in Yountville and the Back St. Café in St. Helena. The event is $90 a couple and that includes Cindy’s awarding winning cookbook “Mustard's Grill Napa Valley Cookbook.” The pairing consists of three small portions of Cindy’s fabulous creations and three wines paired perfectly with the food. The event is delightful and reinforces the notion that the proper pairing of good food and good wine brings out the best in each.

One advantage to signing up on the E-mail list or mailing list at wineries is to get information about these types of events plus additional information about wine sales and special tastings. This event happens to be open to the general public. More often than not, wineries host these types of events for members of their wine clubs only.

After the event is over, we head a couple of miles north to St. Helena and the Merryvale Winery. Every so often, Merryvale will have a barrel tasting event and today is one of those days. For $3 per person, we taste three 2001 wines in the barrel followed by the same varietals in the bottles from the 2000 vintage. These are not ordinary wines but the high-end Merryvale wines from the Beckstoffer Vineyards. It is both fun and educational to experience the taste of wine from the barrel and compare it to its counterpart wine in the bottle.

From St. Helena, we cross over to the Silverado Trail along Pope St. The Silverado Trail is always less traveled and the best way for us to head to the Bay Bridge and home. We are also interested in visiting a winery at the very south end of the Valley that we pass on the way home and always wondered about. The winery is the Van Der Heyden Vineyards. It is located just about across the road from the Soda Canyon Store and just about 100 yards outside of the famous Staggs Leap Appellation. This winery without a doubt is the most unusual winery that we have ever visited in the Napa Valley. First of all, the tasting room is a tiny, makeshift area that can accommodate about four guests comfortably. I doubt if the room has been dusted since it opened way back when. Not only is the tasting room different but also so are the wines. The Chardonnay has no butter or oak and as our host states this is the real taste of Chardonnay. At $18 a bottle, it an interesting alternative and will go well with light dishes. The Cabernet is huge, big, and heavy with many flavors. It is a 1998 that has been in the barrel for 30 months. At $50 a bottle, our host states that it is the best price in the Napa Valley. The other two wines are dessert wines and again, unique to this winery. These come in half bottles and are a late harvest Zinfandel and a Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cab is apparently the only late harvest cab produced in the world.

If you want a little variety in your visit to the Napa Valley you might consider this winery. We are glad we made a stop here, now we don’t need to wonder about the winery as we drive by on our way home from Napa Valley.