Deericious!

Last weekend marked my first trip to the Napa valley wine region, and boy was it long overdue. We were invited to a Friday night wedding in nearby Ross, so why not make a weekend trip out of it and swing by Napa/Sonoma? Being the diligent foodie/planner that I am, I mapped out our itinerary for both Saturday and Sunday. We were gonna hit that Silverado Trail with super-efficiency, not a single favorite winery to be missed. In true virgo fashion, I had maps and lists detailing every stop in geographical order from South to North.

Day 1 Saturday: Parng and his friend, Amy, joined us in the morning. After brunch at Tea Room Cafe in Petaluma (great find), we started along the Silverado Trail. The day’s wineries were: Luna, Clos du Val, Stags Leap, Silver Oak, Flora Springs, and V. Sattui. That’s right, SIX stops. Of the six, Silver Oak (5*) was hands down the best. Luna (3.5*) and Flora Springs (4*) also offer great wines for good value. I was unimpressed by the remaining three. I enjoyed our tasting room experience so much at Flora Springs that I even joined their wine club! The service was great, and I’ve always enjoyed their reds. Not to mention, Flora Springs is right next door to Dean & Deluca (4.5*) - where we picked up a wonderful picnic of cheeses, salami, french bread, and olives (4*). To fully take advantage of tasting room hours (most close at 5pm), I suggest you pick out your picnic delicacies and save them for the end of the day - enjoy your picnic while the sun is slowly setting behind the vineyards, after all of the tasting rooms have closed.

Day 2 Sunday: We planned to spend the entire day exploring Sonoma, but much to our dismay, Sonoma wineries were few and spread far apart. We ventured to the massive Kunde Estate (2* wines, 4* tour) for a free tour of the grounds and wine caves. As a souvenir, we took a few bunches of grapes for the road to sample. One interesting find that we stumbled upon was a wine/food pairing tasting room at the Mayo Reserve Room. For $25, you get to experience seven pairings of small bite-size offerings with different wines. The food was very creative and very good (4*), the wines just ok. I’d recommend the experience though, just to see how the different foods change the taste of the wines.

The whole weekend, Rei and I had been trying to squeeze more time into our schedules to visit Duckhorn Vineyards in Napa. Because it is further north in St. Helena, we didn’t have a chance to visit the day before. With two hours to spare before closing, we dashed all the way back into Napa to squeeze in some more tastings. Duckhorn Vineyards (5*) is absolutely beautiful, and their wines are always consistent in high quality and taste. We stayed until closing and even managed to squeeze in Charles Krug (3*) and Beringer (2*) afterwards.

Anyway, this post is about Mustards Grill so let’s get to it. Mustards Grill is one of the best restaurants in Napa valley. (Chef/Owner Cindy Pawlcyn is also owner of the popular Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen and the new Go Fish.) Mustards Grill came highly recommended by my usual trusty sources of information (ie. the internet), so naturally I jumped on the phone and made a reservation a few weeks in advance. Our choices for the evening: mango and avocado salad with blue cheese and balsamic vinaigrette (4.5*), Maine crab cakes (3.5*),  BBQ baby back ribs (3* kinda dry), port braised lamb shank (4*) and  blackberry cobler a la mode (4*).

2 cases of wine, 1 wine club membership, 2 sets of purple lips/teeth, and many great meals later… I’m already planning our next trip back!