There are two (OK, maybe three) seasons where I think it's especially beautiful to visit California's wine country.
One is in August, (during the harvest), where it's super fun to see the full grapes on the wines, as well as potentially to watch the harvest.
Second is during the fall, where the trees in Napa take on gorgeous hues of red, orange, and yellow. It's really, really beautiful!
And finally, during the spring, when the golden yellow mustard flowers are out and all of the hills are a lush, verdant green from the winter rains. (Usually, they are brown by the time summer comes around.)
This past "spring" (late February) we had the opportunity to visit Napa during this beautiful season.
Silverado Resort
Once again, we stayed at the Silverado Resort, which is where the conference was held again. This time (for the first time), we were assigned a room facing the golf course! It was sooooo much nicer than any other room we'd had in the past. It was so relaxing to watch the sunset from the comfort of our balcony.
Corison Winery
Since we did not have a lot of free time while in Napa, we just booked one wine tasting, at Corison. We are big fans of Cathy Corison's wines, and even got to meet her once (totally by chance!) because she was sitting next to us at a restaurant in Napa.
The weather was good, so we got to enjoy our wine tasting outside, facing the vineyard (and the yellow mustard flowers!).
Songbird in Glen Ellen
We had a lovely dinner with friends at Songbird Parlour, a farm-to-table wine bar and restaurant in Sonoma Valley in Glen Ellen.
The food was seasonal, creative, and enjoyable. It was even more fun to go with a larger group, because we ended up sharing everything.
They are actually most known for their "EPIC hot honey fried chicken" (oops, sorry no photo!), which I can attest is fantastic. Please note it is only available on Sundays.
Thomas Keller RO Restaurant & Lounge
We were SO SAD that Thomas Keller's Mexican restaurant La Calenda closed. This trip, we decided to try another Thomas Keller restaurant, RO Restaurant & Lounge (also in Yountville).
The space is lovely, but the food was only OK.
I found the "Instagrammable" caviar ice cream to be a bit too sweet, though it is beautiful.
Charter Oak: Burger + Salad
Both the salad and the burger at The Charter Oak in St. Helena are legendary. We've gone to this restaurant many times, but each time we return to Napa Valley, we find ourselves booking yet another meal here.
They have their own farm, and one of the signature dishes (Garden Vegetables) is just a selection of raw vegetables from the garden, served with their (addictive) sesame dip (soooo good). Every day is different, but the vegetables are amongst the freshest, most tender, sweet, and crispy you’ll ever taste.
Their burger is also another signature dish. Made in the classic West Coast “flat patty” style, the secret is the two-layered approach.
Pea flavored Flowers??
While visiting Corison Winery, we noticed a lot of beautiful little purple flowers growing amongst the grapevines.
The staff member who was pouring us wine told us that those were the flowers of pea plants. It was healthy for them to grow alongside the grape vines.
"Do you know you can eat the flowers? They taste like pea shoots."
Pea shoots???!
I was very intrigued. Below is a fun video of us trying the pea shoots!
It was a lovely trip (as always). The conference will switch locations next year, so it's likely that this will be our last trip to Napa at least for a little while. So because of that, we tried to enjoy this beautiful region as much as we could.
