New and ...Improving?: Oct 18th: Back to Napa

We decided that our last day should be spent back in Napa. We booked a food and wine pairing course at Cakebread Cellars prior to the trip, and the only availability they had was on Monday. We drove up after we left Colin and Austin the night before, so we got to sleep in which was nice. The tour and tasting started at 11 and we were both really excited about it, especially with how much Terry cooks and we try to figure out how to pair wines with the food we are eating.

The tour went through the entire facility and our tour guide used to be a winemaker in Oregon, so he was just a wealth of knowledge.

The Pairings from left to right:
-Sauvignon Blanc with goat cheese puff pastry
-Chardonnay (my favorite) with bruscetta with halibut pate and heirloom tomatoes
-Pinot Noir with turkey and basil meatball
-Cab Sauv (Terry's favorite) with port wine candied walnut and point reyes blue cheese in endive cup

walking outside to the gardens where almost all the food came from

Cakebread gardens

Favorite Picture #34639056

After Cakebread, we decided to go back to Grgich and see if we could fanagle our way back to see the original of our painting. They had no problems taking us back and they were so happy that we bought one of the prints. It was back in a members only room, and we got to walk through their wine library on the way to it (not a library of books just to be clear....a library of bottles of wines from all of their vintages. I didn't take a picture, but wish I had. Also wish I asked what the oldest bottle was that they still had.

In the members lounge

all smiles

We debated with lunch before we headed to Sacramento and after much deliberation, decided we would have one last "memory to frame" and go eat at Cindy Pawlson's "Mustards Grill". Fair warning now, LOTS of pictures of our two hour lunch.

You can't see it well from the picture, but the water fountain is raining from under the umbrella, I thought it was really creative.

Appetizer 1: Dungeness Crab Cakes, chipotle aioli, arugula salad, molasses vinaigrette

Appetizer 2: Crispy Calamari with curried slaw and fresno chilies

He thinks I'm pretty

Can't deny those good looks

how can you resist that face?

Side #1: 3-Cheese Mac & Cheese, crispy bread crumbs

Side #2: Griddled Goat Cheese Polenta, organic tomato sauce

Main Plate: (We shared) Famous Mongolian Pork Chop, sweet & sour red cabbage, housemade mustard

Terry's plate

After lunch, they invite their guests to walk through their gardens where all of the vegetables are picked daily. We got lost in in for a good 30 minutes, especially the herb garden.