Gabriele and I are just back from a visit to San Francisco. Of course we did a Napa Valley day, and that will soon provide content for a nice long post. We finished a fun day of vineyard visits and tastings with dinner at Greystone restaurant, a fantastic place operated by the Wine Spectator and the Culinary Institute of America: http://www.culinary.edu/restaurants/wsgr/
Close friend and noted local gourmand Manik Rath strongly suggested we have dinner there, and we’re glad he did. The beautiful building was constructed in 1889 and was once the largest stone winery in the world. It was sold to the CIA in 1990 by the Heublien company for a fraction of its value, and the CIA has been operating there since 1995. It’s a beautiful setting for a meal, right on Rt. 29 in the heart of Napa.
Inside the dining room was a broad expanse of tables on one level, with pleasantly muted lighting and a low hum of contented diners. We both had fish — Gabe had a grilled mackeral and I had onion crusted halibut. Both were excellent, as were the apps — an artichoke salad and french onion soup, a Greystone specialty with a full gruyere cheese souffle on top. Service was attentive and knowledgeable. We wanted a pinot to go with the fish, so we chose one of the “flights of fancy” 3 ounce tastings, sampling a Schug 2006 Caneros, a Londer 2006 Anderson Valley and a Merry Edwards 2006 Russian River Valley.
The Merry Edwards blew the other two totally away. The Schug was sharp and a bit astringent, and the Londer was a bit better but similar. The Merry Edwards had better, more balanced fruit and was much smoother. It’s a great buy IMHO at $42 a bottle off their website: http://www.merryedwards.com/
It was the perfect dinner to conclude a wonderful day in Napa. More on that coming soon.
[…] around a bit until our dinner reservation at Greystone, another epicurean treat posted on earlier. [See here] The entire day was a memory to savor, and we hope to be back out that way before too […]