Who Needs a Honeymoon?

With a few weeks to go before the big show in San Francisco, Martin and I realized we needed a little vacation…to be fair we weren’t going on a honeymoon (we are saving that until 2014) and we needed a little time to ourselves.   We opted for a quiet weekend in St. Helena to relax and enjoy time with just the two of us before the craziness began. 

We arrived late Friday afternoon to our quaint hotel – Vineyard Country Inn and were embraced by the quiet country vibe and warm evening sun.  Perfectly located between downtown St. Helena and approximately 20 wineries on the south side of town (both a 15 minute walk) our hotel allowed us to get everywhere on foot…a good thing since our plans included nice dinners and wine tasting.  

After a quick dinner at La Condesa in town on Friday, we headed back to the hotel for a solid night’s sleep in anticipation for a day of wine tasting the following day.

We woke up early and headed into town for a little shopping before hitting the wineries that afternoon... apparently 10 am is a little too early to drink wine.  Go figure.

Upon the recommendation of a co-worker, we went straight to Dean and Deluca after shopping for picnic staples (bread, prosciutto, olives, grapes and cheese) and then made our way to Louis Martini for our picnic lunch and first taste of wine.  While the wine might not have been our favorite, the location definitely was. It was serene, calm and lacked all crazy wine-tasters and tourists. 

From there we made our way down the road (walking alongside the highway) to Heitz Winery where we had the tasting room to ourselves and subsequently learned that it was Wine Auction weekend explaining why the valley was so quiet.  And then we moved on to V. Sattui where we were greeted by an onslaught of wine tasters and tourists.  Packed 4 deep at the tasting bar and deli, with kids running everywhere and large drunk groups of bachelorette parties, this winery was exactly what I was expecting for the afternoon, what I had prepared Martin for and what I knew he would hate about the whole experience…we didn’t even bother staying for a glass.  Instead we headed back across the road to Dean and Deluca again (for more snacks) and wrapped up the tour at Hall with great full bodied reds. 

Exhausted from the heat…or maybe slightly intoxicated from the wine…we took an afternoon nap before heading back to town for dinner at Cindy’s Back Street Kitchen, a personal favorite of mine which serves the most amazing baked oysters. 

Overall the weekend was exactly what we needed: relaxing, romantic and somewhat removed.  And I now know to only go to Napa on wine auction weekends to avoid the crowds.