Napa Valley: Wine, food & film

Worldwide famous as a fine wine-producing region, Napa County (not to be confused with Ayia Napa, in Cyprus), along with the neighboring Sonoma County and the perhaps somewhat lesser-known Mendocino County, is part of the so-called Wine Country, in Northern California. Napa County is part of the San Francisco Bay Area, which also includes San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and the Silicon Valley, Sonoma and other neighboring counties.

Home to Michelin-starred restaurants and to the Napa Valley Film Festival taking place every November, Napa County is the perfect destination for foodies and wine fans with a love of the big screen. Even if you visit San Fran at a different time of the year, I would still recommend spending a couple of days in Napa Valley. I personally stayed in the City of Napa, the largest town in the county.

Drinking wine is just a part of life, like eating food.

Francis Ford Coppola

Here’s my wine menu followed by a 4-course menu (a.k.a. my top 5 tips for Napa County):

The wine menu

The Napa Valley winery map is like the wine menu in a wine bar. With more than 400 vineyards, most of which are family-owned and operated, the question arises: which ones to visit?

The easy answer is to book a wine tour and let the tour organizers decide (and most importantly take you there, so you don’t have to worry about driving). This is a great option especially if time is limited, and is the one I opted for. I chose the Napa Valley Wine Trolley Classic Tour, which took me to a 6-hour journey to the lower half of the Napa Valley. We met in downtown Napa and then visited four wineries near the towns of Yountville, Oakville, and Rutherford. We visited the Pestoni Family, Cosentino, Silenus and Andretti wineries. These visits included the so-important wine tastings, vineyard and winery tours, and there was also food served. Overall, it was a great experience which allowed me not only to taste different wines in the very locations where they are produced, but also to meet like-minded visitors from different parts of America and the world.

An alternative to an organized tour is to plan your own vineyard-hopping itinerary. Be mindful that some wineries recommend advanced bookings. Needless to say that there will have to be a designated driver too. That said, this option allows you more flexibility, and more importantly you can combine the wineries with visiting other places in Napa County.

 

Entrées

But first, start your day with coffee and a hearty breakfast. In downtown Napa, you can choose between the Napa Valley Coffee Roasting Co., the Sweetie Pies Bakery, and the Alexis Baking Company.

 

 

Main course

Napa County is home to many Michelin-starred restaurants, most of which are located in downtown Napa and Yountville (10 and 9 respectively).

In downtown Napa, I dined at the Bounty Hunter Wine Bar & Smokin’ BBQ, not a Michelin-starred restaurant, but nonetheless renowned for the beer-can chicken, a whole chicken roasted over a can of Tecate.

In Yountville, there’s the French Laundry, which a few years ago was voted the best restaurant in the world. Despite its name, it serves Californian cuisine. The French Laundry’s neighbors Ad Hoc (also Californian cuisine), Bouchon Bistro (French cuisine), and Bouchon Bakery (all located a few doors down on Washington Street) are also owned by the world-renowned chef Thomas Keller, and have all been awarded with the much-sought Michelin stars.

Other Michelin-starred restaurants in Napa Valley are Mustard’s Grill, a highly-praised restaurant serving fine American cuisine for over 30 years now, and Rutherford Grill, further up north past Oakville and towards Rutherford.

Dessert

After the 6-hour tour, and slightly tipsy, I returned to downtown Napa, and continued to the Oxbow Public Market. This is a large indoor market with many stalls, selling a variety of products; there is also a seating area where you can dine. Or, alternatively, you can follow my example and dine at Gott’s Roadside; one of the seven branches is located right next to the Oxbow Market.

Afterwards, head to the Three Twins for locally-produced organic ice-cream. Oxbow Market is home to one of their three locations (the other two can be found in San Rafael and Larkspur).

 

Napa Valley Film Festival

If you’re a cinephile like me, you will probably agree that I may have saved the best for last. The Napa Valley Film Festival (NVFF) is due to take place from 13 to 17 November 2019. The schedule features over 50 films (including short, feature and documentary films). Considering the pivotal role that wine and gastronomy play in Napa Valley, it comes as no surprise that the menu (sorry, schedule) also features a delicious selection of mouth-watering ‘culinary films’. This cinematic journey into the world of food and wine is further enhanced with special events including culinary demonstrations, masterclasses, and wine intermissions. So, forget popcorn, nachos and Coca Cola, and discover the region’s rich culinary scene and world-famous wines between film screenings.

The culinary films featured in the NVFF schedule this year are:

A Taste of Sky

A Taste of Sky follows two students from Gustu, the groundbreaking cooking school and fine-dining restaurant in Bolivia founded by NOMA’s Claus Meyer. As the film unfolds we uncover what has driven this European chef to come to Latin America, and begin to see the parallels that tie seemingly disparate backgrounds. This 85-minute long documentary by Michael Lei is an exploration of family, mentorship, and legacy – all viewed through the powerful lens of food.

Breaking Bread

In Breaking Bread, an 86-minute long documentary by Beth Elise Hawk, exotic cuisine and a side of politics are on the menu. Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, the first Muslim Arab to win Israel’s MasterChef television competition, is on a quest to make social change through food. In an effort to affect change, she founded the A-sham Arabic Food Festival in Haifa, Israel, where pairs of Arab and Jewish chefs collaborate on local dishes.

Funke

Named after Evan Funke, this is a 90-minute long documentary by Alexander Emanuele and Gab Taraboulsy. Funke was one of the hottest young chefs in Los Angeles when he walked away from his critically-acclaimed and wildly popular restaurant, Bucato. Years later, Evan plans his comeback; eyeing one of the most competitive and expensive streets in America as a stage for the dying art of handmade pasta. He battles many obstacles on the road to opening a new restaurant that he hopes will repair the mistakes of his past and eventually become his legacy.

Nose to Tail

This 82-minute long drama by Jesse Zigelstein follows Daniel, a talented yet abrasive chef and restaurateur. Daniel’s upscale restaurant has run successfully for years, but financial difficulties have caused him to take desperate measures. Over the course of one fateful and increasingly frantic day, he faces an onslaught of private trials and professional tribulations in a desperate bid to beat the odds and save the business that he’s sacrificed virtually everything in his life to build.

Nothing Fancy: Diana Kennedy

In this 72-minute long documentary, director Elizabeth Carroll provides an intimate and candid glimpse into the curious world of Diana Kennedy. Diana is a 96-year-old British ex-pat who is widely regarded as the world’s academic expert on Mexican cuisine. Author of nine acclaimed cookbooks, she has spent nearly seventy years researching Mexico’s varied and complex culinary fare. Diana is a legendary force of nature in the culinary world, and definitely isn’t afraid to speak her mind.

Stage: The Culinary Internship

This 78-minute long documentary by Abby Ainsworth follows a group of interns during a nine-month apprenticeship at one of the most notable restaurants in the world, Mugaritz. While the restaurant’s notorious avant-garde cuisine and creative working environment elevates these young hopefuls to think outside the confines of a kitchen; ultimately, not everyone can handle the heat.

Since I have not watched any of these films, the above descriptions are not mine, but borrowed (and slightly embellished) from the NVFF website.

Accommodation

Public transport in the United States is not on a par with Europe, so I would recommend staying in the City of Napa, unless of course you have your own transport.

How to get there

Napa Valley is located north of San Francisco Bay. From Downtown San Fran, as well as from San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the easiest way to get to Napa is to take the BART train to El Cerrito Del Norte, and from there the Bus No 29 to Napa.

When and how to long visit for

Napa in the fall is simply stunning. November is a great month to visit Napa Valley as this is when the film festival takes place. The temperature ranges between 6 and 18 degrees Celsius, whereas in the summer it can get as high as 28 degrees (warmer than San Francisco, but cooler than LA). I would recommend spending at least a couple of days there.

Further reading (and watching)

To better prepare for my trip, I used the Lonely Planet California Travel Guide.

Unless you already live in sunny California, you can combine your visit to Napa Valley with a short stay in San Francisco or even Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, you can watch ‘Wine Country‘; directed by Amy Poehler against the beautiful backdrop of Napa Valley, this is a film about friendship.

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Cheers!

Alex

(the Traveling Psychiatrist)