Text 9540, 86 rader
Skriven 2014-02-05 22:53:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: napa 146
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We turned down into the Other valley and moseyed among the
vineyards and looked fondly at the mountains to the east.
Lilli had read about this eccentric folly out in Napa, the
Castello di Amorosa, which is the home of the V. Sattui
tasting room, so we went there, planning on walking the
grounds (but not going in - it costs), so that's what we
did, along with dozens of other rubberneckers, after taking
a tour of the jam-packed parking lot. It's an amazing and
amusing place, but one wonders about the sanity and taste of
someone who puts up something like this.

The property is surrounded, no surprise, with vines, and
I snitched a couple over-the-hill grapes from one; these
offered an intense grapiness and huge sugar - there were no
seeds, though, so I wondered what they were and how one
might make a decent wine out of them. Perhaps there is a
seedless Sangiovese clone?

--
Angele, which was one of our visits on our French Laundry
centric tour a bunch of years ago, remains a place of which
I am quite fond, and so I detoured us into the town of Napa
for lunch. Despite our not having reservations, we were
quickly seated in a prime table outside and served
efficiently and with grace.

We had a Picpoul de Pinet La Domitienne 12, refreshingly
citrusy with a considerable floral kick, which went down so
quick that it caused an almost instant pleasant tipsiness,
followed by the Frogs Leap Zinfandel 10, a fruity, rich, and
exuberant wine, very delicious.

The white nicely cut the richness of my sweetbreads, which
came with cauliflower polenta, golden raisins, almonds,
capers, brown butter emulsion, so the menu said. The dish
was three or four almost 1-oz nuggets of meat, fried just
a little more than my preference but well within normal
tolerances, bathed in a somewhat tasteless butter sauce that
served to make one think that perhaps the after-frying drain
was incomplete. The capers had been fried as well. The rest
of the presentation was riced cauliflower with the raisins
and almond slivers mixed in - intriguing, but I used it
mostly to soak up the grease (I like grease).

With the red I ate the oatmeal-crusted pork belly, nice and
crispy, which came with French plum and mint compote (sort
of sour; I didn't know what to make of it), napa cabbage
(get it?), and a tartish mirabelle plum jus. I could have
done with "more pork" and less veggies, like the fabled
Munich burgher. And, if I'd had any brains, I'd have got a
Pinot Noir instead.

Lilli's pave de boeuf hache (aka hamburger) was quite rare
and quite good. The sturdy brioche-style bun would have been
good if we'd bothered to eat it. Fries - excellent.

Desserts were coconut sorbet and chocolate gelato. The
former was a little pallid, but the chocolate just sang out.

--

Accidents on the highway, and the GPS took us on a rather
circuitous route into Sacramento. We arrived a half hour
later than we had planned, no big deal.

The Sheraton Grand is right downtown, a nice location if you
like Sacramento. Parking is kind of tough unless you use the
hotel garage, which is not the one attached to the hotel but
rather in the next block.

We were given the room next to the club lounge, a dubious
honor, because that means you wake up when they start
preparing breakfast. We gave it a try - the floor-to-ceiling
window was gorgeous, but from home we could hear the
attendants horsing around even in the middle of the day. So
we asked for another room; we got our pick of a couple the
floor below and settled on an almost equally nice one.

Evening wanders involved looking at various bars (and maybe
the inside of one or two, who remembers) and turning up our
noses at various eateries.


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