Wine Tasting with a Twist

Ah, Saturday. Our last full day in wine country before heading up north. We had a casual morning as our first appointment was in the afternoon, so we headed up to Napa through the backroads of the Silverado trail. Though I couldn't remember the name and called it from El Dorado, El Tostidos, El Nachos, etc. Well, it was curvy like a snack should be.

We stopped by a winery (why not?) called Castello di Amorosa on the way because it met our criteria: it was on the right-hand side (it's a 2-lane road, so left turns suck), it was before our stop at the CIA, and it had an interesting name. As you drove up a steep driveway, all of a sudden a castle appeared! Nice! So we were happy with our criteria. We took some pictures and ended up buying 5 bottles of wine, so mission accomplished.

We crossed the drawbridge and drove to the Culinary Institute of America, the original CIA as they are quick to point out. Their acronym came a year before the federal one did. They had a nice kitchen shop but we were there for an hour-long cooking demonstration called "Strawberry Shortcake, with a twist!" Naturally we were intrigued by the twist part. So we scanned the recipe as we came in and discovered the twist. The cooking room looked just like it probably does on any cook show, and we were invited to ask questions, which was done by the audience enthusiastically. We learned a few things (yes, I'll get to the twist). One is table salt is no good - you should use kosher salt. It has under half the sodium of table salt, plus you don't have the iodine and dextrose messing with your cooking. Another thing was to consider rotating your baking sheet while in the oven if you have hot corners to help even out the baking. Ok, ok, the twist was integrating basil and marscapone into the whipped cream. It was delicious. :) The strawberries should be smaller, tasty ones, not the kind you find in the store that taste bland. The strawberries were also soaked in some wine. We all approved. He knows his audience.

After that tasty and educational experience, we went to the Rutherford wineries. We drove past one and went to the secondary next door first, because our reaction times were not quick enough. The signs are not easy to see and everyone demands you drive 55 and whip into the driveways stuntman style. I guess driving into the wineries is not as important as flying by them all. We enjoyed their wines and bought them, went to the original Rutherford winery which had a fantastic view but not as good wines.

Next we headed back home for dinner and stopped by a petrified wood forest. The trees became petrified after hearing Paul Bunyan was coming. No, it actually involves a volcanic process that replaces the tree cells with replicas of Al Gore's cells. You can look it up on Wikipedia. We got some pictures of that and headed out to dinner at Zazu. We had fantastic food yet again and apparently one of the chefs at the restaurant was on Top Chef (aka Chop Chop). Her name was Zoi and she did not win, but her stuff was still fantastic. We finished off the evening with some gelatto, a great way to finish up our Napa valley visit.