Sometimes, a little change of scenery can really recharge your batteries.
I had a client meeting in Napa on Friday afternoon, and Tony had the day off. So, he drove up there with me, and we stayed the night. While I was working, he had checked us into the Silverado Resort and scouted out a great tapas restaurant for dinner.
Silverado is a really great value in the pricey Napa Valley. We were upgraded to a one-bedroom fireplace suite, right on the golf course. It is an older, less-touristy resort, east of the Silverado Trail, and very nice, and convenient to downtown Napa and the wineries. Dinner was at ZuZu in Napa, and the tapas were delicious - especially the paella.
Saturday morning, we had a great breakfast at the Cafe Sarafornia in Calistoga, which apparently got its name from something a drunken pioneer said back in the 1800's. We stopped at Chateau Montelena, whose Chardonnay is famous for winning the 1976 Judgement of Paris wine competition in its class. (See the movie "Bottleshock" for the story.) The wine is still very good, and I found the Cabs to be even better than the Chardonnay. Interesting wine club program... to get the Reserve Cabernet at half the retail price, you need to pay for it two years before it is released. Since Parker hasn't rated the wine below 90 in 15 years, I guess buying futures isn't much of a gamble.
Believe it or not, we were back at home by 3:00 Saturday.
