Romantic Napa Valley - December 2010

There is so much wine country in California to explore.  I’ve been to Napa Valley twice, both times basing ourselves in the town of Napa.  I like Napa, but I want to stay in other places to see more of the valley.  I decided to plan a trip staying in Calistoga, the northern end of Napa Valley.  I wanted it to be a romantic weekend for the husband and me, sort of a late anniversary trip.  It was different seeing the vines in the winter with no grapes.

Hotels and B&Bs are typically expensive in Napa Valley.  I searched VRBO to try and find a nice little rental.  I came across Croak Creek Cottage.  It looked nice and cozy and a fun place to spend the weekend.  I did find a B&B that was comparable in price, but opted for the secluded privacy the cottage offered.  I emailed the owner to request a weekend in December, sent her a deposit check for half the total amount and she emailed me a contract and directions that I would need to bring along with the final payment once we arrived.

We flew in and out of Oakland airport.  I find this airport a little easier to get in and out of from Napa Valley.  The last time I went to the valley with friends, we flew in and out of SFO.  We decided to take the scenic route to get to Napa and had to drive through some of San Francisco.  There was a lot of traffic that day and it took us a while to get to the Golden Gate Bridge.  Part of the problem was that we had got in later than expected because of fog. 

We were a little delayed on this trip as well, because of fog in San Diego!  That never happens; the fog issue is usually in the bay area.  By the time we got to Calistoga, it was about 4pm and the wineries were closing down.  They seem to close sooner up there.  I was hoping to get in one or two wineries before checking into our cottage.  Oh well.  We decided to find the cottage.  It took a couple of passing it and turning around episodes before we found the driveway.  The driveway leads up a hill and to the main house.  Then there is a steep drive down to the cottage.  The owner heard us arriving and come outside to greet us.  She said she had lit the fire in the gas fireplace to warm the place up for us.  How thoughtful.  It was nice and cozy when we walked inside.

After getting our stuff inside, we decided to go check out Calistoga before dinner.  As we were driving down the main drag of town, Lincoln Ave, we noticed a couple of tasting rooms and they were still open.  Yippee.  We decided on visiting the Ochoa - Solovino tasting room.  This was a room hosting 2 different wineries.  The winemakers are friends and decided they might get more customers if they shared a room.  I’m glad we went inside, because we had fun, tasted a lot of wine and met the winemaker, Luis Ochoa.  He loves telling stories.

We headed off to dinner after a pretty intensive tasting.  We had reservations at Solbar in the Solage hotel.  We got there a tad early, but they let us sit down.  This is my favorite restaurant in Napa Valley now. The food was excellent and very tasty! Our server was very helpful in recommending things for us. We had 2 first courses: the salad of 6 root veges, which our server really talked up and sold me on and it was so delicious!; and the Nantucket bay scallops, which came with the most delicate "melt in your mouth" gnocchi. For entrees we had: the duroc pork 3 ways, which was recommended by the server and it was excellent; and the smoked beef short ribs, which were super tender.  The freshest ingredients with all these flavors...sooo delicious and worth every penny!

We decided to call it a night after dinner and go back to the cottage to rest.

The next day was a Saturday and we planned to go wine tasting.  I really wanted to do the bike tour through the Calistoga Bike Shop, but we weren’t sure of the weather.  I thought about booking in advance, but decided to wait and see.  We woke up to some clouds, but decided to give the bike tour a go.  If it rained, we figured it would probably still be fun.  We got set up with bikes, helmets and a map of the wineries on the tour.  They mapped out a route that they suggested for hitting the wineries and ideas for which ones to skip to make the ride work.  We started our ride at 10:30am and got back to the shop at 5pm.  We ended up visiting Twomey, August Briggs, Bennett Lane, and Envy. We skipped Dutch Henry, because Bennett Lane sounded more appealing. Both have a bit of a ride to get to, especially DH with a 2 mile up hill ride. We also added Summers that is not on the tour, but across the road from Envy. I really wanted to try the Charbono. We stopped for lunch at the pizza shop on the map.  We ended up having a perfect sunny day for our tour.  I’m glad we took the chance.

We went back to the cottage to shower and change for dinner.  We had reservations at JoLe, a farm to table restaurant.  We opted for the 4 course tasting menu with wine pairing. They say you get 1/2 glass of wine with each course, but it ends up being quite a bit. I had a soup, monk fish, quail and the lemon tart for dessert. Mike had crab cakes, pork fried rice, beef ribeye and coconut cream pie. Out of all that, the monk fish and crab cakes were the best! The other food was good too, but those 2 really stood out. They do a really good job pairing the wine. If you get the lemon tart, you get a pinot noir port that goes well together. If you get the coconut cream pie, you get Madeira and they were meant for each other!  It was a good place, but I preferred Solbar of the two.

One of the things Calistoga is known for is mud baths.  If we were going to be in the area, we had to try one out.  I talked Mike into going with me to a place that offered a couples experience side by side.  Other places make the men and women go to separate rooms.  Mike said if he was going to do it, he wanted it to be together.  The place for private couple’s baths is Golden Haven Resort.  We were taken to our room with 2 mud tubs, a large shower off area with curtains and 2 sprays and a little hot tub. Our girl told us how to get in the mud and left us alone to get in in private. After we were ready, she knocked on the door and came in to put the mask on our face and mud on our shoulders. She left and came back a few minutes later to put cold cloths on our heads. Then, she told us to scrape off and go into the showers to clean off after about 15 minutes. The mud was very hot by then anyway.  While we were showering, she cleaned up the mud in the room. Then, she left so we could get into the hot tub for a few minutes. We didn't last very long in there, because we were really hot. We toweled off and put on our robes and waited for her to come get us. She then took us to our "nap room" where she let us get under a sheet then she came in to tuck us in with blankets and put cold compresses on our head and neck. We were left there for about 20 minutes to relax and nap. Neither of us feel asleep.  After our rest, we went to the mineral pool and hot tubs for a little bit and showered and changed in the pool area.

It was a fun experience and while I don't think I'd be dying for a mud bath again, I'd go again if someone else wanted to and would recommend this place. The mud feels really weird, gets warm at the bottom and has a little weird smell to it, but if you close your eyes and just let yourself relax, it's a relaxing experience being suspended in the warm mud.

After playing in the mud, we headed off to the airport.  We grabbed sandwiches at the Oakville Grocery Store on the way out.  They have great food and is a great place to grab lunch when wine tasting in the valley.  We stopped at Buffalo's Shipping Post in Napa to send off the case of wine we had acquired and headed home.  I love visiting Napa Valley.  I think we are due to check out Sonoma Valley next time.

Trip Summary

Lodging - Croak Creek Cottage

Food - Solbar, JoLe

Tasting Rooms - Twomey, August Briggs, Bennett Lane, Summers, Envy

Activities - Golden Haven Resort