We love wining and dining. We have found that around the world, where people make good wine, they like to eat well, too. Robert Mondavi famously said that the good life includes wine, art and food. So the meals we eat in Wine Country are as important as the wines we taste. Well, almost as important.
When we go wine tasting in areas we’re familiar with, it’s difficult to try new places, because we just can’t bear to forego a meal in the places we’ve loved in the past. In Napa Valley, for example, how could we not have a meal at Mustards? We remember the quenelles de brochet and boeuf bourguignon at Bistro Jeanty and have to try them again. We could skip a Thomas Keller restaurant, but why? Unless we’re staying for a week – and we don’t take trips that long – we seem never to have time for a new restaurant.
It’s a little different when we visit regions we’ve never been to before. We read up on what the best known restaurants are and make reservations online. But then we’re in a little village where there’s a bistro that just screams out “Eat here!” in our minds. So, since most of Europe closes for a few hours at midday, we eat a delicious lunch and don’t have the appetite for the famous places where we had reservations.
There are certain meals that we’ve eaten in this way that are so memorable that we frequently tease our taste buds with reminiscences. The foie gras in Colombier in Languedoc. The crêpe filled with mushrooms in Morgon in Beaujolais. Salad on the beach in Marsala in Sicily. Lamb shanks in Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes in Provence. And on and on. We’re salivating just writing about these meals. The lesson is: When faced with temptation to dine at a place you’re never been but looks like you want to, give in and eat.
But fine dining is only a part of the culinary adventure while wine tasting. Prior shopping at a cheese shop in Burgundy or a salumeria in Tuscany, followed by a picnic at the edge of a vineyard is as great a way to dine as there is in the world. A stop at Oakville Grocery can accomplish the same thing in Napa Valley. We used to wash it all down with a bottle of the local wine, but we’ve become a little wiser about our consumption nowadays. These days, it’s never more than a glass.
There is a time and a place for a burger at McDonald’s, but it’s not when we’re in Wine Country. Way out in the countryside, it’s usually easier to find a café where the locals go than a fast-fooder. Dining in the same place as the people who make the wine you’re tasting adds a little understanding of the place that goes along with knowledge of the terroir and the grapes.
So Mangia! Bon appétit! Eat up!