{"id":3205,"date":"2026-01-31T18:30:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T18:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3205"},"modified":"2026-01-31T18:40:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T18:40:01","slug":"good-wine-good-meals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3205","title":{"rendered":"Good Wine, Good Meals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/em>.  So the meals we eat in Wine Country are as important as the wines we taste.  Well, almost as important.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Photo courtesy of Stella Blu.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

When we go wine tasting in areas we\u2019re familiar with, it\u2019s difficult to try new places, because we just can\u2019t bear to forego a meal in the places we\u2019ve loved in the past.\u00a0 In Napa Valley, for example, how could we not have a meal at Mustards?\u00a0 We remember the quenelles de brochet<\/em> and boeuf bourguignon<\/em> at Bistro Jeanty and have to try them again.\u00a0 We could skip a Thomas Keller restaurant<\/a>, but why?\u00a0 Unless we\u2019re staying for a week \u2013 and we don\u2019t take trips that long \u2013 we seem never to have time for a new restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a little different when we visit regions we\u2019ve never been to before.  We read up on what the best known restaurants are and make reservations online.  But then we\u2019re in a little village where there\u2019s a bistro that just screams out \u201cEat here!\u201d in our minds.  So, since most of Europe closes for a few hours at midday, we eat a delicious lunch and don\u2019t have the appetite for the famous places where we had reservations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are certain meals that we\u2019ve eaten in this way that are so memorable that we frequently tease our taste buds with reminiscences.\u00a0 The foie gras<\/em> in Colombier in Languedoc.\u00a0 The cr\u00eape filled with mushrooms in Morgon<\/a> in Beaujolais.\u00a0 Salad on the beach in Marsala in Sicily.\u00a0 Lamb shanks in Sainte-C\u00e9cile-les-Vignes in Provence.\u00a0 And on and on.\u00a0 We\u2019re salivating just writing about these meals.\u00a0 The lesson is: When faced with temptation to dine at a place you\u2019re never been but looks like you want to, give in and eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But fine dining is only a part of the culinary adventure while wine tasting.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 A stop at Oakville Grocery<\/a> can accomplish the same thing in Napa Valley.\u00a0 We used to wash it all down with a bottle of the local wine, but we\u2019ve become a little wiser about our consumption nowadays.\u00a0 These days, it\u2019s never more than a glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a time and a place for a burger at McDonald\u2019s, but it\u2019s not when we\u2019re in Wine Country.  Way out in the countryside, it\u2019s usually easier to find a caf\u00e9 where the locals go than a fast-fooder.  Dining in the same place as the people who make the wine you\u2019re tasting adds a little understanding of the place that goes along with knowledge of the terroir<\/em> and the grapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Mangia<\/em>! Bon app\u00e9tit<\/em>! Eat up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading Good Wine, Good Meals<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3205"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3215,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205\/revisions\/3215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}