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Despite the rain, a Mainship 43 from Club Nautique proves
as warm as the vineyard-lined valleys of Northern California.
By Yvonne Michie Horn — Spring
2005
Yes, I agreed, the pinot noir would pair wonderfully
with the grilled pork tenderloin over pine nuts and Serrano ham salad
with baby greens and shaved parmesan. It was one of five luncheon entrees
offered on the Napa Valley Wine Train this day, and it would follow the
spinach radicchio frisée salad with candied walnuts and smoked
goat cheese in a honey cider vinaigrette that I was enjoying with a flute
of sparkling wine. Dessert would come later: the crème brulée,
please. And, yes, a glass of port following the coffee would be very nice,
indeed.
Outside the windows of the gloriously restored vintage
train’s dining car, Napa Valley’s acclaimed vineyards rolled
by, stretching across the valley floor in the brilliant shades of russet
and gold that easterners think are reserved for their autumns alone. At
the whistle-stop hamlet of Rutherford, ten miles up valley from the town
of Napa where our Mainship 43 Trawler awaited our return, the train came
to a halt at the Grgich Hills winery. In 1976, it was Miljenko “Mike”
Grgich who set a panel of eminent French judges back on their heels when
they discovered they’d chosen his Napa Valley 1973 chardonnay as
the finest white wine in the world. Mon Dieu!
Now in his 80s and wearing his signature blue beret, Grgich joined us
for a private tasting: six wines that included a mighty fine chardonnay.
If I’d arrived in Napa Valley by car instead of
by boat this day, a 20-minute drive west on a winding road over the Mayacamas,
the mountain range that separates Napa and Sonoma counties, would have
seen me uncorking a bottle from my own private stash. I not only live
in Sonoma County, I was born there. I know that if one wants to swirl,
sniff, and sip the length and breadth of these counties, it’s best
to do so on wheels instead of by water.
Yet the Napa and Petaluma rivers—both of which
come to navigational dead ends near the counties’ southern entrances—are
an enticing option. Cruising as far as you can to the cities for which
the rivers are named is a great way to sample the region’s offerings.
And although cruising to the base of Wine Country is definitely not the
way to visit every barrel-filled cellar in the region, it’s certainly
a nice option if you want to sample a few bottles and ride the Wine Train
for a day before navigating onward.
>> Next page >>
Part 2: I hot-footed it to the Della Frattoria bakery to sip
a warming cup of tea and lust over pastries that were displayed in their
cases like jewels. Page
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2, 3,
4, 5,
6, 7,
8
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