Wine Country Picnics

When I retire I want to take people on wine country picnics; people from out of town can pay me to set up a picnics in the vineyards for them. In the mean time, I will take anyone who visits on a wine country picnic...

Vi Sattui in Napa, the ideal picnic spot

This past week we went on 2 wine country picnics: One in Napa, and the other in Healdsburg.
For our Napa picnic, I packed some balsamic grilled asparagus, a couple cheeses, greek olives, and some grapes; with plans on supplementing our meal with some essentials from Napa Valley. First, we stopped at Bouchon Bakery in Yountville and picked up a freshly baked baguette. Then we began our wine tasting at St Supery and Whitehall Lane. The next stop was Dean & Deluca, to pick up my favorite mole salami. Christina, being from Peru, had to stock up on good cheeses at Dean & Deluca...in fact, I know we ate 2 of her cheeses at lunch, but don't remember what they were (one was some kind of English cheddar?). We also picked up some traditional Italian salami, and a hot copa salami as well.

Christina with our caprese platter

Christina eyed a beautiful burrata cheese (similar to fresh mozzarella), and grabbed some vine ripened tomatoes and basil. On a whim, she asked the deli guy if he could slice the tomatoes and burrata for us, and as Dean & Deluca is the epitome of good service, he took it upon himself to create us a whole platter complete with olive oil and several salts from the salt bar. He only charged us for the cheese and tomatoes. The best part was the big white platter he handed to us, uncovered, ready to eat. Good thing we were only traveling across the street to picnic!

Gourmet picnic (hmmm, next time need a larger tablecloth)

So armed with our arsenal of picnic treats, we crossed the highway and snagged a picnic table at Vi Sattui, the "picnic" winery in Napa. Being in Napa, we paired out marvelous lunch with a lovely Rose wine.

Drinking rose in the vineyard

Oh, and after our picnic we headed to Miner to taste...I love that winery

Scott, me, Christina, Rodrigo & Kelly at Miner

The Peruvians (cute pic!)

Picnic #2 was more "country" and less "gourmet food shop". Our fridge was teeming with leftovers from a week of cooking. We had tons of that tender steak left, so Christina made delicious sandwiches with the steak, whole grain mustard, arugula, cheddar cheese, and it was on this bread we found at Whole Foods called a "ciabbaguette". We brought some balsamic vinaigrette and avocado to add to the sandwiches when we ate them. This picnic was supplemented with grapes and chocolate chip cookies.
The weather was dreary in Healdsburg, sprinkling on and off all day. But after wine tasting at Francis Ford Coppola (his Academy Awards are in the tasting room!!!), we found a lovely picnic table with a huge umbrella to eat under. Like the platter-maker in Napa, the tasting room attendants in Healdsburg also went above and beyond, giving us a bucket and glasses for the Sofia champagne we bought for our picnic.

Me and Christina with the champagne
The mosaic on the table
Christina and Rodrigo eating cookies and champagne...mmmm!

Another successful and delicious picnic in the wine country...seriously, who wouldn't want to do that for a living?