In addition to its fabulous restaurants, Yountville is home to a few tasting rooms that pour delicious wines and--luckily for us--pour until 6 pm (Hope & Grace Wines, Jessup Cellars, Girard, and Ma(i)sonry). Last night, my fellow wine enthusiast (who, from here on out, will be affectionately referred to as my FWE) and I visited Hope & Grace, a quaint tasting room slash art gallery located right next door to Bouchon.
The art, including large format paintings, colorful blown glass items, and elegant sculpture, is almost as captivating as the wines. But it was these beautifully crafted wines (and their interesting labels) that we were most interested in.
I am an ABC kind of girl (Anything But Chardonnay), but Hope & Grace makes a very respectable Burgundian-style Chardonnay (their only white wine).
Their 2006 Santa Lucia Pinot Noir is a knock-out, with a full, luscious body, layers of ripe cherry fruit, and an earthy finish. It's both easy on the palate and on a winery professional's budget.
The rest of the line up was quite enjoyable--we tasted the Malbec (rich and round, with dark berry flavors), the Stag's Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon (refined and restrained, velvety tannins and delightfully long finish), the St. Helena Cab (structured and powerful, already very smooth), and the 2004 Hendricks Reserve (big, opulent, lush, a special-occasion Cab).
We thanked the Hope & Grace staff for their time and generosity and made our way to the bar at Ad Hoc, a Thomas Keller restaurant. With a half-bottle of the 2006 Larkin Cab Franc (yum, yum, yum) and the
insistence of the two chatty women next to us at the bar, we ordered the full prix-fixe menu: smoked salmon blini with a soft-poached egg and lettuces to start, pork tenderloin stuffed with smoky sauteéd mushrooms and grilled peaches was the main course, a selection of artisanal cheeses followed, and a chocolate dome to finish. What a decadent evening!
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