CultureJunkie

Da Conch Shack

We're loving all the fresh seafood on this island!

Last night we had dinner with another couple from Boston at the restaurant Coyoba, where I had a Corvina fish special.

Today, we travelled out to Da Conch Shack, a fantastic spot on the beach serving all manner of conch (deep fried, pan fried, stewed, curried...) and some really good jerk chicken.

The best part was seeing how the conch go from sea to table (and glossy souvenir shell, as well). Check out the photos below: (1) entrance to the restaurant (2) empty shells are plentiful in the water; below them are large nets full of live conch; (3) men cart buckets of conch up onto the beach and (4) give 'em a whack with a hammer to dislodge the conch from its shell; (5) another man then pounds it with a meat tenderizer before sending it into the kitchen. It was very tasty!

Lazy Thursday

Today was such a lazy day! Breakfast on the beach followed by lots of reading/sleeping/swimming/sleeping :) Later, we walked up the beach and had a bite at The Somewhere Cafe and a drink next door at the Gansevoort. And would you believe they had fireworks last night, on my birthday?! Here are some shots:

The Alexandra

We arrived at The Alexandra in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos today. Happy birthday to me! Here are a few photos from our place.

The Hess Collection & Domaine Carneros

On our last full day in Napa, we stayed relatively close to "home" and visited two wineries - one decidedly modern, and the other reminiscent of old-world France.

The Hess Collection, which not only produces wine, but also houses works of modern art from Donald Hess' private collection. Most of it was over-the-top modern, but there was one installation that I loved: "Hommage" by Leopoldo Maler, which is an old Underwood typewriter with gas flames coming out of it, representing the inflammatory political essays of his uncle (a well-known Argentinian writer). The gallery only shows about 25% of his collection, which he started in 1966 and limits to 20 living artists whose works he wished to support long-term. The balance is shown in museums around the world.

(Photo credit for "Hommage" goes to I Dream Lo-Tech, since there was a "no photos" sign on the work and I obliged)

Domaine Carneros, a giant chateau situated on a hill surrounded by vineyards that was architecturally inspired by the 18th century Chateau de la Marquetterie in Champagne, France (in fact, both properties are owned by Taittinger, the French wine family famous for producing Champagne). We sat on their sunny terrace and enjoyed an assortment of sparkling wines, cheeses, and charcuterie.

Ahhh, Napa...until we meet again!

The Silverado Trail

The Silverado Trail is a beautiful drive that runs parallel to the main drag in Napa (Route 29) but seems light years away from the hustle & bustle of that busy strip. It's a much less congested road, with wide open expanses of grape vines on one side and views of the Las Posadas State Forest on the other. We took a leisurely drive along it one day and visited two vineyards:

Mumm, which is known for its sparkling wines and has gorgeous grounds, complete with flower garden, seasonal pumpkin display, and a barn-like art gallery full of Ansel Adams prints. We sat on their dog-friendly patio (beautiful spot) and enjoyed a tasting of 5 different sparklers, with a bonus round of Santana DVX, a special sparkling wine resulting from a collaboration between the winery and musician Carlos Santana.

Just down the road, we visited ZD Wines, a fantastic, no-frills, family-run operation (for 3 generations) that produces Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, their 1969 Pinot Noir was the first to carry a Carneros designation on the label. These were among our favorite wines on the trip.

 

Sterling Vineyards

Sorry - last week got away from me before I could wrap up the vineyard tour. I have a few more to cover, so here goes...

Sterling Vineyards is a bit further up the road in Calistoga, but we made our way there because we were already fans of their popular wines and heard that the tram ride up to the winery has beautiful views. So we boarded the gondola and were lifted about 300 feet up to where their white stucco building - designed to look like one from the Greek island of Mykonos - provides a stark contrast to the lush mountains surrounding it. It felt like a monastery, complete with bell towers (one of the bells, incidentally, was recovered from an old church in London that was destroyed during WWII). Here, we did a self-guided tour and tasting, sat out on their patio overlooking the two vineyards from which they source their grapes, and finished up in their dining room for a final flight of wines.

Cakebread Cellars

Just down the road from Rubicon Estate is Cakebread Cellars, makers of red and white wines that we often drink back home. The vineyard was started 30 years ago by a man named Jack Cakebread who visited the area to photograph Napa Valley for a book, and ended up buying a friend's ranch and becoming a vintner.

Back then, Jack's wife Dolores would prepare lunch for visitors to the ranch. Today, Cakebread sees thousands of visitors come through for tours of its garden, vineyards, kitchen, and wine making. They even have a "Healthy Eating" cooking workshop in Dolores' organic kitchen garden.

We joined a small group out in the field to taste wines amongst the vines (where I learned that they don't trim the rows so that the heavy foliage can protect the delicate white grapes from the blazing sun).

And where did that famous surname come from? Jack's ancestors were bakers in England who specialized in a dense, round loaf called "cakebrede."

Rubicon Estate

Rubicon Estate is owned by producer Francis Ford Coppola, who purchased the Inglenook Winery in 1975 using his proceeds from The Godfather, and renamed it after its flagship wine.

It's a magnificent property with a long, tree-lined drive and a great house covered in ivy (that had turned a bright red for the Fall foliage season).

Besides the tasting room, bar and picnic area, there is a small museum there dedicated to Coppola's fascination with optics, the result of being confined to his bed with polio as a child and occupying himself with prisms, telescopes and a toy movie projector. Here, they have his collection of zoetropes (an early device for moving pictures) on display, as well as information on his now-famous movie career. You may recall from my earlier post that Coppola named his San Francisco-based production company American Zoetrope, and that he serves Rubicon wines in the ground floor cafe of the same building.

Here's a brief tour of the Estate:

Oxbow Public Market

Oxbow is a fantastic public market right in downtown Napa, like a smaller version of the Ferry Plaza Market in San Francisco. It's a covered building, but one, big open space inside where artisenal and local foods and wines are sold by individual purveyors. There is produce, coffee & tea, spices, meats, cheeses, fish, and baked goods, plus sit-down restaurants and even items for the home. It is gorgeous! I so wish we had places like this in Boston. On the day we visited, there was an additional farmer's market in the parking lot, where we picked up homemade yogurt and fresh berries for the week.

Castello di Amorosa

The first vineyard we visited was a magnificent property up in Calistoga called Castello di Amorosa ("Castle of Love"). It is the creation of Dario Sattui, a 4th-generation vintner who also owns V. Sattui Winery down the road in St. Helena, and whose great-grandfather first created a vineyard in San Francisco in 1885.

The younger Sattui set out to build an authentic, medieval Italian castle and perfect his Italian wines. It took him 14 years to complete the 107-room structure which covers 121,000 square feet and features a moat, drawbridge, torture chamber, chapel, and great hall. The surrounding grounds are stunning, including not only the vineyard but a small vegetable garden, sheep, peacocks, chickens and a two cats, Sir Lancelot and Lady Guinevere.

No detail was left to chance as Sattui imported authentic artifacts to complete the rooms (the torture chamber has a 300 year old iron maiden, the courtyard has a 200+ year old Tuscan grape press, the great room has a 500 year old fireplace surrounded by frescoes painted by Italian artists) and completed all masonry, iron, and wood work by hand, using traditional methods.

Beneath the castle is a 2-acre barrel cellar with big oak casks stacked floor to ceiling (and we were told that an empty casks cost $1000 so imagine the value of all those full ones!). This is where we did our tastings, and I purchased a bottle of the Fantasia sparkling red which we enjoyed with dessert later in the week.

As you can imagine, I took a ton of photos of this place; here's a pretty good representation, until I can get them all up on Flickr.