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Calistoga Ranch's Exclusive Napa Valley Getaway Package

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spas, Wine

Calistoga Ranch offers the Ultimate Napa Valley Weekend
Looking for the ultimate getaway in Napa Valley? Auberge Resorts' Calistoga Ranch, the winner of the Luxist Awards' Readers' Choice Award for Best Green Spa has created the "Ultimate Napa Valley Weekend," a two-night, "ultimate" fantasy weekend that includes the best and most iconic experiences that Napa Valley has to offer.

The package includes a highly coveted reservation for two and special menu paired with some of Napa's best wines at Chef Thomas Keller's world-famous French Laundry. Guests will also receive treatments at Calistoga Ranch's Bathhouse Spa, recently named as one of the country's top spas by Conde Nast Traveler. Guests will be treated to a private tour and tasting by chauffeured town car which will take them to three exclusive Napa Valley cult wineries including Far Niente (a Luxist Awards' nominee for best wine), Vineyard 29 and Chappellet.

Accommodations are in a luxurious one-bedroom Spa Lodge, featuring 1,200 square feet of indoor/outdoor living space, including a master suite with an outdoor shower and private garden, indoor and outdoor living rooms with fireplaces and a private hot tub.


Guests who book the "Ultimate Napa Valley Weekend" will also receive a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from the world-famous To Kalon winery and a special French Laundry Welcome Amenity.

The "Ultimate Napa Valley Weekend" package is priced at $4,495 per couple (subject to change and availability, excluding taxes, gratuities and alcohol). The package is only available August 27-29, 2010.

For more information or to make a reservation, call (707) 254-2800 or visit www.calistogaranch.com.

Press Restaurant Celebrates Local Napa Wine

Filed under: Wine


Celebrating the deliciousness of Napa Valley's famous red wines is Press restaurant, a new dining experience in St. Helena, California. The restaurant has a custom-built wood-fired grill and rotisserie. A wide selection of hand-cut steaks, chops, grills and roasts are meant to be paired with the terroir-based wines of the Napa Valley. Fresh salads,appetizers and a raw bar featuring fresh oysters, shrimp and lobster offer a tempting prelude to the main event. Side dishes include artisanal vegetables as well as comfort food classics, all designed for sharing.

The USDA Prime Angus beef has been naturally grass fed and finished on corn. It is sourced from Creekstone Farms and dry-aged for a minimum of 28 days. The locally raised American Kobe Wagyu beef is sourced from Masami Ranch, California. Press also features 100% Japanese Kobe Kuroge Wagyu and each steak is grilled over a cherry and almond wood fire. Organic free range poultry comes from Fulton Farms, and when available, lamb from the Sonoma Coast or Berkshire pork from Carneros. Seasonal produce is selected from the Rudd Estate Garden, the farmers market or local Napa Valley farmers whenever possible.

The wine list includes some rare, cult wines, older vintages as well as small, locally known producers that are difficult to find outside the Napa Valley. The wine list was designed to complement the menu and changes with the food offerings. The restaurant recently brought on sommeliers Kelli White and Scott Brenner to manage the restaurant's collection of Napa wines.

On Wednesdays at the Press bar the Blue Plate special is just $10 and is first come, first serve. July 14 brings fried chicken, July 21 is spaghetti Puttanesca and July 28 will be fish tacos and mango salsa.

Iron Chef Morimoto Takes On Napa

Filed under: Dining

Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto is ready to take on the West Coast. His Morimoto Napa restaurant in the Napa Riverfront development opens this month. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the restaurant will have around 70 seats inside the dining room and bar area with another 40 on a patio overlooking the river. It will offer a variety of dining options from the full omakase experience at the sushi bar to quick bites at the lounge. The fish will be flown in from Japan but other ingredients will be sourced locally. Some Morimoto favorites like tuna pizza will be served along with other new Napa dishes like the daring sea urchin carbonara (udon, smoked bacon, crispy shallots, sea urchin) and fig tempura (whole fried Black Mission figs, sliced and served with foie gras peanut butter sauce and pomegranate reduction). The menu is designed to pair with California wines and Morimoto will be serving his signature Rogue ale and the restaurant has applied for a brewery license so housemade suds should be in the future.

Swanson Vineyards Launches New Website

Filed under: Wine


One of our favorite wineries, Swanson Vineyards has launched a new website that presents Swanson as more of a lifestyle than just a winery. The brand already sold Swanson-branded caviar and the delectable Alexis bonbons (a delicious curry and cabernet sauvignon chocolate confection) but now the site includes more gifts. "We're presenting a new and lively face for our wines with our new website," explains proprietor W. Clarke Swanson. "This fresh approach with our website characterizes Swanson as a winery with elegant lifestyle choices, which is expressed by the detail and personality of our new site," he added.

Orchestrated by the winery's Creative Director, Alexis Swanson Traina, the Swanson Vineyards' new site communicates the Swanson wine experience through illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme's fanciful renderings. The website will offer new material each month and includes Alexis' Napa, a blog written by Alexis Swanson Traina, full of tips and her personal point of view on life in Napa. Her blog will also include profiles of San Francisco Bay Area personalities in a section called Peeps & Players: currently featured are Katrina Markoff, Ira Yeager, Trevor Traina, Andy Spade, Thomas Britt, Jean-Philippe Delhomme, Torryne Choate and Sam Godfrey.

Swanson Vineyards
is also opening the Sip Shoppe this summer at the Rutherford, California vineyard. Billed as a candy store for adults the shop offers sips of Swanson Vineyards' finest library vintages paired with small bites as well as gifts and wines available by the case of the bottle. Tastings include caviar, chocolates, pates de fruits (jellies) and sorbets, in mini pairings such as Swanson Vineyards Pinot Grigio served with a large dollop of Swanson Vineyards' domestic caviar on a potato chip. The signature tasting is the Salonnière, featuring "Alexis" Cabernet Sauvignon paired with Alexis Bonbon and served with the highly delicate dessert wine Angelica. The shoppe sells playful kits including the Newlywed Kit: six bottles of Swanson Vineyards' special occasion wine "Just Married," accompanied by an ostrich feather duster and a sage bundle (complete with instructions to clear out bad energy and create wedded bliss). Coming shortly, The Break Up Kit, The Stork Kit and the Please Forgive Me Kit. Swanson Vineyards' partners include retail genius Andy Spade; renowned illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme; interior designer Thomas Britt; illustrious chocolatier Katrina Markoff of Vosges Haut Chocolate; Singer Vanessa Carlton and her exclusive stationery line (unique to Swanson Vineyards); avant-garde florist Torryne Choate; and renowned California painter, Ira Yeager. The shop opens July 15, hours are Thursday – Sunday 11:00am – 5:00pm.

St. Supery Vineyards & Winery: Benefiting from Generations of Winemaking Experience

Filed under: Wine

St. Supery Vineyards & Winery
St. Supery Vineyards & Winery, a family-owned estate winery in the heart of Napa Valley, is a Readers' Choice Award Nominee for Best Domestic White Wine.

St. Supery is owned by the Skalli family of France. While traveling to Napa Valley during the 1970's, Robert Skalli, who's family has made wine for several generations in the south of France, felt particularly at home in the Napa Valley. He returned to France with two dreams: improve the quality of wines coming from Southern France, and create a top quality wine from the Napa Valley. In 1982 he purchased Dollarhide,a 1,500 acre historic cattle and horse ranch nestled among the hills of Napa Valley, and planted a portion of it with the noble grape varieties of Bordeaux, France. A few years later, he purchased a second property in Rutherford, where he built the winery.

Far Niente: A Jewel Box that Produces Luxury Estate-Bottled WInes

Filed under: Wine

Far Niente is nominated for a Luxist Award for Best White Wine
Legendary for its jewel box beauty, stunning gardens and critically acclaimed estate wines, Far Niente is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Domestic White Wine.

Far Niente was founded in 1885, by John Benson, an original forty-niner of the California gold rush and uncle of the artist, Winslow Homer. It was one of the Napa Valley's first gravity flow wineries, which gently moves the grapes through each stage of production.

Benson named the winery "Far Niente" after the Italian phrase "Dolce Far Niente" meaning, "sweet to do nothing". The winery prospered until its abandonment at the onset of Prohibition in 1919. The winery was abandoned for sixty years, until Oklahoman Gil Nickel purchased the property and adjoining vineyard in 1979 and began a meticulous, three-year restoration. Nickel, a physicist by education with a background in agriculture through his family's nursery business, had relocated to California with a quest to create a world-class Napa Valley wine estate. While the winery was being restored, Nickel took courses in the enology and viticulture program at the University of California at Davis. Nickel's efforts were rewarded with the placement of Far Niente on the National Registrar of Historic Places.

Gallery: Far Niente

Far Niente's WinesAzaleas at Far NienteFar Niente's Carriage HouseThe Estate at Far NienteFar Niente's Storage Room

Duckhorn Vineyards: An Artisan's Approach to Creating Enchanting Merlots and Cabernets

Filed under: Wine


Duckhorn Vineyards, located in St. Helena, Ca., is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Domestic Red Wine.

Co-founded by Dan and Margaret Duckhorn in 1976, Duckhorn Vineyards has spent nearly 35 years establishing itself as one of North America's premier producers of Bordeaux varietal wines. From its modest inaugural vintage of 800 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon and 800 cases of Merlot in 1978, to its addition of Sauvignon Blanc in 1982, Duckhorn Vineyards has crafted a tradition of quality and excellence that continues today.

Duckhorn made an early decision to focus on the production of Merlot. Though many Napa Valley wineries were using Merlot as a blending grape in the late 1970's, few were exploring the potential of this varietal as a stand-alone wine. A great fan of Merlot since traveling to St. Emilion and Pomerol, Dan Duckhorn felt that this elegant varietal was under appreciated in North America. "I liked the softness, the seductiveness, the color," says Duckhorn. "The fact that it went with a lot of different foods; it wasn't so bold, didn't need to age so long, and it had this velvety texture to it. It seemed to me to be a wonderful wine to just enjoy. I became enchanted with Merlot."

Cakebread Cellars: Quality, Consistency and Continuity

Filed under: Wine


Cakebread Cellars, in Rutherford, Ca., is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Domestic White WIne.

The winery, renowned for its Chardonnay wines, is owned by the Cakebread family, who are known for being among the most creative and successful winemaking families in Napa Valley.

The winery has a reputation for producing world-class wines. Cakebread attributes its success to its focus on quality, consistency and continuity, characteristics which are applied to the grapes, its wines, its staff and the operation of the winery, itself.

Cakebread's roots date back to trip Jack Cakebread made in the early 1970's when he came to photograph the Napa Valley and casually mentioned his interest in one day owning a vineyard to family friends who owned a ranch in Rutherford. When he returned home that afternoon, the phone rang---it was the friends offering to sell their property. Cakebread headed back up to the valley that same afternoon to make his best offer, and Cakebread Cellars was born. Today a team of seven Cakebread family members leads the winery.

Cakebread Cellars has vineyard properties located throughout Napa Valley in addition to a recently added parcel in the Anderson Valley. The winery owns 13 sites totaling 420 acres, 340 of which are currently planted. Unlike many other wineries, Cakebread feeds its white grapes directly to a press where the juice is gently extracted without crushing (called whole cluster pressing) and only the juice is fermented.

All tours and tastings are made by appointment. They are conducted in various venues around the winery--in barrel rooms, in the fermentation room and occasionally alongside the vineyard or on a patio when production schedule and weather permits. Call ahead to make appointments, as weekends and holidays book quickly.

Vote for the winemaker that you think is the best of breed. The voting period ends on June 30th, with winners announced on July 1, 2010.

Clos Du Val: Classic Wines that are Always in Style

Filed under: Wine

Clos du Val
Clos Du Val is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Domestic Red Wine.

The winery's roots date back to 1970 when American businessman John Goelet sent French-born winemaker Bernard Portet off with his passport and a mission to find new territory with the potential to produce world-class wines. Portet fulfilled that mission when he selected the Stags Leap District for Bordeaux varietals.

In 1973, Portet became one of the first vintners to stake a claim on some of the finest hillside land in the cool-climate region of Carneros, another undeveloped and promising district now famous for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Portet's old-world approach to winemaking combined with Napa Valley fruit established Clos Du Val's tradition of classic estate-style wines of balance, elegance and complexity. Its first vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon in 1972 was one of only six California Cabernets selected for the now-legendary 1976 Paris Tasting. That same vintage took first place in a rematch ten years later, proving that Clos Du Val wines age with grace.

Napa Valley Auction, June 3-6

Filed under: Wine, Auctions, Events


Auction Napa Valley celebrates its 30th anniversary June 3-6. Hosted by the Napa Valley Vintners, a non-profit trade organization representing nearly 400 Napa Valley wineries, this four-day gala is not only the world's most successful charity wine auction, it is also the most fun. Beginning with casual, intimate dinners with host vintners in their homes and wineries Thursday night, it ends Sunday with a "Farewell Fête." Friday is a day to meander through a food and wine festival at the Rubicon Estate where more than 100 wineries will be pouring wines. Local restaurateurs and artisan food producers will showcase their specialties. You will also have a chance to taste and bid on wines from the barrel in the rousing Barrel Auction inside the winery's caves.

Ma(i)sonry in Napa Valley: Wine Tasting with an Artistic Twist

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Wine

Ma(i)sonry in Napa Valley for Wine Tasting
Walk through the door at Ma(i)sonry and you won't find the usual faux-Italian or French décor that typifies tasting rooms in Yountville, Calif. Instead, you'll discover a space haunted by gold-plated skulls, abstract sculpture and giant chrome contraptions that look like the ancestors of the modern spotlight.

A steam-punk aesthetic pervades the century-old stone house, converted in 2007 to a tasting room that doubles as an exhibition space. Various mammalian vertebrae and reclaimed metal sculptures hang from exposed beams and dot the wooden shelves, an ambiance that could be the brainchild of Georgia O'Keefe and Damien Hirst, had they lived together on a 19th Century farm.
All of this makes for a fascinating place to taste wines from the 14 small local producers whom Ma(i)sonry represents. Check in at the front desk and head upstairs to one of the quirky rooms in the back. Pass a stack of disembodied men's shirt collars under a specimen glass and ease yourself into a worn leather armchair. Before ordering your first glass of wine, drink up the trinkets: a wooden humidor with a Cuban flag carved in to the cover, a paper bird sculpture made from shavings of Dostoevsky's House of the Dead.

Ma(i)sonry's menu includes an array of both pre-selected and customizable flights from nearby wineries. On a rainy Wednesday, the Collector's Flight ($40) is a sampling of four wines highlighted by the 2004 Husic Vineyards Cabernet, chocolatey with hints of nutmeg and raspberry jam, and the 2006 Rivera Cabernet, tannic and tinted with a taste of blackberries and green tea. All are part of a run of 1,000 cases or less.

Have as many glasses as you like – Ma(i)sonry is a mere five-minute walk from a firmament of Michelin-spangled restaurants (Bistro Jeanty, Bouchon, Redd, and the French Laundry) as well as the posh eco-lodge Bardessono (which was nominated for a Luxist Award for Best Green Spa in March).

A Visit to The Bardessono in California's Wine Country

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spas


As with most resorts, the first thing you'll notice at Bardessono in Yountville, Calif., is the lobby. But this one's a bit different from the usual. Swaths of plants grow on strings running from the floor to the ceiling, nourished by nothing but the air. A sepia sculpture made from recycled newspaper hangs on a parallel wall. Those might be unusual touches at a normal hotel, but in the Napa Valley's premier eco-lodge, it's par for the course.

Founded in February of 2009, Bardessono, which was a Luxist Awards' nominee for best green spa in March, boasts the largest renewable power system of any hotel in North America. Over 900 photovoltaic panels convert the sun's energy into 260,000 kilowatt hours annually; unused output is sold back to the grid. The resort is heated and cooled by a network of 82 geothermal wells that stretch 300 feet below the grape vines out front. Motion sensors control lights and shades in each of the 62 rooms, ensuring that nearly nothing goes to waste. Along those lines, you won't find plastic bags in the hotel's wastepaper baskets, and filtered water is served in reusable glass jugs instead of bottles. Even the bathroom toiletries come in big, refillable bottles instead of the disposable (and easily pilfered) airline-safe containers.


Bardessono's dining room keeps with the resort's "deep green" mission statement. The delicious, heavily organic menu draws from local farms and fisheries; most of the wines hail from nearby vineyards as well. Like the guest rooms, which are free of the rugs, bedspreads and curtains deemed unnecessary by the green police, the dining room is somewhat spare. The only flourishes are a wispy, LED-lit chandelier and a magnificent long wood table made from a reclaimed tree trunk. A few paintings – or eco-friendly art installments – would be a welcome addition.

The resort's strongest point is its integrated spa services. Though there's a dedicated spa near the communal pool and hot tub, each guest room is designed to accommodate two massage tables and two masseurs. Call ahead to book a couple's massage and watch as your room is transformed into a miniature spa, complete with tea lights and soothing music piped in from Sirius Satellite Radio's unlikely spa channel. Bardessono's massage therapists will customize your treatment no matter how specific (they proved adept at soothing this writer's keyboard-addled wrists). When they're done, they'll leave you to luxuriate on the massage table as long as you like.

Bardessono guests don't have to worry about staying sober enough to drive – the resort is less than ten minutes by foot from fine restaurants including the French Laundry, the only establishment in the area to earn Michelin's coveted three star rating. Don't forget to check out one of the nearby tasting rooms, especially the new and funky Ma(i)sonry. Bardessono also offers a bike shop where guests can rent cycles for free.

As a Napa Valley connoisseur might say, Bardessono is a little young. Barely a year old, there are still trees that need to grow taller and walls that perhaps need more adornment. But the amenities and design elements are there – like a fine wine, Bardessono will only get better with age. In the meantime, guests can enjoy a fine spa and resort on a clean environmental conscience.

Calistoga Ranch Wins Readers' Choice Award for Best Green Spa

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spas

Calistoga Ranch Wins Best Green Spa Award
Many establishments tout their low impact on the environment, but Calistoga Ranch in California takes green to a new level. Its harmony with the Upper Napa Valley's pristine wilderness makes it an obvious choice for a nomination for a Readers' Choice Award in Luxist's best green spa category.

Founded in 2004, Calistoga is nestled in a secluded canyon a mere 90-minute from San Francisco by car. Set on 157 acres, the resort boasts 47 guest lodges and 27 owner lodges, all of which are designed to share the feel of a vintner's estate. The lodges were all built to ensure that the area's streams, lakes and ancient oak trees wouldn't be disturbed; each lodge features floor-to-ceiling glass doors that create a seamless flow into the resort's copious outdoor deck space.

Calistoga's spa is adorned with warm wood and encircled by trellised walkways. Relax in soaking pools shaded by mossy oaks above and graced by a babbling brook below or head inside to receive organic treatments in a private room. Afterward, recline on deck chairs and gaze out into the expansive forest before you.

Try the spa's "Calistoga Cure" treatment, an exfoliating salt body scrub followed by a mineral bath in your own private outdoor tub, a polarity session, and a massage. Or check out the "Soul Soother," which begins with a yoga session in your own lodge and continues with an aromatherapy massage at the spa and ends with a lunch at the onsite Lake House restaurant – all without ever leaving your personal Napa paradise.

The Architecture of Sanctuary: Calistoga Ranch

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, By Design

calistoga ranch
To anyone who lives in Napa Valley, or in San Francisco or even on the Western edge of the United States, Calistoga Ranch is significant resort. Located in a secluded canyon in upper Napa Valley, The property is part of Auberge, one of the world's premiere resort companies. It has won multiple awards, most recently from Travel & Leisure and from Andrew Harper both in 2009. Calistoga Ranch is also a Luxist Awards nominee for Best Green Spa.

Being a guest there for a day or two, allows you to see how different the resort design is, and how the well the design fits with the needs of the guests or of the owners who own part of the fractional residences on the property. Located on 157 acres just outside the town of Calistoga in Napa Valley, California, Calistoga Ranch is one of the few seasoned hotels and Private Residence Clubs in California wine country, encompassing 47 guest lodges and 27 owners lodges.

The property's contemporary architecture is inspired by its natural surroundings, and was created to fit the landscape, with a focus on an indoor-outdoor lifestyle. In keeping with the rich wine producing heritage of Napa Valley, Calistoga Ranch has an on-site vineyard and mountain wine cave, where owners and guests can share in the process of winemaking and viticulture. They can also store their own wine in the wine cave store facilities where the temperature always is cool, and dry.

Premiere Napa Valley Results Up

Filed under: Wine, Auctions

premiere napa valley
Earlier this month I mentioned that the returns on the Naples Wine Auction were up by around $3 million. More good news in the wine auction world comes from Napa where the Premiere Napa Valley results were up by one third over last year. The 14th annual Premiere Napa Valley auction brought in a total of $1.918 million which was 30 percent more than the previous year. The 2009 auction brought in $1.485 million which was far down from 2008's record-setting total of $2.2455 million.

The 200-lot event took place last weekend and saw a more positive tone than last year's event with bidders snapping up cases of the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon. Five cases of Shafer went to Winebid.com for $37,000. Another five case allotment from Ovid went to Capitol Cellars for $33,000 and Lewis Cellars sold five cases to Nakagawa Trading Company of Japan for $30,000. Nakagawa Trading for the second-to-the-top bidder spending $179,000 total on wines. Top honors went to Gary Fisch of Gary's Wine in New Jersey who spent $392,000 on 275 cases.

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