Napa County, California

Napa County was established in 1850 as one of the original 27 counties. The county seat is the City of Napa but most of the area’s fame lies north as you travel up into the Napa Valley. I graduated from High School in Napa, spending many of my formative years in the area. This visit was a trip down memory lane: cruising by former residences, places of employment, schools and shopping haunts.

The area has grown tremendously. It was a food and wine mecca when I called it home and it’s only become bigger, more renowned, more crowded and more commercialized since. It’s still a stunningly beautiful place offering the some of best wine and food hands down. Almost 4.7 million people visit the Napa Valley annually, making it second only to Disneyland as California’s top tourist destination. The Napa Valley Vintners Association lists 344 wineries in the valley. With a population of 124,279 that a winery for every 361 people, or a winery every 2 square miles.

The purpose of my visit was to dine in Yountville at Michael Chiarello’s new hot restaurant Bottega Napa Valley. Chiarello’s Tra Vigne was one of my old haunts before he went on to the Food Network and I just went on. The weather was sunny and a perfect 78 degrees. It would have been ideal to sit on the patio but apparently everyone else thought so too. We were seated inside and I pouted for about 5 seconds. Appeased by the beautiful light fixtures and Frette linens I turned my attention to the menu. We ordered the Grilled Octopus starter, Garganelli with Balsamic Rabbit Sugo & Chanterelle mushrooms and the Garlic Roasted Dungeness Crab in a crab-saffron aioli. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon! Accompanied with a crisp Carneros (Napa Valley) Chardonnay we savored every morsel. I second the San Francisco Chronicle review’s raves.

Driving up to Napa from San Francisco I tuned to 99.3FM to listen to KVYN. I’d forgotten about this radio station and really enjoyed the mostly ‘80’s playlist that took me right back to my ‘80’s in the Valley. There’s something about music that triggers memories. I was pleased to see that they stream on their website and will be there whenever I want a hit of The Vine.