Wetstone Winery

As you can imagine there are tons of winery we have never heard of, or knew they existed… Wetstone Winery is one of them. Located in an old French style mansion, the winery has walls covered with ivy, amazing architectural features, like arches that provide a gateway to the breathtaking view and a gorgeous solarium where we were lucky enough to have lunch with the owner Jamie.

She and her husband have devoted their lives to promote culture in the valley, members of the film festival and harvest festivities, they provided a formidable experience that will be hard to forget!

The food was exception, home made paninis, goat cheese salad with arugula and apricots, and of course their silk wine! My personal favorite, pinot noir, needless to say we instantly became members of their wine club and now enjoy their amazing wine.

Caldwell Winery

Since our first trip to Napa a few years back, my husband and I have fallen in love with the region and it’s amazing hotels/wineries/resorts/spas… you name it!

Our most memorable visit so far has been at the Caldwell Cottage; it was my husband’s birthday weekend and through a Houston Ballet charity auction we acquire a 4 night stay at this amazing vineyard. We were not very familiar with the place or the wine they produce, but we quickly became mesmerized by it all.

Amazing breakfast, fresh eggs and french baguette

Vintage nutcracker, scale and spice jars.

For starters the cottage is located in the top of a small hill, overlooking the valley. Inside two cute bedrooms, with access to the wrapping terrace. The house is tastefully decorated, very Napa chic, tons of wood, very minimal decoration, the kitchen small, but with a gas 1940’s stove and oven, matching refrigerator and an amazing collection of vintage cast iron pots, pans and appliances! Dream come true!

John Cladwell 

The next morning to start our day of wine tastings, we visited Caldwell’s cava, met John Caldwell himself, had an amazing time talking and learning not only about his wine but how he got his grapes into the country… (you will have to ask him yourself to hear the story!) but it was unbelievable.

I imagine he talks about wine all day long, that he was more interested on asking us about oil and gas, drilling, fracking and Texas! He mentioned that 40% of his production is sold in Texas, and his most famous and common wine named Rocket Science is the “only” wine served in Nasa events! Truly an amazing guy, of course we over extended our visit for 2 hours, tasted 13 wines instead of the regular 7… and just like that my husbands’ birthday could have not started in a better way!

We would definitely go back to the winery for a tour, taste and stay! You can visit their website to become members of their wine club, and enjoy some of the most amazing ports I have ever sipped! 

http://www.caldwellvineyard.com

Vegas Adventure, Golden Nugget

My husband and I bought a package on a benefit event earlier this year that included 4 first class tickets to Vegas, a stay in the Golden Nugget, some gambling credits and food vouchers. So we are very excited and set it to go with our bffs....

We all get to the airport, very excited, get in the plane, order some bloody marys and start our adventure! We land in Vegas we are received by the hotel limo, we enjoyed some champagne on the way there. So far so good, we registered ourselves in the VIP lounge, where they meet us with food vouchers and indicate us the procedure to get our players cards and proceed to grab drinks at Grotto while we wait fr our rooms to be ready.

The food at Grotto was good, it was nothing out of this world, but the Italian flavor was very simple and quite nice; our drinks are delivered promptly and by the time we are done we need go into our rooms. The rooms have been redecorated, very modern and spacious. The only but we had was that there's no refrigerator, we were on a Suite and we had no place to put waters, or mid night soft drinks that is not worth ordering from room service at 5 am! Another thing that caught our attention is the fact that the room are extremely dark, and that the shower is extremely slippery, my husband had a near death experience the first night!

Anyways, we head down to the pool and it is not only extremely crowded, but it has empty glasses and dirty napkins flying everywhere! Of course nobody seemed to care since we had people with Styrofoam coolers with cans of beers! Smokers EVERYWHERE, and service that was nowhere to be found. We retreat ourselves to "private pool" and the service is not better, they do not have any premium alcohol, and the description of the drinks is not accurate with the labels of rum/vodka/ etc they use!

Fast forwarding to the next day in the same pool my husband gets attacked by a very loosy bone women, that after clearly being rejected by my husband and our friend keeps trying to become all touchy touchy with them... I approach the pool, asked the guys to leave and she proceeds to say my husband is a pus** for passing out on her.... DISGUSTING! Next day we were at the Mandarin Oriental's pool, classy, service was great and it was so much more fun!


We ordered room service, it clearly states on the menu that it comes with a bottle of Mumm Champagne, the food comes and we get a bottle of KORBEL! And all I can think is this for real!?!

On top of that we had so many problems with the hostess, she was not helpful at all, extremely rude and with the worst attitude I have ever seen on anyone in the industry service!

Anyways, needless to say we decided to spend as little time as possible in the hotel, and I obviously will never go back to the Golden Thugget!

Santa Monica...

A few years back my husband and I were on our way to Bora Bora and because of some visa issues we had to spend the night in Santa Monica, we went to Expedia and found a hotel to stay, we had never been here and had no clue what to expect. Well, we were pleased with our choice, the Huntley was exceptional!

It is a very contemporary hotel, small, very personable, the staff was so nice an accommodating, we felt like home immediately! The lobby provides very comfortable seats to chat after dinner or just wait for a some friends... The room are very chic and modern. Everything was extremely clean and in perfect condition, the bed and sheets made our sleep feel like heaven!
Our favorite part of the hotel is the roof top bar and restaurant, The Penthouse! It was amazing! Very hip spot for dinner, make sure to have reservations ahead of time, the service was amazing, the quality of food outstanding and they have a very broad menu, but the most important of all, the view is breathtaking.

Perfect for a romantic sunset with a nice bottle of champagne!

You can walk to so many places from this hotel! We strolled down the street and took a walk on the beach, followed by some shopping at Third Street Promenade, where you can find pretty much anything you need. Bottom line I definitely recommend anyone to stay in this hotel! it is amazing!

"G" is for Great!

While in Napa this last week Daniel and I had an opportunity to enjoy a gourmet dinner cooked in our cottage by Chef Gary and a wine pairing hosted by Garret owner and wine maker G Wines, limited quantities of an amazing quality wine! We started our culinary adventure with the Sauvignon Blanc chilled to perfection that matched our potato croquette with pickled shrimp in a light creamy sauce... Cooked to perfection, an amazing balance between silky mashed potatoes and a shrimp lightly marinated with home made mayonnaise and green onions sauce. Of course we had to enjoy our bite in the terrace overlooking the valley, it was just too spectacular to pass! 

 

Before we got too comfy dinner started in the main dinning area, we were surprised by two main courses:

Deep fried chicken breast inside out! I know it sound very very ordinary, but I happen to able to see how it was prepared and Chef Gary had the meats in a pot filled with warm water and a pump that kept the water's temperature rising to keep the meat from spoiling and maintain the juices in a way that when cooked the temperature change will not be as shocking, I know what you are thinking: "yea, right"... but trust me it has been the juiciest chicken I have ever tried! It was served with mashed fennel and sprinkled with it's own juices, just superb!

The second entre, was a petite filet cooked to perfection! It was seared in butter over the stove and finished in the burning hot oven for a couple of minutes! Again this meat went through the same process of maintaining the temperature through the cooking progress. We had mustard puree and pickled cucumbers that were to die for! Of course nothing but the best for their gold label wine! We finished our evening with a delicate coconut demiglace topped with dried mangos, just perfect!!

If you are in Napa and you are thinking to plan a special night please give them a call, they can set something cute for you, also they are relocating their tasting room and gourmet kitchen services into the Stagg's Leap region... Their website is still under construction, but you can send them an email for information and availability, we are new members of their wine club, we can not pass the opportunity to get our hands into non-commercial wines!

Sweets Anyone?

This past week we were in San Francisco and we stopped by my favorite pastiserie ever! MIETTE!
Ladies, if you ever decide to stop by any of their stores you are in for a treat... They bake the most delicate cookies in the whole wide universe, not to mention they have amazing flavors like lemon and lavender shortbread, without leaving out the traditional peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies!

They also treat us with some amazing little bites called, Salty Licorice they also offer the Sweet Dutch Licorice, intrigued by the salty ones?... they describe them as follows:
"We import our mixture of licorice from Holland where licorice is an obsession and an art. The saltiness derives from ammonium chloride rather than sodium chloride so the taste is distinct. Some pieces taste like molasses, others are slightly salted with pepper undertones and a few are very salty and an acquired taste. "
Want more?

Well, we have saved the best for last... home made Macarons! In many many flavors, they are so delicate, you will have to be careful of not pressing them too hard! And the list goes on and on, these are only a few of their amazing delicatessen! Visit their website for online orders, I promise you, you will not be disappointed!


Gentlemen, this a wonderful present for special ladies; mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, their packaging and girly attention to detail will make the ladies smile!