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Showing posts with label Dean & Deluca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dean & Deluca. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Introducing Wine Culture and Business in Napa Valley (CA) to Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget





Introducing Wine Culture and Business in Napa Valley (CA) to Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget 



One of my family’s favorite places to go during summer when my daughter Florence was young was Napa Valley outside San Francisco.

Little Florence was not going drink wine, but I wanted her to know about wine culture, since it is important to California’s economy.

We had three destinations on our usual Napa itinerary – Sattui Winery, the Robert Mondavi Winery, and Trader Joe’s to buy wine.

Sattui Winery has been a San Francisco secret for decades, because they have a market with items such as terrines, pâtés, baguettes, French cheese, salami, mesclun salads, and made-to-order sandwiches in addition to Italian soda, French soda, and wine. 

You can eat on the premises at picnic tables or benches.  Sometimes bands play.  Children can always play here, making this a nice outing for children.

You used to be able to do wine tastings for free, but now that their wines have won several awards, and the winery is a stop on the Napa wine train, you have to pay for tastings.

There are some things to do after eating.  We would always walk around the vineyard with Florence.

“These stone buildings look like the ones you can see in Tuscany, Italy or Languedoc, France.  Daddy and I saw wineries like this one when we were on our honeymoon in Italy, France, and Spain,” I said.

We walked by the edges of the vineyards where I told Florence, “Never pick the grapes in a vineyard to eat.  That’s a huge no-no.”

Laurent laughed and said, “The vineyard owners might come after you with hunting dogs for eating grapes in the vineyard.”

“That’s not funny,” Florence said.

“It’s vineyard etiquette,” I said.  “You might get yelled at in French and chased with a pitchfork, if they don’t have the dogs out,” I said, continuing my vineyard etiquette lesson.

After inspecting the vineyards, we would cross the street and go to the Dean & Deluca brick-and-mortar store to get some Le Perroquet brown sugar cubes for tea.

We would always inspect the cheese section.  Barcelona and the Catalan region of Spain surrounding Barcelona were very fashionable when Florence was growing up, so we would get a Catalan cheese like Garrotxa to eat.

When I bought that, Florence called it, “The gross cheese.”

We have started eating at Tarla’s in downtown Napa now that Florence is older, but Sattui’s is still a nice place to go with younger children.

The next stop on our Napa wine tour was usually the Robert Mondavi Winery.  The winery is white and towering with lots of arches – perfect for fashion photos.

The tasting bar is full of San Francisco’s upwardly mobile professionals, who describe the wine they taste as “dancing on the tongue” and “having a luscious bouquet.”

Mondavi was a genius at marketing; all Napa wines are excellent, but he created cachet.  I just liked to see how he placed wine glasses, wine buckets, corkscrews, and towels together with wine carriers for al fresco dining.  I asked Florence what she liked on the table in the era of marketing to children.

“The glasses with the picture,” she said, referring to an etched glass with the Mondavi logo.  I knew from my work in marketing research that children like logos and being associated with prestige brands.  Florence’s remark just confirmed every kid’s love for designer anything I thought.

I looked at some of the winery’s more high-end merchandising, which featured a flowing Hermes-like scarf surrounded with bracelets and earrings.

“A lot of people get dressed up to drink wine,” I said to Florence.

“When are some of the times people get dressed up to drink wine?” I asked Florence.

“Weddings, baptisms, Christmas, Easter, birthday parties, and Sunday lunch,” Florence responded.

“It’s better for your liver to limit wine to those occasions,” I said to Florence.

On the way home, we would stop at Trader Joe’s to go wine shopping.  They had wines from all around the world on sale, but I would head to the Italian wine section.

I always bought some Barolos from the Piedmont region, which is considered Italy’s best red wine.  I would also get some Amarone wines from the Veneto region outside Venice.

We would also scout the shelves for some bottles of Grgich, one of the winners in the 1976 Paris Tasting that pitted Napa wines against French ones.  When Napa wines won, the Napa region became world famous.

By the time we bought the wine, we were sun-burnt and ready to go home with our Napa Valley booty.


By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books




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