Te Napa Valley
Hiting the Silverado Trail, a scenic route that winds along the eastern reaches of the Napa Valley, we start at one of the region’s fne-dining pioneers: Auberge du Soleil. Everything here is so perfect, so blue-skyand-sunshine that, as we wander through art-flled, tropically lush gardens, we start to wonder if we’ve fallen through a wormhole into a far lovelier dimension. Dinner is a stately gourmet trip through classic French technique and, of course, much of California’s bounty, but it’s breakfast that thrills us most. On the restaurant’s terrace, overlooking hills and valleys in every shade of green, row upon perfect row of vines as far as the eye can see, we discover smoked salmon pizza. Yes, the smoked fsh on cream cheese spread over fabulous, springy sourdough pizza base – it’s my new favourite thing. Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc – a creamy, sprightly fzz – is the perfect companion. Drinking at breakfast? Why not? In nearby St Helena every other shop is a restaurant, gourmet foodstore or outlet for Napa’s own-grown peppery olive oil. We stop at Gott’s – you gota stop at Got’s – a burger joint for decades and a place of pilgrimage for a damn fne paty (gots.com). The server shares a menu hack: ‘order regular fries with sweet potato spices’, so we do. Neat trick. A couple of hours exploring to walk it of and then Archetype, the pretiest restaurant in this pretiest of towns, with its oatmeal-coloured perfection, frondy ferns and glazed lean-to (archetypenapa.com). Even the food is prety – my crispy local duck with Asian slaw in a pillowy hirata bun comes with ‘dirty rice’ in a teeny Chinese takeout carton. Before we get back on the trail proper there’s just time to swing by Yountville. It’s home to The French Laundry, but this time we try Redd Wood, the newest outlet for local chef Richard Reddington, for frst-class wood-fred pizzas and huge platers of charcuterie from the curing room: guanciale, ’nduja, salumi (reddwood.com).
Double rooms at Auberge start at $725, b&b (aubergedusoleil.com). Return fights start at around £560 from London to San Francisco (virgin-atlantic.com). One week’s car hire starts at around £150 (holidayautos.co.uk). More info: visitnapavalley.com