Meadowood, Napa Valley March 7th 2011

This was our first dinner of our honeymoon in the Napa Valley. Ray had been raving about this place and I was along for the ride. I definitely love food but usually am turned off by restaurants with too much "fancy food". However by the end of the night, I was calling it one of the best meals I have ever had!


Atmosphere: 8 intimate tables fit into this restaurant with dinner times of 2 hours or more depending on your menu options. Do spent the money and do the chef's tasting menu. The atmosphere was quiet on a Monday night but everyone around us seemed to have some serious issues. Next time I am bringing my friends who are MFT's to help some of these couples out!

Service: 5 out of 5 spoons
Our server was amazing! He was gracious, respectful, attentive and made an effort to make us feel very special during the evening. Ray mentioned when he made the reservation that it was our honeymoon and they made us feel great, with everyone from the bread server to the sommelier wishing us congratulations...and when the staff did not know what a caffe correcto is, they brought Ray and I a free tasting of Marolo Chamomile Grappa (an Italian dessert wine).
Food: 5 out of 5 forks
Food Comments: White wine focused menu with lots of mushrooms, fish throughout the menu. The tasting menu consisted of 9 mini courses, 2-3 bite servings of each. You may think that that many small courses would not fill you up, but we both will agree that it was the perfect amount of food, not to little and not too much.
Wine Paring: Not worth the money; The value is in the wine menu. Try the Shafer Red Shoulder Chardonnay. Bone dry, oak forward and can hold up to many red wine designed dished. Retail is around 48.00 dollars so for a restaurant to charge $100.00 is a steal. 5 out of 5 corks.
 
Favorite dish (of both Mr & Mrs):
 Glazed Sweetbread "Black & White"
Black Truffle, Parsnip, Black Trumpet Mushroom


Cost: 300 per person with wine (Tax and Tip Included)

Chef's Tasting Menu

$195; Wine Pairings $145
(Canapés, First Bites, eight courses, Last Bites)

About Shafer Wines:

Shafer Vineyards traces its beginnings to 1972 when John Shafer left a 23-year career in the publishing industry and, with his family, moved to the Napa Valley to pursue a second career in wine. After purchasing a 210-acre estate in Napa Valley's Stags Leap District, the Shafer family faced the arduous task of replanting the existing vineyards, which dated to the 1920s, and terracing the steep and rocky hillsides, eventually expanding vineyard acreage to its current 50 acres.
Evolving from grape growers to vintners, the Shafers crushed their first Cabernet grapes in 1978 and began construction on their winery a year later.
The first Shafer Cabernet became a benchmark, winning the acclaimed San Francisco Vintners Club taste-off upon release and, over a decade later taking first place in an international blind tasting held in Germany, where it outranked such wines as Chateau Margaux, Chateau Latour and Chateau Palmer.
Doug Shafer became winemaker in 1983 after graduating from the University of California at Davis with a degree in enology and viticulture. A year later Elias Fernandez joined the winery as assistant winemaker. Together Doug and Elias have worked closely to forge the Shafer style of quality, consistency and elegance.