My Kat Life

This past Monday was President’s Day and luckily my friend and I both had the day off. I had received an invitation to attend a wine launch event, so we decided to make a day of it in Napa. We’re both wine lovers (I’m still working on developing a more discerning palate to be able to pick out flavors/notes; most of the time I just nod and agree haha), so it was the perfect excuse for a day trip.

We started off our morning with a hike in San Jose to get our blood flowing, did a quick change of clothes, then headed north. We pretty much winged our entire day with no agenda except for the wine launch party in the late afternoon, so as I drove, my friend Diana looked up options for lunch in Napa. We settled on Kitchen Door since we had both never been.

The restaurant is located at Oxbow Market, which has a sizable parking lot, but we were met with a pretty full lot upon arrival. We got SO lucky and nabbed a space as someone was leaving and then again when we put our name down on the waitlist at Kitchen Door. It was going to be a 15-20 minute wait, so we walked around Oxbow Market and we were walking down the ramp to get to the Annex when Diana got the call informing us our table was ready! We had pretty much decided on what we were going to order while in the car, so we put the order in for a glass of wine each, the duck banh mi, and belly burger (1/4 lb burger with pork belly, kimchi, sriracha mayo). Both items were AMAZING.
Tip: if you’re dining with another person, split the pork belly burger because it’s quite rich.

After lunch we weren’t quite sure what to do since we only had about two hours until we had to get to the launch event. We did a quick search in downtown to see if there were any wine bars where we could hang out in lieu of driving to a winery and doing a full tasting. If only we had another hour. We found Rebel Vitners only a 10 minute walk away, which was great because we needed to walk off lunch and we left the car behind. The wine bar is cozy and has quite a bit of space; there are a couple long tables with chairs, bar seats, and a small corner with sofa seating. They even have board games for public use! We decided to split a wine flight of 6 ($25) to sip as we played Connect Four to pass the time.

The tasting room is a partnership between three vitners: Cadle Family Wines, Leaf & Vine, and Uncharted. The six wines in the wine flight were all wines from these vitners. My three favorites were the Leaf & Vine 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Uncharted 2017 Pinot Gris (it tastes like a rosé), and the Leaf & Vine 2016 Carignane.

Idiosyncrasy Wine Launch
I wasn’t too sure what to expect of this event since I’ve never been to a wine label launch, but I was excited to try Julien Fayard’s cabernets. My GPS took us just a couple miles south of downtown Napa to an industrial area with warehouses. We found the building and were greeted warmly by the Wine Access team. I have to admit, I didn’t know what Wine Access was before the event and I had to ask when I was chatting with someone from the team. Wine Access brings wines directly to the consumer and in doing so, they’re able to keep the cost of wines low(er) because there’s no middleman taking a cut.

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What caught my eye when deciding whether to attend the event was Julien’s story and accomplishments. I envy his upbringing in the French Riviera in close proximity to his uncle’s vineyard. Julien moved to Bordeaux and worked at Château Lafite Rothschild (a First Growth, Premier Grand Cru classé winery) and Château Smith Haut Lafitte (Grand Cru classé) before landing in Napa where he worked with Philippe Melka to build several famous wine brands, started his own label Azur Wines (P.S. I need to find some of his Azur rosés to try), and now has created Idiosyncrasy in conjunction with Wine Access. Whoa! What I love most is that Julien, a talented wine maker and consultant, has created Idiosyncrasy with accessibility in mind for consumers.

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Thank you so much Wine Access for the amazing opportunity to meet and speak with Julien as well as some of the Wine Access team! It was a fun afternoon of tasting Idiosyncrasy cabernets with cheeses, fruits, and nuts to explore how they compliment each other in Julien’s new tasting room.

$50 off $150 on Wine Access
>> wineaccess.com/kat.eats <<
If you’re looking to explore some new wines, check out Wine Access. As I mentioned before, it’s a direct-to-consumer wine company. What’s awesome is that they have their own team of experts that judge each wine. You can shop the site by top categories, wineries, regions, and varietals; you can also shop the experts’ favorite wines!