Once done with my morning meeting, I hopped in the car and met Sheri for lunch at Mustards Grill in Yountville. They're famous for their pork chops and the owner, Cindy Pawlcyn, was on Top Chef Masters. I've been here many times, and practically everything on the menu is good. We started off with half portions of the three greens salad. As it was Sheri's first time here, she had the pork chop for her entree. I ended up ordering their "lamb of the day", which was in the form of a burger. The pork chop was delicious as usual, and the lamb burger was to die for. For dessert, we had the baked good of the day, a flourless chocolate cake. There are no pictures available as firstly, I had eaten here before, and secondly, we were too hungry to remember to take pictures, as we didn't eat breakfast.
After lunch, we headed over to our home for the night, Dr. Wilkinson's Hot Springs Resort. There was a lot of traffic through St. Helena heading into Calistoga. Dr. Wilkinson's is better described as a motel rather than a resort. The grounds are clean and well-kept, and our king-bedded room was a good size, though the property reminded me of the movie Psycho. At first, we went into the wrong office, as there was one office to check in for the spa treatments, and one for the motel itself. I was a bit confused when we approached the front desk and a man dressed in clinical whites was asking what time our treatments were. Eventually we were pointed to the right direction. We were an hour early for check-in, so either we could use their changing room and partake in their three mineral pools, or we could take a stroll around town, which we ended up doing, as it felt too hot to go into a heated pool. The outdoor temperature felt like it was in the high 80's/low 90's. We ducked into bookstores and grocery stores for air conditioning.
Around 3pm, we headed back to the motel and checked in. There was a cute tray of individually wrapped Jelly Belly candies in the room...never seen these before. It was still too warm outside to consider using the heated mineral pools, so we just stayed in the room chatting and relaxing before getting ready for the dinner at the castle, which was only 5 minutes away. The first time I saw Castello di Amorosa was when the girls went out for my friend Melissa's 40th birthday at Indian Springs Resort and Spa. I saw it outside the window as our limousine drove by. Then I saw it again on TV from "The Bachelor", with Jake. He had taken Vienna and Gia there for a double date. I remembered Vienna getting lost looking for Jake and Gia amongst the many corridors and tunnels under the castle. This time I got to visit the castle in person, and having taken a tour, I understand how Vienna got lost!
The drive up to the castle was stunning, with a curved driveway flanked with cypress leading up to the edifice. The castle was surrounded by vineyards, and as it was harvest time, the grapevines were laden with fruit ripe for the picking. I was very excited to see the grapes (and very tempted to eat some, but didn't). The castle had a drawbridge-like entrance (it didn't look like it could actually pull up) and had a portcullis at the door. It was hard to walk around on high heels with all the stones laid on the ground.
We were led to an area where there was wine tasting and passed hors d'oeurves. I tasted the Pinot noir and it was so smooth, with hardly any aftertaste of tannins. We also tried the rose, which was good too, but not like the Pinot. I didn't see a lot of appetizers floating around; only got to try a mushroom bruschetta. I found my good friend Karen (along with her husband Paul) and we chatted until it was time to take a mini-tour of the castle.
The tour guide led us under the castle, where the wines were being aged in natural caves which needed no air conditioning nor humidifiers. There were so many corridors, one could get lost easily. We learned that it took Dario Sattui about 14 years to build the castle using the money made from the V. Sattui winery, and most of the materials were shipped from Italy. We also saw the "dungeon", filled with antiques like a real iron maiden, a stretching table, and other torture devices. There was also an enormous wine cellar made with remarkable brick workmanship, with tons of arches.
After the tour, it was time to be seated for a plated dinner. The courtyard was lit up by stringed lights, giving it a very romantic feeling. Too bad the castle isn't allowed to have weddings or receptions as it would be a perfect location. For dinner, we had the non-vegetarian 3-course menu:
Olive oil poached sea bass with fresh thyme-braised baby fennel, served in wine sauce
This dish was okay. I am more used to eating oily Chilean sea bass. This variety of sea bass reminded me of halibut or swordfish, and was cooked well for this type of fish. The fish was paired with a Chardonnay, which was good. The vegetarian menu offered a salad instead of the fish.
New York steak with masala-porcini sauce, roasted fingerling potatoes, and tomato-braised blue lake green beans
The steak was prepared medium-rare, and it was very tender. I wasn't a fan of the tomato sauce on the green beans. It seemed a weird combination, as the acid from the tomato clashed with the mushroom wine sauce. The wine offered with the steak was a red blend, and it tasted terrible compared to the Pinot noir from earlier. I actually preferred the Chardonnay over it! The vegetarian menu offered a sort of lasagna in place of the steak.
Butterscotch brioche bread pudding with warm Scotch caramel
The bread pudding was very yummy. I liked that it came warm. I had to pace myself eating this so that I wouldn't be the first at the table to clean the plate. :) A muscat was served with dessert and it was very good.
After dinner, we headed over to the chapel where formal pictures were being taken, but the photographer was nowhere to be seen. We then walked over to the Great Hall where the DJ was set up, but since dinner had started so late, dancing was delayed until after the raffle. There were big prizes offered, like iPads, Blu-ray players and other electronics; the grand prize was a large Sony Bravia HDTV. I didn't win anything. The photographer set up in the Great Hall, so Sheri and I were able to get a photo taken. Once the raffle ended, the music started up, but by this time, it was 11pm and we were beat. Sheri and I headed back to the motel, looking forward to the next day's gastronomic delights...
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