Vinogger

Located in the heart of Napa Valley, St Helena is a beautiful town with amazing restaurants, cool boutiques, luxurious spas and phenomenal wines.  St. Helena is the epitome of wine country and appears to be almost conjured up as an image that a  Hollywood set might portray as wine country, but St. Helena is the real deal, a lively vibrant town with a long history and a thriving community.

Grapes have been grown in St. Helena since 1861 when Charles Krug started a winery just north of town and wine has continued to be made in St. Helena since that time. The wines from Appellation St. Helena truly exhibit some of Napa Valley’s wine at it’s best.

Each year in the spring,  Appellation St. Helena, a collective of the areas wineries and winegrowers, hosts an event that showcases the amazing wines of St. Helena paired with food cooked by students from St. Helena’s Culinary Institute of America.  The event is a unique opportunity to try a wide variety of St. Helena wines paired with delectable food onsite at the acclaimed CIA.  Participants vote for the best food and wine pairing with a prize and the distinction of being the winner on the line.  The wineries include small artisan producers such as Hope & Grace who began making wines in 2001 and make only 3,000 cases a year, Trinchero with a 64 year history of wine making and a 12,000 a year case production to larger more widely known wineries such as J Lohr who started making wines in the central coast but acquired property in St. Helena and expanded their portfolio to include wines from this acclaimed region.  In addition ot students from the CIA some restaurants and food purveyors from St. Helena also participate in the event.

I highly recommend attending Appellation St. Helena’s annual tasting and food pairing at the CIA next year http://www.appellationsthelena.com/ but definitely do not wait a whole year to get to St. Helena.   Instead, plan a trip to St. Helena to enjoy the town, the food,( there’s a great restaurant at the CIA and other great places to eat in town) and most important of all the wine, you’ll definitely be glad you went! http://www.sthelena.com/

Tags: Appellation St Helena, CIA, Culinary institue of America, Hope & Grace, j Lohr, Napa, St. Helena, Trinchero

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 12th, 2013 at 8:58 am and is filed under Apellation, Food and Wine, Winery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.