Monday, May 9, 2011

Ideal Tasting Room: John Anthony, Downtown Napa

Another delicious dwelling in Napa’s downtown.  As soon I entered the sleekly chic structure, the eyes swim in the simplistically elegant aura.  Colors, shapes, acoustics.  And the hostess with a spell about her every syllable, Tessa.  She started me off with a Sauvignon Blanc, 2009, Napa Valley.  Luminous, luscious.  One of the most assertively resounding SB’s I’ve in some time sipped.  Tessa next set before the writer a cunning cosmological constant of an amuse bouche plate.  Cheeses, salami slices, crackers.  Next, to the reds.  Felt like I didn’t need anything else, as I was already catatonically afflicted with all surrounding ingredients.


I love wine lounges, as readers know.  And this is what I envision whenever I mentally escape to such a soothing Room.  Can’t believe it actually exists, I remember thinking.  And with such lasciviously layered wines.  I sipped.  Didn’t want to stop.  Reds, vixens, all. The Syrahs, the Cabs, the ’05 Reserve, with that incredibly entrapping label done by Tessa’s tasting Room-mate Rozi, whom I also had the delight of meeting that day.  Had another sip of the Coombsville ’06 Cabernet.  Dark with waves of chocolate berry supernovas, with a somehow subtle, yet lingering, summation.  Tessa told me more about the producer, Mr. Anthony, showed me around the Room.  Loved the aft quarters, intentionally removed for private tastings.  Again, this is what I’ve before fantastically constructed as a tasting Room of mine own.
Definitely returning soon.  Not just for the alchemically incomparable wines, my new friend Tessa, but the integrality of the experience, the tasting Room.  John Anthony’s base, deserving the capital in “tasting Room.” Downtown Napa, another escape, for the writer.  Thinking of that phantasmic Sauv Blanc right now.  Could use a sip.  This is a perfect after-work spot, mind you.  A treat for all of us loving Napa, fortunate to work in its aorta.  Places like this make me fall even deeper into this troublesome treat of tryst with wine.  A space, its symphony of nuances and notes, suggestions, provocations, the pragmatic panaceas in the bottles.  I don’t need anything else.  John Anthony, one of the producers that’s sure to keep your oenological infatuation, adoration, afloat. 

(5/9/11, Monday)

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