I have a friend who owns a winery. Seriously, she really does. Now that you’re suitably impressed with me and my posh friends, I’ll tell you a secret: She doesn’t want it anymore.
See, she’s just a really unpretentious person, and this conflicts with the very premise of wine culture, which is wrapped up in pretentions and snobbery. If you’ve ever been to Napa Valley, you know what I’m talking about.When you’re chatting about wine with certain people, if there are no French words that they can fit into the conversation, they’ll just make one up — assuming, correctly, that you’ll have no idea what they’re talking about and will be too embarrassed to ask.
My friend doesn’t live in Napa. She lives next door in Sonoma County, which is also the heart of the California wine country (well maybe the left ventricle) but a tad less full of itself. Like, there are very few restaurants in Sonoma that charge $500 per plate to dine there and make you beg for the privilege, because it’s so incredibly hard to get a reservation.
There are even blog posts that explain how to try to get one.And it’s not like anyone’s ever invited me there to find out.I’m talking about the French Laundry, which is a restaurant in Yountville, Napa Valley.
(Here’s a tip: In the world of upscale restaurants, the more working-class the name, the more pretentious the restaurant. And it goes without saying that any establishment with the word “French” in it is not going to serve hot .
