HESS COLLECTION

HESS COLLECTONS
Another Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) has rolled around! This means another Quail Creek Outing. There are ten of us on board - Tony, our driver, Fabi, our Acting -Activities Coordinator and Rosy, who is assisting one of the residents, plus seven residents. We pull out at 10:00 AM, February 26, 2009. Our destination is the Hess Collection, at the Hess Winery in Napa.
We are re-tracing the route that we have traveled many times. Only now, the hills are much greener - after raining off and on all last weekend. I like to compare the colors with western Ireland’s 40 shades of green! We pass the Shell station with the posted price of $2.18 per gallon. A little further, their competitor, Chevron, has upped the price 10 cents. Today, the crude oil price for April delivery is around $40 a barrel.
We are on I-80, heading West, with moderate traffic. It is cloudy with rain forecast. Hazy visibility, and can barely see the outline of Mt. Diablo some 25 miles to the south. There are many trucks on the highway. This is surprising, when I read about the slow down of the economy, in the Wall Street Journal.
It is still a teeth rattling ride on I-80, as Tony does his best to navigate the rough highway. When you feel - hear and see the side windows vibrate, simultaneously, it is “rough”. This section has been on Cal Trans list for re-surfacing for a long time. This is no list to be on!
The “Twin Sisters” peaks sit off the right side, just before we exit I-80 onto Westbound Highway 12. We are now driving through Jamison Canyon - very green and picturesque. The grazing cattle make it even prettier. A large -black cloud is sitting overhead, but no rain is falling from it. There must have been a recent shower, based on the puddles alongside of the road. Chardonnay golf course lies off to our left. I haven’t traveled this route for about a month, since we visited the Black Stallion winery on the Silvarado Trail in the lower Napa Valley.
We are on the Highway 29 by-pass now. The Meadows, an assisted living facility on the right side, has been enlarged since I last noticed it. The complex extends almost out to the freeway now. It is a very large facility. The Napa Factory Outlet stores sit off to the left. Perhaps their sales volume has held its own during the /recession, with consumers down- grading their buying. We plan on stopping at the Don Giovanni Bistro and have lunch, before we visit the art gallery. Ethel, who used to live on Mt. Veeder near the Hess Winery, suggested this restaurant. She said that it was “pricey”, but a very good place to eat.
Tony didn’t have an early warning as to the restaurant’s exact location, and we passed it. He left the highway and took a side road up to the first driveway where he could turn around. I noticed that the driveway was an entrance to the Trefethen Winery. Before he bought the winery, Trefethen worked for Henry Kaiser in Oakland. He was Marie’s boss while she was a secretary there. I was going to Cal-Berkeley under the “G.I. Bill” in the late 40’s. While I had heard of his winery, I didn’t know exactly where it was located in the Napa Valley.
We arrived at the restaurant at 11:15. We didn’t have reservations for lunch, and found that they wouldn’t be open for another 15 minutes. In any event, they seated (or escorted the powered scooters) to a large table and we all sat together. The table was set with a cloth- tablecloth and cloth napkins. This is the way that I judge the quality of a restaurant.
“ Without bread, without wine, love is nothing” - French Proverb. This quotation was at the top of their menu. This has to be a good place!
They didn’t permit individual checks, so the bookkeeping after lunch, took as long as eating our lunch. There has to be a better way for settling the bill. It was simpler when I was working for C and H Sugar. When a group of us went out for lunch in San Francisco, we split the bill evenly - no matter what you ordered or if you had a cocktail. This procedure might not have been equitable, but it was simplified and worked very well on a rigid lunch hour. Most of us got the Minestrone soup - $10.06 with tax and tip. It was served with their fresh- flat bread and was very good. Ed, next to me, started off with a shot of Jim Beam. It turned out to have cost him $8, but it didn’t faze him. Sometimes it pays to have a fuzzy mind.
In the restaurant, I had a strange feeling that I might run into my oldest daughter, Anne. It wasn’t to be. I haven’t been in contact with her for over two years, but that is another story for another day.
Going outside after lunch, I noticed that they had a large porch/veranda area where you could eat. On a nicer day, this would be great atmosphere. Also, they have a few olive trees bordering the parking lot nearby. These are one of my favorite trees..
It is 1:00 PM , as we leave. We are heading to the Hess winery, traveling South on Highway 29 to Redwood Road, where we will exit, and head West. There is a lot of local -Napa traffic, which is normal, - night or day. This is a shaded and pretty ride on a narrow and curvy road, following a creek and ravine. We pass a field where we used to cut down our Christmas trees, Now, it is all in grape vines. That’s progress, I guess.
We arrive at the Hess Winery/Art Collectiont at 1:15. It is next door to the Mont LaSalle monastery/novitiate - another very interesting facility. The last time that I was there was for a evening of bells and choir music presented by Claudia and Bill Hanna’s church group, many years ago.
Donald Hess has been collecting contemporary art for about 45 years. The link between producing wine and collecting art is a passion of his.
The following are two of his quoted philosophy:
“Wine, like art, is a creative process. When is the last brush stroke? When do you pick the grapes?”
“Live each day with the heart and courage of The Lion. This has been the credo of my family for nine generations.”
We depart from the winery at 2:15. One hour wasn’t enough time. One of the group’s oxygen tank had less than an hour’s supply left. So, we had to return. We missed visiting the winery’s tasting room.
We left Hess at 2:15, and retraced the miles of our inbound route back to Quail Creek. We arrived back at Q.C. at 3:05PM. Our round trip covered about 50 miles.
“All’s well that ends well”. Write it down!
RCL - 2/28/09.