The Best Gifts From the Napa Valley
Kristof and I take a day, every Christmas season, to shop for our loved ones in downtown Napa for Napa-themed gifts, followed by lunch. Our ideal is to shop locally and support local businesses, but also something more: we are on the hunt for gifts that reflect the terroir of the Napa Valley. In other words, we’re looking for something you can’t necessarily find on Amazon, something harvested, handcrafted, manufactured, conceived in, or otherwise unique to Napa. We’re not looking to enter a store that’s receiving big box deliveries from the East Coast through the back. And we’re not necessarily looking for wine-themed gifts, as we personally have enough openers, carriers, decanters, and decorative home goods fashioned from barrel staves to last a lifetime. This kind of shopping is not as easy as it might seem.
One always hopes that a gift will be found useful. I’ve been pained, over the years, to observe how many gifts in the wine industry are ignored or headed for the dust bin because the recipients are spoiled and can’t be bothered. The very wealthy are plagued with too many gift bags and freebies, the poor not enough. Winery owners ignore vendor gifts of fruit cakes, paella pans, French paring knives, olive wood cutting boards, until finally, after the fruit cake is stale, employees cast lots for the haul.
These observations have influenced my thinking when I purchase gifts. I hope to never burden my giftee with something that will be wasted, so I never give gift certificates. I’ve seen too many expire. I enjoy giving something of the highest quality but with a price that can’t be easily surmised, something they might use on a daily basis, something to warm their hearts and delight them, something to improve their health. A bottle of good olive oil comes to mind.
So, in no particular order, I’ll share a few of our picks, as a local winemaking family, for the best gifts from the Napa Valley, suitable for any occasion. As always, the list will be incomplete, and we hope to update it from time to time.
I run across the cheeky, vintage-styled Candace Christian Napa Valley bags very rarely downtown, for reasons that escape me, because I think they’re fantastic. Handmade from retro vinyl diner type upholstery, these purses are fun, and I especially like the Napa Valley imprint. Designer Donna Egbert has moved away from the Napa Valley since starting her company in 2002, but you can still catch her pop-ups in Napa or find her unique purses online.
Here’s the ultimate gift for the connoisseur of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. (Well, of course we’re going to include our own handcrafted, artisanal wines on this list!) Limited edition gift box contains a bottle of 2022 and 2004 PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. We think it’s a lot of fun to compare the two vintages side by side. Or cellar and enjoy separately.
Winemaker Kristof Nils Anderson handcrafted 55 cases of the 2022 PELLA Cabernet; grapes are from a one-acre vineyard plot he farmed by hand without pesticides or herbicides. Kristof handcrafted only four barrels of the 2004 PELLA Cabernet, Star Vineyard, Rutherford. 100% new French oak.
Makes a thoughtful gift for collectors, with our handwritten, personalized gift enclosure. (Add a gift message at checkout.) Satin-finish, black cardboard box fits neatly into its shipper. Autographed by the winemaker. Comes with tech sheets/tasting notes for each vintages. NOT available at a store near you. These rare wines have a cult following and are currently ONLY available in the Napa Valley or direct to customer.
I adore Whole Spice Napa Valley, located in the Oxbow Public Market, and love to gift their spice sets, their Napa Valley rub, spice packets for making mole, rice seasoning packets, flavored sugars, and more. Many of the spices come with recipes, which exemplifies the deep love for cooking that is the ethos of this local business. The photo on the right was taken at the (now sadly closed) Napa Valley Cooking School, where Kristof and I once took a fun couples’ cooking class. I spent time gawking at that wall of spices and swore that if I ever became a wealthy woman, I would install one in my kitchen and fill it with spices from Whole Spice Napa Valley.
Sometimes I’m haunted (a strong word, but still) by the knowledge that nothing we eat now tastes as good, as true, as it once did. The organic, whole chicken you thoughtfully purchase and roast has a shadow of the flavor Julia Child once tasted. How do I know this? Sometimes there’s a crack in the fabric of modern life, by which you can gauge what we’ve lost. Chickens are less chicken-y, tomatoes less tomato-y. Everything less itself, dilute.
My sister-in-law Savannah recently gave me a few paper-wrapped packages of ground beef from her grandparents’ 150-year-old ranch in the mountains near Bakersfield, California, where her grandparents, who are in their seventies, ranch grass-fed Hereford and Angus themselves, by hand. The beef is like nothing I’ve ever tasted. It smells stronger, earthier, beefier. It’s studded with yellow chunks of fat that taste like foie gras. I’ve never tasted beef like it anywhere, in any expensive restaurant, and few people will, because they don’t sell it as a processed product, though they’ll sell you a cow.
Fortunately, when it comes to beans at any rate, Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo heirloom beans in downtown Napa, will give you a taste of the authentic. I recently made a simple casserole with Rancho Gordo “Christmas Limas,” and I was mesmerized by their velvety texture and smoky flavor. I soaked the beans all day, then cooked them in the Instant Pot for 20 minutes. I then added them to a casserole with a little browned ground beef, a few jars of my canned garden tomatoes with garlic and basil, some red onion, thyme, mustard, lemon zest, bay leaf, a squeeze of agave nectar, and a good chunk of crumbled queso fresco and baked the casserole for half an hour. Superb.
I usually buy Rancho Gordo heirloom beans from my local Browns Valley Market, but skimming their website, I can see that I’m going to need to visit the showroom at 1924 Yajome Street, just off the beaten tourist track, in downtown Napa to add heirloom corn pozole, prickly pear jam, and more to my pantry. This spring, Rancho Gordo is set to move to the former (iconic, now empty) Shackford’s Kitchen Goods store on Main Street. Check out the Rancho Gordo website for Rancho Gordo Press books, gift packs, Blog articles and recipes, and the inspiring story of how Steve Sando created this unique Napa business.
It’s the extensive collection of vintage-styled bitters that sends me to Napa Valley Distillery at the Oxbow Public Market. The bitters may not be crafted in the Napa Valley, but I don’t mind, because I’ve never seen an array like theirs. One of my favorite drinks, the one I’ll reach for before pouring myself a glass of wine at the end of a long day, is simply cold sparkling water with bitters and lime. I’m a bitters fanatic. Many people don’t know that bitters are actually considered a digestive aid and superfood. As Sally Fallon writes in Nourishing Traditions, “Herbal extracts of bitter, mineral-rich herbs are a traditional tonic for stimulating the bile and increasing digestion and assimilation of fats. They are often the best remedy for calming a queasy stomach…Bitters supply nutrients from bitter leaves that are often lacking in the Western diet. Many cultures, including the Chinese and Hindu, value bitter herbs for their cleansing, strengthening, and healing properties.”
I don’t know why I don’t generally think of shopping at the CIA Copia Marketplace for gifts, especially as I have a connection; thirty years ago when Kristof and I were first married, I staffed the floor at the Culinary Institute of America gift shop in St. Helena because I needed a part time job while I polished by Master’s thesis. Maybe that’s part of it; I remember those curated, hushed environs, stocked with professional grade culinary equipment I could never afford back then. A recent stroll through the Copia Marketplace revealed some true treasures in the gifting department.
Chuck Williams’ personal collection of culinary tins, now on display at the Chuck Williams Culinary Arts Museum at The Culinary Institute of America at Copia.
In fact, I’m loathe to tell you what I found, because I want it so badly myself. The Marketplace offers pieces from the Chuck Williams collection (of Williams-Sonoma) that were duplicates or otherwise didn’t fit into the collection, and some of these extraordinary antique molds and heavy copper pots are well-priced, especially considering their provenance. I think a hundred dollars spent on an antique ice cream mold would yield a very special wedding present, but the truth is I want one. And I would use it, too, you can bet on that. I’m half afraid someone decorating the kitchen of their vacation home in St. Helena will go into the Marketplace now, and with a flick of the credit card, buy up these special pieces. Talk about something you can’t find on Amazon.
I have a sentimental spot for antique culinary tins because my mother amassed a beautiful collection when I was a girl, and one of my favorite childhood memories is of waking at dawn on a frigid New England fall morning to accompany her to the flea market where she made her finds. Flea markets in New England, back then, bore no resemblance to the flea markets here in California where vendors fence stolen tools; my mother once bought an emerald ring while I sipped hot cocoa from a Styrofoam cup and watched her negotiate the price with the antique dealer. Those flea market trips make me believe, even now as an adult, that treasures are around every corner, waiting to be found.
My mother’s tins (pictured above), including her antique rose tin, in which she bakes her famous rose cake.
But maybe antiques are not your thing. I’m also crazy about the Emile Henry ceramic vinegar pot on display at the Copia Marketplace, along with many other beautifully designed Emile Henry necessities like the ceramic cheese box. I think the French-made vinegar pot would make a memorable gift, especially for newlyweds or for a housewarming. It’s not the pot itself, lovely as it is, that would make it a gift redolent of Napa Valley terroir—it’s what you’d put inside.
The Emile Henry ceramic vinegar pot—perfect for making wine vinegar in the kitchen.
Because if I gifted the vinegar pot, I’d be sure to share part of our “mother” of vinegar and to start the wine vinegar project as part of the gift. Kristof has been making our own wine vinegar for many years now with a “mother” that was given to him by Alice Waters (his childhood icon), who got hers from Julia Child. And how Kristof got that is a story for another day, But anyone can make their own “mother,” the gelatinous acetobacter film that turns alcohol into vinegar. This would truly be a living gift, a labor of love, and an absolute feat of logistics to present to the giftee!
HOLY ASSUMPTION MONASTERY - LAVENDER PRODUCTS
In the summer of 2022, my daughter Pella and I harvested lavender with the nuns from Holy Assumption Monastery in Calistoga. It was still dark when we set to work, and as the sun rose, we saw that drowsy bees clung to the cold flowers. We’d brush them off as gently as we could, take a handful of lavender in our hands, and cut it with a curved blade.
A few of the nuns warned us that the work would seem very hot and hard around noon, when one had to watch for snakes and chiggers, but we made such quick work of things, we finished by noon.
The nuns steam-distill essential oil from the lavender that is so pure, I cook with it. They also sell lavender hydrosol, the water-based byproduct of steaming, which is great for ironing clothing or freshening linens. If you buy a container of hydrosol, you get free refills until they run out.
The nuns don’t market their lavender products, and they’re only available through the monastery, as far as I know. If you know of a more authentic and quintessential Napa Valley fragrance, tell me.
Little known fact: Kristof and I briefly lived on the monastery grounds as caretakers thirty years ago, when we were first married. Kristof designed and built a little green gate with decorative crosses cut out of it, and the last time we drove by, the gate was still there, so someone has been painting it and keeping it repaired.
Because of the Mediterranean climate here in the Napa Valley, olive trees thrive. Wineries and estates often plant them for decorative purposes only, since processing olives and milling olives for oil is labor intensive. While I’m no expert on the olive oils of the Napa Valley, I do know a good one when I taste it, and I like Hudson’s Olio Nuovo (“new oil”) available at Hudson Greens and Goods at the Oxbow Public Marketplace. If you really loved someone, you could buy a bottle for them and one for yourself—and then bake them a batch of my Napa Valley Olive Oil Cookies.
