In the foothills of Mount Veeder, Promontory’s vintages accompanied a music-filled afternoon held in partnership with the Roman house
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
PROMONTORY winery is perched on a knoll among the western hills of Oakville.
As Festival Orchestra Napa prepared for an evening concert including new works by composer Nia Imani Franklin and pianist Aldo López-Gavilán, guests gathered by Promontory arrived for a lunch held in partnership with Valentino, a Festival Napa Valley sponsor, at the ridge-based winery. In addition to wine paired with a menu devised by Christopher Kostow’s The Charter Oak, the afternoon luncheon, part of the festival which returned this summer to celebrate 15 years of outdoor musical and culinary events, included a proprietary look at the Roman house’s pre-fall capsule collection.
Caviar and toast by St. Helena’s THE CHARTER OAK RESTAURANT.
The pairing of Bill Harlan’s Oakville wine estate — perched between faults amid a forest — with Kostow’s stripped down St. Helena restaurant and designed from the Pierpaolo Piccioli-helmed house foregrounded the edgy individuality of all three creatives. Novelist Jay McInerney has described Harlan as a “former adrenaline junkie who raced motorcycles, taught flying” before delving headlong into wine with Promontory, Harlan Estate and Bond wineries as well as the Meadowood Resort. Kostow, also of The Restaurant at Meadowood, is the third youngest chef ever to receive three Michelin stars. Piccioli is an instinctual designer, melding couture with street nonchalance. Each is known for carefully considered work and for meticulously editing ideas. As guests took seats at this Festival Napa Valley afternoon event, cello and violin strains rang out across the winery’s open expanses and plates of The Charter Oak’s caviar and toast were paired with The Napa Valley Reserve’s 2016 Sauvignon Blanc (another Harlan property) followed by a baked omelet with baked squash or salmon with sweet corn and fermented tomatoes served with 2011 Promontory and 2016 Penultimate.
A string ensemble performs at VALENTINO’s Vintner’s Luncheon.
Valentino’s Roman Palazzo pre-fall collection on view — stripped-back variable pieces including coats and capes, but also sweatshirts and everyday crisp poplin shirts, all designed to be personally interpreted and interchangeable — seemed perfectly attuned to the open-air locale. As the family-style luncheon wound down, the restaurant’s house-made yogurt with local honey and pastries rounded out the afternoon.
New VALENTINO accessories on view at the FESTIVAL NAPA VALLEY event.
Feature image: Designs from VALENTINO’s pre-fall capsule collection.
August 31, 2021
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