Now that fall is officially here, we’re looking for every excuse to get in the kitchen and whip up something comforting and delicious. Luckily for us here in Wine Country, we don’t have to look too hard for inspiration, thanks to the plentiful seasonal fruits and vegetables and the acclaimed restaurants and wineries offering the best in food and wine.

To help you get inspired in the kitchen, too, Chef Jeffery Russell of Louis M. Martini Winery in Napa Valley is sharing his mouth-watering recipe for Slow Braised Short Ribs fit for the season. It’s loaded with meat, herbs, and vegetables, and served over perfectly cooked al dente rigatoni pasta. Pair it with the recently released Louis M. Martini Cypress Ranch Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and we can bet this tasty meal is one you’ll want to make again and again this season. Bon appetit!

Slow Braised Short Ribs

Makes 4 servings

Wine Pairing: Cypress Ranch Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Short Ribs, Sinew and Fat Removed
• ¼ c Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 c Veal Stock
• 1 ea Medium Yellow Onion, Diced
• 1 ea Medium Carrot, Peeled & Diced
• 3 ea Celery Stalks
• 6 ea Garlic Cloves, Smashed
• ½ c Pecorino Cheese, Grated
• 2 T Oregano Leaves, Chopped
• 1 lb Rigatoni Pasta, Cooked Al Dente
• 4 T Butter, Sweet Cream, Unsalted
• TT Salt & Pepper

Directions:

• Heat olive oil over high heat in dutch oven. Season short ribs with salt and pepper and sear in hot oil until color develops on both sides.
• Add onion, carrot, and celery to the pan and reduce heat to low. Sweat vegetables until they are aromatic.
• Add garlic and stock, then cover dutch oven and place in oven at 300˚ for 2 hours, or until short ribs are soft.
• Carefully remove short ribs from braising liquid and strain off vegetables.
• Pull the short ribs apart into small pieces with two forks.
• Place cooked vegetables in a blender with a little bit of the braising liquid and puree until smooth.
• Combine puree with remaining liquid and mix well.
• Toss cooked rigatoni with the short ribs, braising liquid and puree, add butter and half of the pecorino, followed by the oregano.
• Spoon the mixture into serving dishes and sprinkle with remaining pecorino.

To experience Chef Jeffery Russell’s cooking, you don’t want to miss the Underground Cellar Experience at the newly restored winery. The seven-course pairing is anchored by a stunning collection, with small-lot releases from the iconic Monte Rosso Vineyard and library vintages of the heralded Lot No. 1 Cabernet Sauvignon, providing an abundance of aromas, tastes, and textures for Chef Russell to build upon.

Wine

Tasting Rooms Renewed

Two of Napa Valley’s longtime wineries opened stunning new visitor centers at the end of 2019. The iconic Cakebread Cellars in Rutherford has set itself apart from every other Napa Valley winery, for its new hospitality center features nine uniquely-designed tasting rooms, each assigned a different tasting experience. For example, you can opt for a red or white wine-specific tasting within the fermentation hall, surrounded by Cakebread’s gorgeous concrete eggs, or a food and wine pairing set in a glass-walled room with a view.

In Carneros, the new 5,000-square-foot visitor center at Bouchaine Vineyards rises majestically out of the gorgeous, rolling landscape. Designed like a semi-circle with a wall of windows and an expansive patio (complete with fire pits), the views here give the winery’s beloved pinot noirs a run for their money — and on a cold or rainy day, the interior is incredibly cozy.

Napa’s New Urban Wineries

The buzzing downtown Napa welcomed several new tasting rooms recently. St. Helena‘s Alpha Omega Winery opened a second outpost downtown, the Alpha Omega Collective, which also pours wines from its sister brands, Tolosa on the Central Coast and Perinet in Spain. This gives visitors a chance to taste Bordeaux, Burgundian, and Spanish wines all in one place (and even pair them with tasty treats like Spanish fried chicken).

Just across the way from the new collective, Napa Valley visitors can finally gain access to the venerable wines from Mayacamas Vineyards. The historic Mt. Veeder winery established in 1889 has always been pretty exclusive and off-the-beaten-path, but the new Mayacamas Downtown tasting room can welcome more people than ever before, both conveniently and at a fraction of the price.

Sonoma’s WALT Wines has crossed over the border. In 2019, WALT opened a new wine tasting room right across from the Oxbow Public Market, bringing a unique Burgundian tasting experience to Napa. Book the Root 101 tasting to sample 1,000 miles of pinot noir via single-vineyard bottlings sourced up the West Coast — from Santa Barbara to Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Coming soon to downtown Napa is the new Roots Run Deep tasting room, opening in a historic craftsman built in 1901. Here, visitors will be able to sample the winery’s affordable Napa Valley wines, including their uber-popular Educated Guess Napa County Cabernet Sauvignon, which retails for about $25.

Art & Wine in Napa Valley

Farther Upvalley and located next door to the legendary Oakville Grocery, 1881 Napa opened inside a beautiful white Victorian built in — you guessed it — 1881. A tasting room and museum in one, visitors can taste an array of wines from Napa Valley’s distinct viticulture appellations (spanning Carneros to Calistoga) while learning all about wine history and how it has evolved in Napa Valley. The museum is free admission, where you can check out wine relics, antiques, and artifacts from Europe and California.

In Yountville, the brand new Heron House is a multi-winery tasting room across from the Hotel Villagio. Featuring eight winery partners, including Bench Vineyards, Eponymous Wines, Hobel Wines, Lindstrom Wines, Myriad Cellars, Steltzner Vineyards, Switchback Ridge, and Zeitgeist Cellars, this tasting destination offers much more than just wine, thanks to a curated collection of art, crafts, and gourmet goodies.

Elevated Experiences

Other Napa Valley wineries recently launched original, appointment-only tasting packages, incentivizing visitors to revisit old favorites. Trefethen Family Vineyards now has two food and wine experiences on deck: Taste the Estate and Legacy Tasting. The latter is actually hosted by a third-generation family member, but both incorporate ingredients from the winery’s impressive culinary gardens. The tastings pay homage to the Napa Valley Cooking Club, which the Trefethens started in the ’70s, welcoming top chefs from all over the world.

In celebration of its 80th anniversary, Beaulieu Vineyard has created the Georges de Latour Experience, which honors the winery’s most prized reserve wine and Napa Valley’s first cult cabernet sauvignon. Taste five different vintages of the Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon spanning several decades and even a barrel sample of a future release.

Eat

Yountville is known for its international fine dining, but a new steakhouse from The Estate Yountville and celebrity grill master chef Adam Perry Lang has arrived to shake things up. Housed in a two-story mansion built in 1870, Perry Lang’s dining room is masculine, yet luxurious, and the restaurant menu showcases the chef’s dry-aged beef program, which goes up to 400+ days for the Reserve Cut.