Bottega by Michael Chiarello (photo by Brad A. Johnson)

My good friends over at Food Republic just published my Top 5 picks for wine tasting and dining in Napa and Sonoma. Obviously, the choices for restaurants and tasting rooms in Northern California’s wine country are vast. Picking only five restaurants or tasting rooms is an impossible task. I could easily spend a month (hell, years?) driving the backroads and historic trails of Napa and Sonoma counties, stopping every hundred yards for yet another sip and swirl at yet another winery’s tasting room. And the restaurants? That’s even harder, so I’ve narrowed it down to what’s currently hottest.  Continue reading →