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From left, Georgeanne Brennan, Corinne Martinez and Nicole Salengo opened L’Apero les Trois Tasting Room and Lounge at 22 Main St. in Winters, California.
Aperitif wines at L’Apero les Trois Tasting Room and Lounge.
L’Apero les Trois Tasting Room and Lounge in Winters includes a mural depicting the agriculture of the region
One of the six aperitifs created for L’Apéro les Trois is Sauvignon Blanc with fresh Meyer lemons and a touch of vanilla
L’Apero les Trois Tasting Room and Lounge includes displays of vintage silver, etched glasses and cookbooks.
Aperitif wine and food pairings at L’Apero les Trois Tasting Room and Lounge in Winters.
This story begins last summer when Georgeanne Brennan asked me if I had any fig leaves to spare.
Did I? When I bought my house in Napa some years ago she had given me a seedling from her Black Mission fig tree of a noble lineage, Turkish, I think. It is now a grand tree with a distinctly uppity attitude. ("You wish for figs? But have you earned them? Really?") We had named him Figaro.
Brennan is an award-winning food journalist, extraordinary cook and exemplary gardener; and in addition to fig trees, we share an affinity for France, which is to say, we are both happily hopeless francophiles. Every time I talk to her, she has embarked on a new and fascinating project, whether it is planting a potager or writing a mystery novel set in Provence where she has had a home since first visiting France in the 1970s.
Of course she could have Figaro's leaves. I filled a box with them and, leaving the startled naked tree behind, drove them to Brennan's farm in Winters.
A year later, she invited me to see what had become of them. After months of research and experimentation, a collaboration of three women in Winters had created a new line of aperitif wines and a tasting room to try them out.
"Apéritif" comes from the Latin, apere, to open, Brennan said; hence an aperitif is a drink to "open the appetite." They can be home-made, wine-based beverages, low in alcohol, lightly fortified and flavored with fruits or botannicals. The word is also often shortened to "l'apéro."
"But it also refers to a moment in time," Brennan added. "That pause after work before you go home to the rest of your day." That moment you can take to slow down, share a drink and a appetizer with friends or family and savor life. It's happy hour infused with French finesse.
This is explained on the menu of L’Apéro les Trois, a comfortable showcase for their aperitifs, which are combination of French farmhouse-style tradition, local ag products and the wines of Berryessa Gap Vineyards.
The trio -- les trois -- are Corinne Martinez, proprietor of Berryessa Gap Vineyards, Nicole Salengo, their winemaker; and Brennan. In addition, Caroline Gibbs, of Caroline Gibbs Design in Sonoma, designed the artful labels.
Their research had sought out the best combinations of wines infused with fruit from Winters' bountiful orchards and fortified with local eau de vie, a clear, colorless fruit brandy.
"It's all from Winters," Brennan explained. With a touch of Paris.
Which wine complemented grape leaves? How about quince? California's Meyer lemons? What about the sought-after Blenheim apricots? For their green walnuts experiment, they hired help to peel pounds and pounds of walnuts.
When they had hit on the winning matches, Salengo created small batches, and Martinez contributed a building she owned on Winters' Main Street, across from the Berryessa Gap Vineyards tasting room.
Here Brennan added in elements that recreate the atmosphere you might find on a late afternoon in Paris, or better yet, out in the countryside of France. Outside are the characteristic French bistro chairs and tables, inside deep comfortable chairs and tables or, if you prefer, you can chose banked seating beneath a wall filled with a colorful mural that grounds the project: It's the Winters' countryside, replete with farms and crops, vineyards and trees, a clear reminder that here you'll find the best of two worlds.
There is also a selection of cookbooks, and vintage flatware and glassware to browse through. Brennan's James Beard award sits on one sleek counter. Behind a curtain is a tiny kitchen for preparing appetizers.
And the final touch: a player piano.
Make yourself comfortable because you have a tough choice to confront: Which aperitif do you want? They offer six, that range in style from light and fresh to honeyed and caramelized to deep woodsy and mysterious.
-- A dry rosé infused with ripe and green Blenheim apricots.
-- Sauvignon Blanc with fresh Meyer lemons and a touch of vanilla.
-- Chardonnay with fresh homestead quince.
-- Dry rosé infused with navel oranges and rosemary.
-- Zinfandel with fresh and dried figs, fig leaves and fresh thyme (including Figaro's leaves).
-- Primitivo infused over six months with green, immature walnuts, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla.
Can't make up your mind? Fortunately, you can also opt to taste small pours of all six for $10, or choose a larger taste of three for $16.
A glass of one apéritif is $10. A bottle is $40.
There is also an option to add sparkling Perrier ($1) or Berryessa Gap Vineyards sparkling brut rosé ($2). Still, the style is simple and inviting, a change taste from high-alcohol, complicated cocktails.
The drinks are, likewise, complemented by a the appetizers:
Skyhill Napa Farms Goat Cheese Drizzled with Bondolio olive oil and Herbes de Provence with Cowgirl Creamery Crackers, $10.
Black Olive Tapenade with Cowgirl Creamery Crackers, $7.
Rêve Bistro Gougères (8 cheese puff pastries), $8.
Mini-Cocotte of baked Mt. Tam Triple-Cream Cheese with Cowgirl Creamery Crackers and cornichons for two, $14.
House-made mix of almonds, pistachios, walnuts and black olives, roasted with Sé ka Hills olive oil and seasoned with La Vie Rustic Herbes de Provence, Piment de Ville & Brittany sea salt, $6.
And there's no sense of hurry at L’Apéro les Trois; it's your moment in time. It is a touch of Paris in Winters, the style of France infused with the bounty of Northern California.
I can't think of a better use for Figaro's leaves.
L’Apéro les Trois Tasting Lounge is at 22 Main St., is open Thursday through Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Monday through Wednesday by appointment. Call 530-402-1172 or email info@laperolestrois.com. The aperitif wines are also available at the Berryessa Gap Vineyards tasting room and to order online at laperolestrois.com.
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From left, Georgeanne Brennan, Corinne Martinez and Nicole Salengo opened L’Apero les Trois Tasting Room and Lounge at 22 Main St. in Winters, California.
Aperitif wines at L’Apero les Trois Tasting Room and Lounge.
L’Apero les Trois Tasting Room and Lounge in Winters includes a mural depicting the agriculture of the region
One of the six aperitifs created for L’Apéro les Trois is Sauvignon Blanc with fresh Meyer lemons and a touch of vanilla
L’Apero les Trois Tasting Room and Lounge includes displays of vintage silver, etched glasses and cookbooks.
Aperitif wine and food pairings at L’Apero les Trois Tasting Room and Lounge in Winters.
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