Just Back From | Napa Valley, California

Our Research Editor recently spent three days exploring California's glorious Napa Valley. She selected the dramatic, intimate Poetry Inn in the Stags Leap District as a base from which to indulge in the area's famed wines and sumptuous cuisine.

Read on for her favorite moment, meal and more from this relaxing vacation.

Overall impressions: A quiet and exclusive hideaway with commanding views of the Napa Valley and its surrounding vineyards and wineries.

Insider’s tip: Poetry Inn is a private hideaway with only five guest rooms. No rooms share a wall. The Robert Frost Room is the most private with a large terrace as well as a private side garden with a cream-colored hammock.

Favorite moment: Greeted with white wine and a cheese plate on the terrace overlooking the vineyards of Cliff Lede Winery.

You can't stop thinking about: The complimentary veranda wine tasting at Cliff Lede Winery as well as the special tour of the adjacent lounge/gallery with rotating art exhibits.

Favorite meal: Poetry Inn only serves breakfast. The highlight of the three-course breakfast was the homemade granola with thick and creamy yogurt, huckleberries and juicy raisins.

Favorite restaurant: Bouchon Bakery has a wonderful French bistro as well as a charming café serving warm coffee cake, airy croissants filled with thick chunks of dark chocolate and baguette crowns.

What to drink: The Cliff Lede chardonnay.

Surprising fact: Cliff Lede, the former COO of Ledcor Group, opened Poetry Inn in 2005 after founding Cliff Lede Winery across the street.

Neighborhood to explore: Yountville.

Day trip suggestion: St. Helena is a bustling town with high-quality boutiques, speciality stores and charming restaurants. I had a deliciously rich ragu of braised rabbit over a bed of pappardelle at Tra Vigne.

Suggested souvenir: Bottles of wine.

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